“When we use love and compassion as our guiding principles we can create, develop and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and to the environment.” Joaquin Phoenix, an American actor and animal rights activist, once said.
The decision of the International Union for Conservation to list the African forest elephants as critically endangered is a step in the right direction.
The gentle African giant has been ravaged by ever-creative poachers running an international racket of smuggled ivory for decades.
The jumbos desperately need the intervention that IUC will put in place to stem the tide.
The move comes at a time the Amboseli Game Park, home to 2,000 elephants, is facing challenges among them the decision to allow part of the swathe as an avocado farm.
Elephants need to be protected against all sorts of dangers, including poaching and human wildlife conflict or destruction of their natural habitat.
And as a result, listing them as critically endangered will hopefully put some pressure on governments to ensure they take keener interest and double their efforts in protecting the elephants.
The elephants and other wildlife are a heritage of a nation that need to be well taken care of. It is for this reason that the government ought to develop ways of ensuring businesses or agricultural projects do not endanger the lives of the wild animals.
The state also needs to punish poachers severely as deterrence to the illegal trade.