Big Life: Solving poverty saves elephants
A Virgin Unite Exclusive.
Towards the end of last year, Prince William bestowed to Richard Bonham, co-founder of Big Life Foundation, the lifetime achievement award for his contribution to wildlife and the Maasai community in Kenya. Saving Africa’s last wild places is as much about humans as it is about animals, and this award is long overdue recognition that we cannot afford to shove poverty into the unsolvable box.
Says Richard, “Elephant and rhino poaching is a very real temptation when most Africans living in or on the borders of wildlife areas are living in poverty. The only way to mitigate this temptation is by providing incentives such as employment, through wildlife based revenue streams.”
Big Life Foundation was co-founded five years ago by acclaimed photographer Nick Brandt. The foundation was created as a response to the sudden surge in poaching, and the insatiable demand for ivory and rhino horn status symbols in China and other parts of Asia.
Read the full story on Virgin Unite.
Photography by Nick Brandt, co founder of Big Life Foundation.
Elephant Drinking, Amboseli, 2007. Killed by Poachers, 2009
Elephants Walking Through Grass, Amboseli 2008. Leading Matriarch Killed by Poachers, 2009.
Line of Rangers Holding Tusks of Elephants Killed at the Hands of Man, Amboseli, 2011
Ranger Holding Tusks of Elephants Killed at the Hands of Man, Amboseli, 2011