It鈥檚 no secret that Africa鈥檚 elephants are in danger. Widespread poaching, fueled by demand for ivory in China and ineffective regulation, have led to alarming population losses, from 1.2 million in 1980 to only 500,000 this year. Today, approximately 96 African elephants are killed by poachers every 24 hours. Last September, the (CGI)鈥攁 project of the Clinton Foundation鈥攍aunched an $80 million effort to bring together foreign governments and NGOs to help protect the seven-ton mammals, in part by capitalizing on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton鈥檚 diplomatic experience. Millie Kerr sat down with Chelsea Clinton, the 34-year-old vice chairwoman of the family foundation, to check in on the early progress.
OUTSIDE: How did this issue hit your radar?
Clinton: In 2012, we realized that we鈥檇 been unaware of the crisis鈥攕imilar to what it had been in the 1980s鈥攁nd we were both sheepish about that, because we think we鈥檙e pretty plugged-in people. When my mom was secretary of state, one of the things that drew her attention to this was the fact that the Lord鈥檚 Resistance Army and Joseph Kony, the Al-Shabaab and the janjaweed in West Africa, Al Qaeda in North Africa, and many of the rebel and terrorist groups in Central Africa are trafficking not only in guns and humans, but in ivory.
And that prompted the initiative?
When my mom left the government, we knew this was one of the areas we wanted to work on together. She had relationships with many of the leaders who impact the demand or trafficking. We thought that, through CGI, we could bring together those people鈥攇overnments, NGOs on the ground, foundations that can help fund the work鈥攖o really make a coherent, coordinated effort. For the first time in recent history, it became clear what the governments, NGOs, and academic partners were committing to in order to stop the killing, traffic, and demand.
Have you seen any progress?
There鈥檚 been tremendous progress, especially on the demand side, though we certainly don鈥檛 deserve credit for much of it. In China, influential CEOs , and [former NBA star] Yao Ming has been a tremendous champion in , which has run a number of campaigns in China that seem to be making a difference. Most of the ivory in the world is sold in China and Vietnam, though also here in the United States. We worked with the president鈥檚 task force on wildlife trafficking, and we鈥檙e thrilled with the policy that emerged from that, which is to ban all commercial imports of African ivory into this country. I think that鈥檚 an important step鈥攏ot only in helping stop the demand, but also for our moral authority.聽
You were in Tanzania, Rwanda, and Zambia last year. Did you see 鈥╝n impact on the ground?
I saw an SMS platform that lets local villagers report poachers. That鈥檚 been successful鈥攏ot necessarily in stopping the poaching, but in limiting and deterring it. They used to find multiple carcasses of elephants that had been poached by the same group. Now, with this early-alert system, the rangers are able to deploy. They may not be able to save that first elephant, but they can save the second or third.