03-22-2013
Elephants never forget, but are they being forgotten?
With their huge ears, sensitive trunks, and long memories, elephants are truly awesome animals. Just take a look at this impressive fellow:
Photo courtesy of FXFOWLE Senior Partner Sylvia Smith
What's not awesome is that in recent years, elephant poaching has skyrocketed. According to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), poachers hunted down and killed a shocking 62 percent of all forest elephants in Central Africa between 2002 and 2011. And with the price of ivory climbing, it's only going to get worse. Elephant poaching has become increasingly lucrative for sophisticated criminal gangs, who ruthlessly track down and kill these iconic animals to sell their valuable tusks into the illegal wildlife trade. In this daily, ongoing struggle, elephants are losing. If we ignore it, poachers won't stop hunting down elephants until it's too late.
In their recent New York Times article, Slaughter of the African Elephant, conservation scientists Samantha Strindberg and Fiona Maisels state that "The continuing slaughter of these animals means more than the loss of an iconic species. Forest elephants play a crucial ecological role in the life of the forests they inhabit: places of incredible biodiversity and one of earth's most important carbon-sequestering regions." The fact of the matter is, elephants are invaluable to the ecosystem. As much as 80 percent of what elephants consume is returned to the soil as barely digested, highly fertile manure (which also acts to disperse seeds). This manure is carried below ground by dung beetles and termites, causing the soil to become more aerated and further distributing the nutrients. Elephants can also provide water for other species by digging water holes in dry riverbeds, while the depressions created by their footprints and their bodies trap rainfall.
These are just some of the ways elephants hugely affect the overall ecosystem. That's why FXFOWLE, a design firm deeply committed to sustainability and environmental issues, is not going to sit this one out. The FXFOWLE team is participating in the annual WCS Run for the Wild at the Bronx Zoo on Saturday, April 27th to raise money for the WCS's efforts to protect elephants and other threatened wildlife.
Thankfully, the WCS has a proven track record of keeping elephant families safe in countries across Asia and Africa, from Malaysia to Gabon, and has established a truly winning elephant conservation program through the following methods:
- Equipping and training ecoguards who patrol key habitats and enforce laws against elephant killing;
- Consolidating and expanding elephant habitat through voluntary resettlement of villages out of key parks;
- Working with rural communities to reduce crop raiding by elephants, and the conflicts that result from this activity;
- Monitoring and track elephant populations; and
- Working alongside government officials to establish parklands and crack down on criminal activity.
They are now using anti-poaching tactics to protect key sites where elephants are threatened, such as Niassa National Reserve in Mozambique, the Ituri Forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bukit Barisan Seletan National Park in Indonesia, and Nagarahole National Park in India.
But to extend their reach, they need more funding, and that's why we – and elephants – need your help. Your support will help give elephants a fighting chance for survival. With your donations and pledges, we'll also continue to survey elephants in some of their last wild strongholds.
Please join us in this important fight or donate today, and help save these imperiled animals. Whatever you can chip in is a big help. All of us at FXFOWLE will be very grateful, and so will these guys:
Photo courtesy of FXFOWLE Senior Partner Sylvia Smith
Photo courtesy of FXFOWLE Senior Partner Sylvia SmithWhat's not awesome is that in recent years, elephant poaching has skyrocketed. According to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), poachers hunted down and killed a shocking 62 percent of all forest elephants in Central Africa between 2002 and 2011. And with the price of ivory climbing, it's only going to get worse. Elephant poaching has become increasingly lucrative for sophisticated criminal gangs, who ruthlessly track down and kill these iconic animals to sell their valuable tusks into the illegal wildlife trade. In this daily, ongoing struggle, elephants are losing. If we ignore it, poachers won't stop hunting down elephants until it's too late.
In their recent New York Times article, Slaughter of the African Elephant, conservation scientists Samantha Strindberg and Fiona Maisels state that "The continuing slaughter of these animals means more than the loss of an iconic species. Forest elephants play a crucial ecological role in the life of the forests they inhabit: places of incredible biodiversity and one of earth's most important carbon-sequestering regions." The fact of the matter is, elephants are invaluable to the ecosystem. As much as 80 percent of what elephants consume is returned to the soil as barely digested, highly fertile manure (which also acts to disperse seeds). This manure is carried below ground by dung beetles and termites, causing the soil to become more aerated and further distributing the nutrients. Elephants can also provide water for other species by digging water holes in dry riverbeds, while the depressions created by their footprints and their bodies trap rainfall.
These are just some of the ways elephants hugely affect the overall ecosystem. That's why FXFOWLE, a design firm deeply committed to sustainability and environmental issues, is not going to sit this one out. The FXFOWLE team is participating in the annual WCS Run for the Wild at the Bronx Zoo on Saturday, April 27th to raise money for the WCS's efforts to protect elephants and other threatened wildlife.
Thankfully, the WCS has a proven track record of keeping elephant families safe in countries across Asia and Africa, from Malaysia to Gabon, and has established a truly winning elephant conservation program through the following methods:
- Equipping and training ecoguards who patrol key habitats and enforce laws against elephant killing;
- Consolidating and expanding elephant habitat through voluntary resettlement of villages out of key parks;
- Working with rural communities to reduce crop raiding by elephants, and the conflicts that result from this activity;
- Monitoring and track elephant populations; and
- Working alongside government officials to establish parklands and crack down on criminal activity.
They are now using anti-poaching tactics to protect key sites where elephants are threatened, such as Niassa National Reserve in Mozambique, the Ituri Forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bukit Barisan Seletan National Park in Indonesia, and Nagarahole National Park in India.
But to extend their reach, they need more funding, and that's why we – and elephants – need your help. Your support will help give elephants a fighting chance for survival. With your donations and pledges, we'll also continue to survey elephants in some of their last wild strongholds.
Please join us in this important fight or donate today, and help save these imperiled animals. Whatever you can chip in is a big help. All of us at FXFOWLE will be very grateful, and so will these guys:
Photo courtesy of FXFOWLE Senior Partner Sylvia Smith
