Barack Obama to lead messages of support at Giants Club Summit

African leaders, global power-brokers, financiers, and conservationists will gather for the event in Kenya

An elephant walks across the open plains of the Maasai Mara National Reserve on February 29, 2016 in Talek, Kenya. (Getty)

US President Barack Obama is to send a message of support to the inaugural Giants Club Summit, a unique gathering of African Heads of State, corporate leaders, philanthropists, and scientists dedicated to ending the illegal killing of elephants and safeguarding their landscapes forever.

President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya will host the Africa-led event, and be joined by fellow Giants Club members President Ali Bongo of Gabon, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, and senior representatives of President Ian Khama of Botswana.

Together, these four countries alone are home to more than half of Africa's remaining savannah elephants, and three quarters of its remaining forest elephants.

President Idriss Déby of Chad, and President John Magufuli of Tanzania are to send high-level delegations. President Barack Obama is to send a senior team led by Deputy Secretary of State Heather Higginbottom, and William C. Woody, Chief of the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Office of Law Enforcement.

Helen Clark, the head of the United Nations Development Programme, and Ibrahim Thiaw, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, will both attend with conservation specialist colleagues, alongside Jorge Rios, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime's Wildlife and Forest Crime Programme.

Representatives of global finance and philanthropy include Evgeny Lebedev, owner of the British Evening Standard newspaper and Independent digital news platforms and patron of the Giants Club; Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, who will dial in to the Summit; and Jochen Zeitz, former chairman of sportswear multinational Puma. Leading African corporate figures attending include Manu Chandaria, one of Kenya's best-known entrepreneurs

Leading African musicians, including Eric Wainaina from Kenya, and Mrishi Mpioto and Peter Msechu of Tanzania, will perform at a live Gala Dinner for delegates, and many will participate in key Summit sessions discussing how to harness star influence to support conservation.

Judi Wakhungu, Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Natural Resources, and Regional Development Authorities, said: "The attendance of so many of my fellow African governments, alongside very senior delegations from the United States, Europe, Russia, bilateral partners from the United Nations, leading financiers and philanthropists, and conservation experts, is testament to the uniqueness of the Giants Club Summit.

"This is not another talking shop. This is an extraordinary opportunity for us to show the world that we know how to stop poaching, and for the world to stand alongside us and help us to make it happen. These are the very real outcomes we are expecting from the Summit. We are eager to get started."

Summit discussions revolve around three key themes. First, showing that African countries know what works in frontline conservation protection and the successful prosecution of poachers. Second, illustrating how to draw on the goodwill of individuals with global influence to connect ideas and build support to expand these proven conservation interventions. Third, to present smart new ways of paying to safeguard elephants and the landscapes they inhabit after poaching has been eradicated.

"That is what is special about The Giants Club, and The Giants Club Summit," said Max Graham, founder and CEO of Space for Giants, the conservation charity that helped form The Giants Club. "We can put in one place all the people who need to be together really to accelerate progress on elephant protection: Africa's leaders, conservationists, philanthropists and investors, and people with the influence to bring others to our side

"We're anticipating some pretty significant outcomes from the Summit. The focus will be on protecting elephants and stopping poaching, addressing problems of growing human populations living alongside hopefully growing elephant populations, and coming up with clever new ways to finance looking after elephants and their landscapes forever."

The Summit will be held on the slopes of Mt Kenya in the central Kenyan town of Nanyuki from Thursday April 28 to Saturday April 30. In total, more than 170 delegates are expected to attend. The event immediately precedes Kenya's ivory burn in the capital, Nairobi, later on April 30, when President Kenyatta leads the destruction of 105 tonnes of seized ivory to put it beyond economic use.

Brand Kenya Board, which markets Kenya as a destination for tourism and investment abroad, is the official Supporting Partner of The Giants Club Summit.

To find out more about The Giants Club Summit go to: http://spaceforgiants.org/giantsclub/summit. To donate go to: http://spaceforgiants.org/giantsclub/donate/​