Giants Club Summit: a historic gathering to save Africa's elephants
Better protection for today, better planning for tomorrow: top Giants Club Summit conservationists to call for accelerated action for Africa's elephants and their landscapes

Leading conservationists and illegal wildlife trade experts will use The Giants Club Summit to call for urgent interventions from African presidents heading the forum to expand proven ways to protect elephants from poachers and loss of habitat.
Between them, the initial Giants Club member countries – Kenya, Gabon, Uganda, and Botswana – together hold more than half of Africa's remaining elephants. Actions agreed at the Summit will give those populations the greatest chance to thrive for generations to come.
The three-day Summit, hosted by Kenya's president Uhuru Kenyatta, opens on Thursday April 28 and aims to launch new Africa-led interventions that will:
- Reinforce frontline protection of elephants
- Multiply illegal wildlife trade prosecutions
- Design smart new ways to finance the conservation and management of elephants, even after poaching endsÂ
Kitili Mbathi, Director General of the Kenya Wildlife Service, will attend as part of the Kenyan governmental delegation. Each of the remaining Giants Club member states will attend with their leading expert conservationists as part of their official national delegations.
Andrew Seguya, Executive Director of the Uganda Wildlife Authority, will lead Ugandan conservationists, Lee White, Executive Secretary of ANPN, heads Gabon's conservation contingent, and Botswana's representatives include Mike Chase, director and founder of Elephants Without Borders, who recently completed the Great Elephant Census.
Max Graham, CEO of Space for Giants, the Kenyan charity that helped found The Giants Club, said: "It is no mystery to us how to protect elephants and their landscapes. It takes robust frontline protection, investment to reduce the cost and increase the benefits to local people of conserving elephants, and global efforts to cut demand for ivory.

"Yes, ending the demand is absolutely key. But we don’t know how long this will take. We are already losing tens of thousands of elephants a year, from a population of perhaps less than 400,000, and we desperately need a holding position. At the Summit, Space for Giants and our conservation partners will be asking the Giants to do more of what we know works to protect elephants today. That gives us that holding position to keep the remaining populations safe, and buys us some time to work to end the demand.
"We're confident we can do that. What's equally important – and not enough people are thinking about this – is what next? When we beat poaching, elephants still face enormous threats from habitat destruction and from conflict pressure from with growing human populations. We will all also be asking the Giants to commit to plans that will make sure we have the money to deal with those future challenges, so we can continue to protect elephants forever."
Among the world's leading anti-poaching and conservation experts attending the Summit are:
- Richard   Leakey,   Chairman,   Kenya   Wildlife   Service  Â
- Kitili Mbathi,   Director   General,   Kenya   Wildlife   Service
- Lee   White,   Executive   Secretary,   Agence   Nationale   des   Parcs Nationaux,   Gabon
- Andrew   Seguya,   Executive   Director,   Uganda   Wildlife   Agency
- Mike   Chase,   Director,   Elephants   Without   Borders;   Coordinator,   Elephant   Census
- Marco   Lambertini,   Director   General,   WWF
- Matt   Brown,   Director   of   Africa   Conservation,   The   Nature   Conservancy
- Rian   Labuschagne,   Director   for   African   Parks,   Zakouma   National   Park
- Edward   Ndiritu,   Head   of   Anti-Poaching,   Lewa   Wildlife   Conservancy
- Josephine   Ekiru,   Peace   Coordinator,   Northern   Rangelands   Trust
- Azzedine   Downes,   President   and   CEO,   IFAW
- Ian   Craig,   Director   of   Conservation,   Northern   Rangelands   Trust
- Iain   Douglas-Hamilton,   CEO,   Save   The   Elephants  Â
- Richard   Vigne,   CEO,   Ol   Pejeta   Conservancy
- Tom   Lalaampa,   Chairman,   Kenya   Wildlife   Conservancies   Association  Â
- Vivek   Menon, CEO,   Wildlife   Trust   of   India
- Lt   Gen Ivan   Koreta,   Chair,   Uganda   Conservation   Foundation
- Elisifa   Ngowi,   Executive   Secretary,   Serious   Crimes   Investigation   Unit,   Tanzania
- Ali   Kaka,   Trustee,   Stop   Ivory
- Mary   Rice,   Executive   Director,   Environmental   Investigation   Agency  Â
- Jorge   Rios,   Chief   of   Wildlife/Forest   Crime,   UNODC  Â
- Rudi   Van   Aarde,   Chair,   Conservation   Ecology   and   Director   of   CERU,   Uni.   of   Pretoria
- William   C.   Woody,   Chief   of   Law   Enforcement,   US   Fish   and   Wildlife   Service
- Paula   Kahumbu,   CEO,   WildlifeDirect
- Peter   Knights,   Executive   Director,   WildAid
- Shamini   Jayanathan,   Director   of   Legal   Strategy,   Space   for   Giants
During a series of Summit sessions on Friday April 29, the conservationists will lay out the practical detail of what works to protect elephants now and in the future. Immediately afterwards, the Giants Club presidents and their delegations led by President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya will publicly announce interventions they will make, and invite pledges from philanthropists, institutions, bilateral donors, and partners, so the work can begin at once.
Key influencers from the worlds of music, cinema, business, and conservation, led by Evgeny Lebedev, owner of the British Evening Standard newspaper and Independent digital news platform and patron of The Giants Club, will convene for the Summit's final sessions on Saturday April 30. They will discuss how best to add the weight of their followers to accelerate implementation of the Summit interventions. The Summit ends immediately before President Kenyatta leads the destruction of Kenya's stockpile of seized ivory, in Nairobi, the afternoon of April 30.
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/​
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