The Congo Basin Ivory Trade
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Green Heart Films
SLAUGHTER OF THE ELEPHANTS
Please help us expose the illegal ivory trade, and reduce demand from China and SE Asia Green Heart Films has been filming across the Congo Basin for the last year on the subject of the catastrophic decline of Africa's forestelephants.
With chronic instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the implosion of the Central African Republic, poaching has spiraled out of control. With China economic surge leading to a growing demand for resources, Africa's last great herds of elephants are in serious danger of becoming extinct.
Forest elephant populations are reported to have declined by sixty two percent. The Okapi Faunal Reserve HQ at Epulu, in the east of the DRC, has been attacked and destroyed by local militias backed and supported by powerful military elements, identified by the United Nations.
Dredging for gold within the park is presently operating unhindered and poaching for ivory - which is in great demand in China and other Asian nations - is presently out of control with virtually no effective authority within this former conservation region.
The Central African Republic has suffered from chronic instability since it gained independence from France in 1960. This year in February an alliance of regional militias known as Saleka marched into the capital and overthrew the government. Since these events have begun to unfold, chaos has impacted on the once pristine park of Dzanga Sanga and recent reports have spoken of the catastrophic slaughter of this park's once great elephant herds.
The major demand for ivory is from China. As filmed and reported by Green Heart Films in Kinshasa, Lubumbashi and the Ituri Forest, it is largely Chinese demand that is behind this critical situation for Africa's remaining elephants. Moreover, this demand is contributing to regional instability and the funding of rebels and militias.
The rape of Africa's environment and the destruction of Africa's elephants and parks must be exposed to a global audience. Our urgent objective is especially to inform the public in China and other Asia nations of the impact that the ivory trade is having on Africa's people, parks and endangered wildlife.
Green Heart Films is urgently seeking donations to continue to film the illegal trade in ivory and the impact that this is having on the last of this continent's great elephant herds. The destruction of unique and fragile protected areas is going unreported, and they are in danger of disappearing due to unsustainable economic activity and regional instability.
Please contribute to enable us to expose, and help prevent, the destruction of our planet's last great elephant herds and their forest ecosystem which sustains us all.