Join the biggest anti-poaching march
The march will start at uShaka Marine World on Saturday morning.
“IN our fight to stop poaching our biggest battle is with corruption,” said Glenashley’s Mariana Fernandes, on the eve of the Global March for Elephants and Rhino’s (GMFER) biggest anti-poaching march.
The animal activist group has encouraged people from 145 locations across the world to march against the poaching of elephants and rhinos on Saturday, 24 September as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora’s (CITES) 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP17) kicks off in Johannesburg.
Fernandes, who is a core strategist for GMFER, said the organisation hopes that the march would also amass opposition against the government’s decision to lobby for the legalisation of ivory trade.
How will the next generation remember us? #WorldRhinoDay #JoinTheHerd pic.twitter.com/neNNAUx4Eh
— WildAid (@WildAid) September 22, 2016
“While countries such as Kenya, Botswana and China have supported the banning of ivory trade, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe are hoping to sell their stocks,” she said.
The mother and businesswoman maintains that legalising the trade will only increase the demand.
In 2007 only a dozen elephants were killed, however, since the CITES temporarily approved the release of ivory stockpiles in 2008, 30 per cent of the animal population have been culled. The legalisation is just not feasible as there are just not enough animals left to sustain the demand and curb the corruption at supply,” she said.
In May Jeff Radebe, the minister of planning, monitoring and evaluation, announced that the government would no longer lobby to legalise the trade of rhino horn, but they have since backtracked on the decision.
“At the moment rhino horn is worth more than diamonds, cocaine or guns, and pro-traders have argued that by flooding the market the price will down, and poaching will decline. But we believe that this will only form two parallel markets, fueling demand that was never there before, making it hard to police which stocks are legit,” she added.
Every year around 33,000 elephants are slaughtered for their Ivory – one every 15 minutes – please #JoinTheHerd and help protect them https://t.co/fLvnANTLhU
— Garnet PR – Rhiannon B (@rhiannonbates) September 22, 2016
It has been estimated that there are currently 5 000 black and 20 000 white rhinos as well as 330 000 Savanna elephants left in Africa.
To further highlight the plight of SA’s beloved giants the GMFER has teamed up with Wild Aid to host a ‘Twitter storm’ to encourage the world to vote in an online petition against the legalisation of ivory trade. Join in on the conversation with #JoinTheHerd.
My name is Alex Goldberg. I #JoinTheHerd. Do you? https://t.co/zRNoI3UcdZ @WildAid
— Alex Goldberg (@TrollusMaximus) September 23, 2016
The march will take place on Saturday, 24 September at from uShaka Marine World at 11am to Suncoast Casino.
Follow GMFER on Twitter at @EleRhinoMarch or Wild Aid at @WildAid.
