Earth Day 2020

94510983_3036190133133895_13714547835666432_o.jpg

In the 1980’s there were an estimated 1.2 million elephants in Africa, and the latest survey shows there are now around 400,000... A shocking demise which has occurred in my own lifetime, and the result of savage poaching and human/wildlife conflict. On this most poignant of Earth Days, I am sat here wondering; How many more years will I be visiting these innocent, orphaned victims?⁣ ⁣

Despite some recent gains in elephant conservation, the worry now is, that with the sudden, unexpected standstill in African tourism (an industry that provides millions of jobs, and sees large percentages of their costs go back into local communities and wildlife protection) a spike in poaching is likely expected with vital incomes being lost, and safeguarding wildlife becoming harder and more dangerous; Threatened and endangered animals may become the additional casualties of the pandemic.⁣ ⁣

Conservation groups are now calling on finance ministers to make the protection of nature a cornerstone of their Covid 19 economic recovery plans; Our most precious wildlife cannot rely on tourism and donations alone anymore - We need governmental commitment to both planet and wildlife preservation!! ⁣

Also - Please don’t cancel your safari, just postpone it... It is money you will never invest better - and it goes a long way to preserving, protecting and supporting some of our world’s most special ecosystems, wildlife, and people.

Head over to my friend’s pages at Ol Malo, House in the Wild and The Safari Collection for some travel inspo, to Space for Giants to join their #AHealthyEarth campaign, and to my sister, Claire Eastwood, an African travel expert, to get planning your future African adventures!

94421674_3036190179800557_505346006666182656_o.jpg

⁣ Then and Now: Both pictures were taken at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (major shout out to the full 80’s commitment of scrunchie AND terry toweling shorts... Strong!)

The International Elephant March 2013

I love Elephants, and being raised in Kenya I was beyond lucky to have grown up admiring these majestic animals in their natural habitat.  The recent escalating evidence of their demise, from terrifying poaching statistics to personally witnessing large rotting carcasses whilst on safari, has left me heartbroken.  At the current rate of poaching African Elephantscould face extinction in the wild by 2025!!  A future without these beautiful, intelligent animals is not one which we can sit idly by and allow to happen. 

Earlier this month 10,000 people spread over 14 different cities united for the International March for Elephants with one desperate message to their governments;  Stop the ivory trade!  I, along with hundreds of other Ele-lovers, demonstrated in London's Parliament Square urging the government to take action to end the illegal trade in ivory.

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT), a Kenyan conservation charity known for the rescue and hand-rearing of orphaned elephants before their rehabilition back into the wild, and its advocacy campaign iworry, have reported that an estimated 36,000elephants are slaughtered every year by the illegal ivory trade, amounting to one killedevery 15 minutes!  To date, the DSWT has arrested 1,400 poachers and in the past month alone, has been called to rescue 14 elephants in just 18 days bringing the total number cared for by the charity to 33, the highest number since 1977.  A letter signed by Dr Dame Daphne Sheldrick was delivered to 10 Downing Street after the rally at Parliament Square.

Below: Visiting the elephant orphans at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi, close to where I was brought up, when I was little (yes, in flannel shorts) and more recently.

Rob Brandford, director of the DSWT, said: “The time to act is now. The UK government and governments around the world cannot ignore this growing crisis. Recent responses by other world leaders are encouraging but if our children and grandchildren are to see elephants in their lifetime, the international community must act urgently and collaboratively to enact a global ban on the commercial sale of ivory and protect elephants before it’s too late.”

Founder of the DSWTDr Dame Daphne Sheldrick DBE, said: “Both elephants and their protectors are being killed by this illicit trade. Every life lost to the trade in ivory is a scandal. Their extinction would not only bring heartbreak, but it will have a devastating impact not only on the wider environment but also in millions of livelihoods dependent wildlife tourism. We urgently need to act now to protect the elephants and those that protect them to prevent a wider environmental and economic catastrophe.”

Please add your name to the list of people around the world saying NO to ivory HERE.
With your signatures, we can urge government leaders around the world to bring an end to all trade in ivory, permanently. 

Nick Brandt Photography

Above:  Lions Head to Head, Masai Mara, 2008

It was this beautiful and extraordinarily intimate photograph of a pair of loving lions which first introduced me to the work of wildlife photographer Nick Brandt last year.

In 1995 British photographer Nick Brandt (then, a music video director) directed Michael Jackson’s 'Earth Song' in Tanzania and he immediately, rather understandably, fell in love with East Africa and its majestic animals.  In 2000, Brandt embarked upon an ambitious photographic project; a trilogy of books immortalizing these animals and the vanishing natural grandeur of East Africa – up close, and very personally.

With a combination of dramatic panoramas of animals featured within epic landscapes alongside more soulful, graphic portraits, Nick Brandt manages to find an intimate connection with his wild subjects that reveal personalities and relationships far more so than any other wildlife photography I have ever seen.  The titles of the trilogy of books will eventually be revealed to form one consecutive sentence: 'On This Earth, A Shadow Falls.....' (the final installment is due for publication in 2013.)

“What I am interested in is showing the animals simply in the state of Being. In the state of Being before they are no longer are. Before, in the wild at least, they cease to exist. This world is under terrible threat, all of it caused by us. To me, every creature, human or nonhuman, has an equal right to live, and this feeling, this belief that every animal and I are equal, affects me every time I frame an animal in my camera. The photos are my elegy to these beautiful creatures, to this wrenchingly beautiful world that is steadily, tragically vanishing before our eyes.”  

Above Right: Elephant With Exploading Dust, Amboseli, 2004

In 2010, in urgent response to the escalation of poaching in Africa due to increased demand from the Far East (raw ivory fetches up to $800 per kg and rhino horn is worth more per ounce than gold dust) Nick Brandt founded the non-profit organization called Big Life Foundation.  With donations, the organisation has placed multiple fully equipped teams of 120 anti-poaching rangers in both Kenya and Tanzania, who collaborate with communities to reduce poaching and conflicts between farmers and wildlife.

Above: Windswept Lion, Serengeti, 2002

Above: Elephants Walking Through Grass, Amboseli 2008
(Leading Matriarch Killed By Poachers, 2009)

Above: Hippos On The Mara River, Masai Mara, 2002

Above: Rhino on Lake, Nakuru, 2007

Above: Giraffes In Evening Light, Masai Mara, 2006

Above: Leopard In Crook Of Tree, Nakuru, 2007

Below: Nick Brandt's next exhibition, in New York from March 29th:

Above: Elephant Drinking, Amboseli, 2007

(Killed by Poachers, 2009)

www.nickbrandt.com

www.biglifeafrica.org