Mission
Elephant DaZe "Save The Pachyderm...Save The Planet" Elephant Daze is a full-length documentary film and a jumbo movement. We seek partnership, guidance, support and expertise to help us develop the ELEPHANT DAZE marketing and social media campaign and advance our movement to garner supporters and save the elephant. We must save the elephant from extinction, not just because the elephant is a cornerstone species (whose loss would threaten the lungs of Africa, the world’s second largest rain forest), but because because elephants deserve our protection.Animal's mortality, and ours with it, hangs on a thread. It all comes down to whether you view human beings as superior, as custodians, as entitled consumers of the world’s resources or as similar parts of the delicate eco-system of the world.
Category
Animal Welfare
Additional Information
"So goes the elephant, so goes the forest", according to USFWS Africa & Asia Chief, Dr. Richard Ruggierio.
To abate the devastating effects of climate change we must save the gardener of the forest. A non-narrative film, a series of live events and a community coalescing to save the African and Asian elephant. The world's most majestic animal is in extreme danger and could be extinct in less than seven years.ELEPHANT DAZE Documentary Film Cast:
Dr. Jane Goodall, Primatologist, Ethologist, Anthropologist Dr. Cynthia Moss, Amboseli Trust for ElephantsDr. Richard Bonham, Big Life Foundation Adam M. Roberts, Born Free USA Andrea Crosta, Elephant Action League / WildLeaks Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Save The Elephants Dr. Richard Ruggiero, Asia / Africa Chief, USFWS Gretchen Peters, TraCCC Grace Ge Gabriel, Regional Director, Asia, IFAW Julie Dawson, Managing Director, Tsavo Pride Raabia Hawa, Founder,Walk With Rangers Patrick Omondi, Kenya Wildlife Service Edwin Wusichi, David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Dennis Onsarigo, Journalist, KTN Kenya Sean Willmore, International Ranger Federation Dr. Russell A. Mittermeier, Conservation International Dr. Jonathan Balcombe, Animal Sentience, Humane Society Samuel Mutiara, Ol Pejeta Conservancy Dr. Jean-Gael Collomb, Wildlife Conservation NetworkSalisha Chandra, Kenyans United Against Poaching Dr. Esmond Bradley Martin, Jr., African Elephant Specialist Group Dr. Max Graham, Space For Giants Tom Snitch, University Maryland Jen Samuel, Elephants DC David Casselman, Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary Dr. Laura Marker, Cheetah Conservation Fund Praveen Moman, Co-Founder & Director, Volcanoes Safaris Andrew Seguya, Minister of Parks, Uganda Wildlife Authority Dr. Esmond Bradley Martin, Jr., African Elephant Specialist Group Michael North, Rise Up For ElephantsAnn Smith, Elephant ActivistDavid Mascall, Lights for LifeNicole Simmons, Project Co-Ordinator, Kyambura Gorge, VSPT“The future of mankind lies waiting for those who will come to understand their lives and take up their responsibility to all living things.” ~ Vine Deloria Jr., American Indian author and activist.While the public sector uses power to generate order -- and the private sector uses innovation and efficiency to generate wealth -- the social sector uses caring to produce quality of life. While all three have important roles and three need each other, to advance our goal and save the elephant, Elephant DaZe will create an international and passionate community, whose collective voice cannot be ignored.In the early 1900s, five million elephants roamed the African continent. Then the ivory trade drove them to the brink of extinction, with 90% of African elephants killed for the ivory in their tusks...for trinkets and for terrorism. Today, fewer than 250,000 wild elephants scramble from poachers in Africa.While we must save the remaining elephants, the only real way to save the elephant is to tackle the single most important thing behind the elephant crisis: the legal ivory market in China, which fuels demand and generates a thriving illegal ivory trade, with a huge human toll: hundreds of rangers and poachers killed, leaving behind widowed wives and orphaned children, entire poor local communities exploited by traffickers, profits for militias and terrorist groups.Because the ivory trade is leading to the poaching of elephants, China must ban all sales of ivory, prohibit imports of ivory, prohibit the sale, purchase, transport, carrying, and shipping of all ivory products. I believe that this ban on ivory will lead to the protection of elephants, ease the burden on customs officials, maintain safety, and help make China a leader in wildlife conservation. According to BORN FREE USA / Ivory’s Curse provides detailed regional case studies on the ivory trade, including: From Sudan, government-allied militias complicit in the Darfur genocide fund their operations by poaching elephants hundreds of miles outside North Sudan’s borders.In the DRC, state security forces patronize the very rebels they are supposed to fight, providing them with weapons and support in exchange for ivory.Zimbabwean political elites, including those under international sanction, are seizing wildlife spaces that either are, or likely will soon be, used as covers for poaching operations.In East Africa, al-Shabaab and Somali criminal networks are profiting off Kenyan elephants killed by poachers using weapons leaked from local security forces.Mozambican organized crime has militarized and consolidated to the extent it is willing to battle the South African army and well-trained ranger forces for rhino horn.In Gabon and the Republic of Congo, ill-regulated forest exploitation is bringing East Asian migrant laborers, and East Asian organized crime, into contact with Central Africa’s last elephants.In Tanzania, political elites have aided the industrial-scale depletion of East Africa’s largest elephant population.Elephants must survive as their extinction would upset the world's ecosystem; losing elephants would ruin the second largest rain forest in central Africa, the "lungs of Africa". Elephant ivory (AKA white gold or bloody ivory) has become a conflict resource, enabling and sustaining a wide range of highly militarized actors across Africa. As such, the ivory trade is not only devastating to elephant populations, it also has significant impact on human conflict and social stability. Wildlife crime is therefore no longer just a conservation issue.Harmony and empathy between man and nature is our ultimate goal. Saving elephants from extinction may seem impossible. But like Nelson Mandela said: "It always seems impossible until it is done". Why are Elephants important? People have tried to quantify in monetary, political, biological and cultural terms the elephant’s value and importance. Elephants contribute to the economies of Asia and Africa through tourist revenue, one of the fastest growing global businesses. Moreover, elephants are a flagship species, in the sense that as a "charismatic mega vertebrate" they are a symbol of the need for the conservation of all wildlife and nature. Lastly, elephants are a keystone species and as such they are an integral part of ecosystems contributing to biodiversity through seed dispersal in the creation of habitat mosaics.Elephants ensure biodiversity, the key to a healthy planet.Elephants constitute a substantial part of our cultural and historical heritage and are, quite simply, a pleasure to behold. But elephants are simply important in their own right, just like humans.The overall black market for illegal wildlife trade has become the fourth most lucrative criminal activity internationally, after drugs, counterfeit goods, and human trafficking. Wildlife trafficking yields $19 billion per year, according to The International Fund for Animal Welfare’s recent report. These illicit profits fuel rebel and militia groups, even terrorist organizations. Ivory and other wildlife commodities help finance some of their operations in East Africa, West Africa, and possibly further afield, adding to the already increasing concerns around global security. WHAT can you do to save elephants? Think of Margaret Mead's quote: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Get involved, post, share, like and talk EVERY SINGLE DAY about this epic crisis to all your neighbors, friends and family.Call and write your government representatives. Together we can make a difference – Asian and African elephants need our help – they’ll never forget YOU did YOUR part. If you do nothing...elephants won't be around to remember.
"We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise" (The Earth Charter, 2000)
