Hands Off Our Elephants has forged a broad-based alliance for wildlife conservation that is unprecedented in an African context. Community Development – Working with communities to develop conservation strategies in the field that benefit people and wildlife.Education and Outreach – Mobilizing public opinion to win the hearts and minds of Kenyans in support of elephants and wildlife conservation.Strengthening the Rule of Law – Enacting new legislation, ensuring compliance, transparency and accountability for elephants, ivory and all stages of the judicial chain.Working with strategy advisor Helen Gibbons (Maasai Mara Conservancies Association) and legal advisor, Shamini Jayanathan (Space for Giant), along with a team of advisors and the creative firm TBWA Kenya, WildlifeDirect identified three “critical pathways” towards securing the future of Kenya’s elephants and other wildlife: The President made headlines across the globe when he burned 15 tons of ivory on World Wildlife Day in 2014, the world’s biggest ever ivory destruction event. Additionally, in 2014, President Uhuru Kenyatta signed in a new law which prescribed the most severe penalties for wildlife crime in the world, allocated an additional Ksh 2 billion (USD $20 million) for anti-poaching activities and 577 newly trained rangers were deployed. To poachers and wildlife traffickers, Kenya was a safe haven. ![]() The most severe financial penalty for convicted poachers was Ksh 40,000 (USD $400), and fewer than 4% of convicted offenders were going to jail. While Kenya has traditionally been in the forefront of wildlife conservation in Africa, by 2012, ineffective laws and inadequate anti-poaching efforts all threatened Kenya’s spectacular wildlife. Hands Off Our Elephants was launched in response to the rapid escalation of elephant and rhino poaching, and government failure to acknowledge and deal with the crisis. Since its inception, elephant and rhino poaching in Kenya has declined by 80% and 90% respectively. Hands Off Our Elephants has successfully generated unprecedented public and political awareness and support for wildlife conservation in Kenya. ![]() Her Excellency Margaret Kenyatta, the First Lady of the Republic of Kenya, is a patron of the campaign. In July 2013, WildlifeDirect launched the campaign Hands Off Our Elephants, partnering with civil society, corporations, government agencies and other conservation organizations in a unified approach towards ending the poaching crisis in Kenya.
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