Elephant Appeal 2013: Founder of Space for Giants charity expresses his thanks to readers two years on

Readers of The Independent, i and The Independent on Sunday helped to raise £575,000 to tackle the poaching crisis

Dr Max Graham (Nigel Howard)

Two years ago, for our 2013 Christmas Appeal, i teamed up with Space for Giants, the East Africa-based conservation charity which seeks to combat elephant poaching. With ivory now worth more than gold in Africa, 100 elephants are killed every day by poachers, leaving the species under threat of extinction. Readers of i and our sister titles, The Independent and The Independent on Sunday, dug deep – our Elephant Appeal raised £575,000 to tackle the poaching crisis.

Dr Max Graham, the founder and CEO of Space for Giants, has expressed his thanks to readers for their generosity, saying the amount raised “exceeded all our expectations by a long way”.

As a result, the charity was able to invest in training wildlife security personnel in north Kenya, causing the number of elephants illegally killed in the region to plummet.

“We have seen an immediate reduction in the killing of elephants by 74 per cent in north Kenya,” Dr Graham said. “That’s down to frontline protection as a direct result of the appeal.”

He added it was “amazing” to see how the public had united to get behind the cause.

Without a doubt the Elephant Appeal played a key role in raising  the agenda

&#13; <p>Dr Max Graham</p>&#13;

Earlier this year the United States and China announced they would work together to enact “nearly complete bans” on the import and export of ivory. This high-profile agreement signalled an “implicit recognition” of the plight of elephants, Dr Graham said. “It will take time to phase out the commercial trade in ivory but that was very significant. We’re a long way from saving the species. We’re still losing tens of thousands of elephants across Africa. But at least global leaders are responding,” he said.

Dr Graham added: “Without a doubt the Elephant Appeal played a key role in raising the agenda.”