Happy World Elephant Day!
“The question is, are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book?” — David Attenborough
Today is World Elephant Day, which was launched in 2012 to bring attention to the urgent need to protect the planet’s beloved elephants.
The official World Elephant Day website puts it perfectly — “the elephant is loved, revered and respected by people and cultures around the world, yet we balance on the brink of seeing the last of this magnificent creature.”
Elephants face a number of critical problems including poaching for their ivory, habitat loss, and human-elephant conflict. This day hopes to inspire awareness and action to protect elephants from these threats so that we can continue to live in a world with these amazing mammals by our side.
One of the incredible projects on the Stand For Trees platform, The Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project in Kenya, works tirelessly to protect elephants and the forests they reside in.
Nestled between Kenya’s Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks, the Kasigau Wildlife Corridor Project protects 500,000 acres of dryland forest and supports local communities of over 100,000 in job creation and sustainable development activities.
When Wildlife Works started operating in Tsavo (Rukinga) in 1997 there were no elephants in the area that came under protection, and elephants were only seen in the area again by the year 2000 — now there are up to 2,500 in the project area at any one time!
Supporting the Kasigau Project is easy — and when you offset your CO2 emissions by supporting the Kasigau Corridor Project, you simultaneously protect a vital wildlife migration corridor for endangered populations of African elephant, Grevy’s zebra, cheetah, lion and African wild dog, as well as more than 50 species of large mammals and over 300 species of birds.
Without support for the project, local communities have little option to provide for their families other than slash-and-burn agriculture. Your Stand For Trees purchase is critical to valuing this forest for the vital services it provides, and to creating new, sustainable livelihoods for the people protecting it.
When you stand for trees, you stand for protecting wildlife. In honor of World Elephant Day, do your part and support the Kasigau Project today!
Happy #WorldElephantDay!
