Let’s Not Allow Our Giants to Fall

The new movie When Giants Fall is coming soon and it looks like it’s going to be what we’ve been waiting for. It tells the story of the ivory crisis and of the people who fight for the survival of the elephant against increasingly hostile poaching networks.

By now we all know that the African Elephant is in crisis, but some of us may not know just how serious this crisis is. Well, it’s serious, very serious and its all over the continent. The more one looks the more terrifying the statistics are. According to the film, African elephants are predicted to become extinct by 2020.

[quote_center]”The more one looks the more terrifying the statistics are.”[/quote_center]

Historically we have always said that the worst time in our history for the elephant was from the mid-seventies to the mid-eighties. Prior to that most countries with substantial elephant populations were having to cull the animals to prevent them from destroying their habitat. Then came the mid-seventies and for the following ten years the populations plummeted due to poaching.

During that dark period conservationists really believed that the elephant would become extinct, but they did not give up and ten years later it seemed the battle had swayed in our favour. Slowly the numbers started increasing.

Everybody agreed that we could never let the world get back to that dire situation. Many people said: we know the history, we have learned from it, it will never happen again.

But it’s looking like knowing the history has not saved us.

In the book All the Pretty Horses, one of author Cormac McCarthy’s characters says “what is constant in history is greed and foolishness and a love of blood and this is a thing that even God – who knows all that can be known – seems powerless to change”.

[quote_center]“…what is constant in history is greed and foolishness and a love of blood…” – All the Pretty Horses[/quote_center]

Because it has happened again, and it’s worse than the time we thought we had lost our elephants for good.

Let’s look at the figures for just one country: In Tanzania the elephant population in 1976 was 316,300. Then came the terrible decade and by 1989 it was down to 55,000. One can see why conservationists felt they had lost the battle for the elephants. But a number of things happened and the tide turned – there was a slow steady increase in elephant numbers and by 2006 the country’s elephant population was up to 138,763. Well, the latest figures, according to EIA, for Tanzania in 2014 show a population of 43,521.

This one country alone has lost 95,242 elephants to poaching in eight years. That’s 32 elephants a day for eight years killed by poachers.

[quote_center]”32 elephants a day for eight years killed by poachers.”[/quote_center]

The elephant population now in this single country is lower than our bleakest period in elephant conservation. And the pattern is the same in many countries.

We have to act now, and we have to prove the words of Cormac McCarthy’s character wrong. We have to learn from history. There is no ‘later’.

But there is a groundswell of support…people are looking for information and looking for ways to give sensible and well thought out assistance. It seems that this movie is going to offer us both.

Take a few moments to have a look at the trailer…

Watch Video: ‘When Giants Fall’ Official Trailer

When Giants Fall Official Trailer from Cinebird Film Trailer Editing on Vimeo.

It looks like all the information needed to show us the seriousness of the situation is in this movie.

Then visit the website at whengiantsfall.com – at the bottom you will find contact details for several leading elephant conservation organisations.

But perhaps best of all is that wherever you are, you can host a screening of When Giants Fall and in that way, share the film and its message with your community. Visit whengiantsfall.com to see how.