Yao Ming Documentary Coverage

Transcription

Yao Ming Documentary Coverage
2012
WildAid
Yao Ming Documentary Coverage Publication
Headline
Associated Press
Ex-‐NBA star Yao in Kenya for poaching awareness
Bleacher Report
Top 25 Most Entertaining Offseason Tweets from NBA Stars
Buzzfeed
Yao Ming Is Filming A Documentary To Help African Animals
Capital FM Lifestyle Magazine
Yao Ming shoots anti-‐poaching documentary in Kenya China Daily Yao Ming in anti-‐poaching campaign in Africa
China Radio International
China's Ivory Trade: Reeducating the Masses
Christian Science Monitor
Using Chinese star power to fight ivory poaching in Africa
Columbia Journalism Review
Yao Ming and the elephant massacre
Daily Kenya Yao Ming in Kenya as WildAid Ambassador
Ecorazzi
Yao Ming Travels to Africa to Help Fight Poaching
Environmental Graffiti
Ex-‐NBA Star Sees Brutal Reality of Elephant Poaching in Africa
Foreign Policy
Yao Ming Visits Africa, Makes Everything Look Tiny
Global Voices
Environmentalist Ex-‐NBA Star Visits Kenya on Anti-‐Poaching Tour
Guardian
Chinese basketball star confronts Africa's poaching criss -‐ big picture
Gulf Daily News
Tusk force...
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A Lesson in Extinction
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Chinese NBA Giant Yao Ming Fights Elephant Killers
Look to the Stars
Yao Ming Continues Fight Against Poaching In Africa
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A Cryptic Tweet Opens the Door to Yao Ming's Africa
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Picture of the day: Yao Ming with baby elephant orphaned by ivory trade
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Yao Ming's wild, heartbreaking African adventure
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Yao Ming to African Rhino Poachers: Make My Day
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Yao Ming hangs out with his new friend, a rhino
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Slaughtering Of Elephants Is Soaring Because of China's Demand for Ivory
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Yao Ming Goes to Africa to Raise Awareness of Ivory Poaching
PlanetSave
Rhino Crisis Round Up: Yao Ming in Kenya & More
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Photos: Yao Ming on Africa mission to save the elephant and rhino
Sports Illustrated
Yao Ming Since Retirement
Times UK
Tusk Force: A Chinese sports star seeks to shame is compatriots into not buying illegal ivory
Times UK
China star battles to save elephants with a challenge to ivory tradition
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Yao Ming asks Chinese to consider how ivory trade is killing elephants
Treehugger
Photos: Yao Ming Visits Kenya to Stop Elephant and Rhino Poaching
USA Today Photos: Yao Ming and a baby elephant
Vancouver Sun
Former NBA star sees 'evil' of ivory trade
Washington Post
Yao Ming Joins Fight Against Poaching
Washington Post
Yao Ming uses his star image to help fight elephants, rhino poaching
Washington Post
Former NBA star Yao Ming in Kenya to help raise awareness on ivory poaching
Washington Post (Print)
Basketball Giant Fights Poaching
Weekender
Green Piece: Wildlife Poaching on the rise
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Yao Ming visits Kenya to film anti-‐poaching documentary aimed at protecting African elephants, rhinos
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Ex-‐NBA star Yao in Kenya for poaching awareness
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Yao Ming visits Kenya to film anti-‐poaching documentary aimed at protecting African elephants, rhinos
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Yao Ming Documents African Poaching Crisis
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http://news.yahoo.com/ex-nba-star-yao-kenya-poaching-awareness-180239837.html
Ex-NBA star Yao in Kenya for poaching awareness
By By JASON STRAZIUSO | Associated Press – Thu, Aug 16, 2012
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — One of China's most visible stars wants his countrymen to know that their
rising appetite for ivory is resulting in dead elephants across Africa.
The former NBA star Yao Ming on Thursday ended a weeklong trip to Kenya where he mingled among
elephants and walked with indigenous tribes. The trip is part of an effort to let China's increasingly
affluent middle class know that its interest in small ivory trinkets results in the deaths of 6-ton beasts.
"I think we need to increase the public awareness of what ivory is made of," Yao said. "The elephants,
including rhinos, their numbers are decreasing."
Images of Yao in Kenya's Samburu National Reserve included the towering former Houston Rockets
center walking among colorfully dressed Kenyan tribeswomen and riding in a safari vehicle through a
field full of elephants. But one of the starkest images was of Yao bending down to look at the carcass of
an elephant whose face was carved away by poachers seeking the beast's valuable ivory tusks.
Labeling the question too sad to answer, Yao demurred when asked about his feelings on seeing the
dead elephant, a withered, faceless corpse, though he said he saw "evil" in the killing.
Julius K. Kipng'etich, the director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, gave Yao a tour of a KWS room filled
with hundreds of elephant tusks. Kip, as the director is known, said he hopes Ming takes back the
message to China to say that when Chinese people buy ivory, they are helping lead elephants to
extinction.
"It's time to say no, because only elephants should wear ivory," Kip said. "Africa has only 400,000
elephants. That's it. If we kill all of those. It's finished."
The world's elephant population plummeted in the 1980s as poaching became endemic. An
international ban on the ivory trade in 1989 helped save the species, but conservationists have been
warning the last couple years that the poaching of elephants and rhinos is expanding at an alarming
rate — fueled by demand from Asia.
More Chinese are now working in Africa to build roads and pump out oil and minerals, and
conservationists say poaching often increases where those workers are located.
"This new surge of poaching that we experienced intensely last year and in the first part of this year is
rife across Africa," said Iain Douglas-Hamilton, the founder of Save The Elephants, who traveled with
Yao this week. "It is now time for individuals and governments to reduce demand for ivory."
Douglas-Hamilton recounted how he and his wife traveled to China two years ago to see the last of
China's elephants. He said the locals there treated the elephants reverently. "If the Chinese people felt
about African elephants the same way they feel about their elephants," he said, Africa's poaching
problem would end quickly.
Yao worked previously with the conservation group WildAid to help raise awareness about shark fin
soup, a delicacy in China that is leading to the deaths of countless sharks.
Hanging over the news conference was the idea that the Chinese people are responsible for so many
animal deaths, though Yao and the wildlife experts he traveled with underscored that the issue was one
of education: If the affluent Chinese buying animal products only knew the animal suffering their buying
habits were causing, the demand would soon drop.
A feature film aimed at increasing awareness called "The End of the Wild" is being made out of Yao's
trip, and Yao pointed out that China's government has punished many people for participating in the
ivory trade.
Yao called his time in Kenya — his first trip to Africa — "wonderful."
"Living in a wild place is not as comfortable as a hotel room or a home, but it's a totally different
experience," said the towering athlete. "My best moments here was at 6 a.m. with the sunrise and the
wild animals."
8/31/12
13. Yao Ming and a Rhino | Top 25 Most Entertaining Offseason Tweets from NBA Stars | Bleacher Re…
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13. Yao Ming and a Rhino
Photo by Kristian Schmidt for WildAid
It's been a long time since we've seen Yao Ming doing much of anything in the public eye, at least here in
America, which is kind of sad. There's something fun about seeing an extremely tall man do everyday
things, like, well, just existing for one.
That's why when Yao tweeted about his summer encounter, I was more than thrilled.
bleacherreport.com/articles/1317089-top-25-most-entertaining-offseason-tweets-from-nba-stars/…/14
1/2
8/31/12
13. Yao Ming and a Rhino | Top 25 Most Entertaining Offseason Tweets from NBA Stars | Bleacher Re…
Yao Ming
@YaoMing
I came face to face with a large black rhino bit.ly/Tkzds5
27 Aug 12
Reply
Retweet
Favorite
Yao Ming did in fact get to pet a rhinoceros, which is something that almost nobody can say, at least for a
rhino out in the open. Better yet, that leathery-skinned, dangerous-looking animal looks damn cute.
One Reason Why Each Team Won't Win 2013 Title Hint: you can use arrow keys to navigate through this
channel.
bleacherreport.com/articles/1317089-top-25-most-entertaining-offseason-tweets-from-nba-stars/…/14
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Yao Ming Is Filming A Documentary To
Help African Animals
The former Houston Rockets basketball star is in Kenya filming a feature-length documentary
called “The End Of The Wild” about the terrible impact poaching has had on Africa's fauna. He got to
meet some beautiful African animals along the way…
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http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/lifestyle/2012/08/21/yao-ming-shares-his-thoughts-on-kenyavisit/
Yao Ming shares his thoughts on Kenya visit
Former NBA star Yao Ming wound up a 10-day shoot in Kenya last week, where he decried the total
waste by poachers who kill elephants for ivory.
At a packed press conference at a Nairobi hotel, the 7-foot plus Chinese celebrity narrated his
experience in Kenya and his mission with conservation organisation WildAid.
Dressed in a yellow t-shirt, Yao towered over the rest of the panellists at the conference. He described
the murder of elephants as an utter shame, and said he hoped to help put an end to it.
“People took a small piece of the elephant and left the most behind, but the small piece they took away
was not only the ivory, but also the life…,” he said.
An emotional Yao refused to express how he felt when he saw the murdered animals.
Yao is starring in a feature-length documentary that will be aired on Chinese international television,
aimed at discouraging Chinese locals from buying ivory products and rhino horns.
Yao is an ambassador with WildAid, who are driving the campaign, and their joint efforts have been
rewarded before with a similar crusade by the former basketball player against Shark Fin soup.
WildAid Founder Peter Knights said that just preventing poaching will not solve the problem.
“If you don’t reduce the demand (for ivory) you will not succeed, all you will do is you will end up driving
up the price,” he said at the press conference, where he was flanked by the Kenya Wildlife Service
Director Julius Kipn’getich.
“Africa has only 400,000 elephants left. If you kill all the 400,000 elephants, where will you get more
ivory? It’s time to say no, only elephants should wear ivory,” said the KWS boss.
Film crew who were involved with shooting the documentary described Yao as a gentle soul, who
genuinely cared about the project he was involved in.
“He was really moved by what he saw,” said one of the camera assistants.
The crew was called back to Nanyuki after two elephants carcasses were found by rangers, which they
incorporated into the documentary, titled ‘The End of the Wild’.
(Photos by Kristian Schmidt).
8/17/12
Yao Ming in anti-poaching campaign in Africa |China Sports Weekly |chinadaily.com.cn
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Retired Chinese basketball great Yao Ming is on his first tour of Africa to shoot a documentary
titled The End of Wild aimed at putting the lid on poaching.
Coming off a fresh TV commentating experience at
the London Olympics, the WildAid ambassador
embarked on the 10-day trip on Aug 10 and has
come face-to-face with some of the world's most
majestic species – elephants, rhinos, and leopards
-- during a week's shooting in Kenya.
He also launched a blog that captures a variety of
moments – pleasant, peaceful and poignant –
during the journey and shares his feelings.
"Both elephants and rhinos are being hunted at
record levels for their ivory and horns. I was really
shocked to learn that even dead rhinos aren't
safe," he wrote on the eve of his departure, after
visiting the Natural History Museum in London.
Video
Slide
Podcast
Pictures
In his weeklong stay in Kenya, Yao toured the Ol
Pejeta Conservancy, where he watched elephants
and lions from his vehicle, and had close contact
with two of the world's remaining seven Northern
White Rhinos.
"It's tragic to know these impressive animals are
among the last of their kind, just because some
people believe their horn, which is just keratin like
our fingernails, has healing properties," he blogged
on Aug 14.
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Scenes of elephant carcasses in Namunyak and a
heap of tusks at the Kenya Wildlife Service
headquarters in Nairobi have shocked Yao, who
said it was "a sight I will not soon forget."
The 32-year-old former Houston Rockets center
has been working with conservation group WildAid
in protest of illegal wildlife trades for several years.
He has shot a couple of advertisements saying no
to shark fin soup to raise the public's awareness
about shark protection.
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The fact that Yao is from a country that is one of
the world's largest consumers of wildlife parts and
products, such as rhino horns and elephant ivory,
makes his campaign more impressive.
Former Chinese NBA (National Basketball
Current projections suggest that there will be
around 250 million new middle class consumers
over the next 10-15 years.
Weird inventions
Association) player and WildAid Ambassador
Yao Ming caresses a leopard at Kenyan
Wildlife Service in Kenya, Aug 16.
[Photo/Xinhua]
Yao is expected to head to South Africa on Friday
to continue filming the wildlife protection-themed documentary.
www.chinadaily.com.cn/sports/ChinaSportsWeekly/2012-08/17/content_15684387.htm
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Yao Ming in anti-poaching campaign in Africa |China Sports Weekly |chinadaily.com.cn
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Former Chinese NBA (National Basketball Association) player and WildAid Ambassador Yao Ming
stands behind the carcass of an elephant in Namunyak, some 350 kilometers north of the capital,
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He is visiting nature reserves and endangered animals to try to raise people's awareness of wildlife
protection.
CRI's Zhang Shuangfeng reports:
Reporter:
At a press briefing in Kenya's capital Nairobi, Yao said his trip is designed to help convey the message that the
demand for ivory is causing elephants to be slaughtered across Africa:
"What we are doing is to try and increase public awareness about what ivory is made of."
Yao also explained how the Chinese government has made a lot of effort to combat ivory trade and enhance
wildlife protection. He says, more joint efforts are needed to eradicate ivory trade.
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Mutual Trust
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People In The Know
more
2012-09-06 Patent Quality
in China
"Our government did a lot of things trying to stop it. And, for the other side, I think we have increased public
awareness. Also I think this is for both sides' cooperation. In the future, we are looking forward to both of our
people, both Kenya and China will be working together to build this relationship and we can give those
elephants a peaceful land to live."
How can China improve its
patent quality by fostering true
innovation?
Yao drew on examples in the international community such as the U.S and Columbia who collaborated in
fighting against drug trafficking.
Julius Kipng'etich is the Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service:
"Africa has only 400,000 elephants, that's it. So therefore once we kill 400,000 elephants and they are gone, so
2012-09-05 Chinese IPOs
Face Long "Cold Winter"
in US
where are you going to get new ivory? So we don't want to go to that stage; we just want to educate the people
that if you actually wear ivory, you are just leading it to extinction."
What are the major problems
facing Chinese listed
companies in the U.S.?
The world's elephant population plummeted in the 1980s as poaching became endemic.
Yao Ming will next visit South Africa.
His trip on the African continent is to be made into a documentary on wild life protection.
Talk to CRI
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9/7/12
Using Chinese star power to fight ivory poaching in Africa - CSMonitor.com
The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com
Using Chinese star power to fight
ivory poaching in Africa
The biggest demand for ivory is in China, so conservationists are trying to give
Chinese consumers a greater understanding of poaching – with the help of
Chinese celebrities like Yao Ming.
Former NBA star Yao Ming visits an elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya.
The former athlete is urging his fellow Chinese to stop purchasing ivory
products.
(William Davies/Special to The Christian Science Monitor)
By Mike Pflanz, Correspondent
posted August 28, 2012 at 3:29 pm EDT
Nairobi, Kenya
It's a little after sunrise on a chilly Friday morning, and one of the world's tallest
living men, former Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, stands towering over a
10-day-old baby elephant called Kinango.
With a red-and-black checked blanket over his back to ward off the cold,
Kinango playfully head-butts the 7 ft. 6 in. former NBA player's legs, barely
reaching his knees.
"It's hard to think something so small will grow up to be so big," Mr. Yao says,
fully aware of the self-effacing humor in his words.
Sadly, it is once again far from certain that Kinango, whose mother was killed
by poachers and who is now cared for at Nairobi's elephant orphanage, will
grow to full size and live an elephant's full life of many decades.
csmonitor.com/layout/set/print/World/…/Using-Chinese-star-power-to-fight-ivory-poaching-in-Africa
1/5
9/7/12
Rising demand among China's newly wealthy middle class has seen the price of
ivory triple in five years.
Seizures of smuggled African tusks have doubled in less than a year, to more
than 23 tons in 2011, signaling the death of perhaps 4,500 elephants. There are
only an estimated 400,000 left in Africa.
The crisis, the like of which has not been seen since the 1980s, has
conservationists thinking again about how to stop the slaughter.
And they have come up with some clever new approaches, based on the simple
mathematics of economics: Remove the demand for ivory, and you cut the
supply.
The supply still comes from Africa – from Cameroon, the Democratic Republic
of Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The biggest demand,
now, by far, is in China.
That is why Yao, China's best-known sportsman, who carried his country's flag
into the Bird's Nest stadium at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing
Olympics, is in Kenya, filming a documentary about poaching.
Harnessing star power
He is one of a dozen of China's most famous actors, athletes, talk-show hosts,
and musicians lending their names to recent conservation campaigns inside their
homeland.
Many are directed by WildAid, a charity based in San Francisco, which uses
slick television advertisements featuring these superstars and the simple slogan,
"When the buying stops, the killing will too."
Such ads are now common on Chinese television. Anti-poaching posters with
similar slogans fill billboards in Chinese cities, including one hoisted above a
subway station serving Guangzhou city's famous Ivory Street.
"To win this battle against poaching, we need multiple approaches," Yao told
the Monitor during his visit to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which runs
the elephant orphanage.
"What I am trying to do is to raise people's awareness, to show them the reality
of the ivory business. When the killing of elephants happens 10,000 miles away
from you, it's easy to hide yourself from that truth. If we show people, they will
stop buying ivory. Then elephants will stop dying."
Time is short, but with the involvement of global figures like Yao, it may not be
too late, says Elodie Sampere, head of conservation marketing at Ol Pejeta, a
wildlife conservancy in central Kenya.
"I don't think any other celebrity has the kind of pull that he has, both East and
West, and the awareness he'll raise I think cannot be beaten," she says.
2/5
9/7/12
"Now is the time for this kind of thing. It's increasingly difficult to find the
poachers on the ground. They used to go out with bows and arrows and
machetes. Now they have automatic weapons and night-vision goggles."
Traditionally, the fight against poachers has been carried out by rangers
patrolling Africa's savannas and forests, and by sniffer dogs and customs
officials scouring its air- and seaports.
Both have had success, but both are expensive and do little to address the
dictates of economics that rule that, like narcotics, if there's a demand, there will
be a supplier.
"As a movement we're putting a minuscule amount of money into reducing the
demand compared to preventing the poaching," says Peter Knights, WildAid's
executive director.
"My feeling is that we need to shift some of that money onto the demand side,
to educate people who might buy ivory about the deadly business of ivory
poaching."
Changing perspectives in China
There are hugely damaging misconceptions about ivory in Asian markets,
according to a 2007 study for the International Fund for Animal Welfare
(IFAW).
Almost 70 percent of Chinese people surveyed said that they did not know an
elephant had to be killed for its tusks to be taken. In the follow-up question, 80
percent of respondents then said that now they knew, they'd not buy ivory.
"It'll take 10 years, probably less, and then that education is locked in forever
and we don't need to come back to it," Mr. Knights says.
And the approach works. In a similar campaign, also featuring Yao, the focus
was shark fin soup, once a highly prized dish served on special occasions
throughout China.
Like owning ivory, ordering shark fin soup was becoming a way for members
of China's new middle class to show their wealth and their increasing access to
the trappings of elite society.
Not anymore. In July, facing increasing public pressure, China's government
said it would no longer serve the delicacy at any state banquet.
"Now it's something almost shameful for young middle-class people to eat,"
Yao says. "And I think that shark fin is harder to ban than ivory because there is
a huge business chain involved whose living relied on shark fin, from fishing to
shipping to sales, and many people could buy it. That's not the same with
ivory."
Changing public perceptions about shark fin, using the television
3/5
9/7/12
advertisements and billboards, was a crucial step to allow the government to
announce its decision, Knights says.
"The ground had been prepared so that when they banned it, it already had
overwhelming public support, and that makes it much easier."
That, essentially, is what is being tried with elephant ivory.
"This new surge in poaching is right across Africa, and scientists recognize it's
caused by a rise in the demand for ivory, which is at an all-time high," said Iain
Douglas-Hamilton, founder of Save the Elephants, which worked with Yao
during his Kenya visit.
"The price has also never been so high. It is now time for individuals, NGOs
[nongovernmental organizations], and governments to reduce that demand, and
Chinese leadership is a vital factor."
Getting the message out in Africa ...
Many other organizations are working in innovative new ways to achieve the
same end with ivory poaching.
Among the new tactics are arrangements with Kenya's embassy in Beijing to
issue every Chinese citizen who is given a Kenya visa a special passport cover
that carries messages about the illegality of smuggling ivory.
When China Mobile cellphone subscribers roam on Kenya's Safaricom and
Airtel networks, the first text message they receive welcomes them to Kenya –
and warns that poaching is against the law.
In hotels popular with Chinese workers and tourists in Nairobi, conservationists
have won permission from the management to put brochures in rooms carrying
messages about penalties for smuggling ivory.
"There is a very big push to make sure that these messages are reaching
Chinese visitors both before they get here, and then when they arrive too," says
James Isiche, director in Kenya of IFAW.
... And in China
In China, IFAW has won millions of dollars of pro bono advertising space on
billboards and online to push its message. WildAid has found the same
willingness for Chinese television firms to offer free ad spots.
Baidu, the world's largest Chinese-language search and photo upload site, now
activates anti-poaching pop-ups every time any photograph is added or
downloaded, something that happens 10 million times a day.
Earlier this year it banned 13 chat forums where users were discussing buying
and selling endangered animal products, including ivory, rhino horn, and tiger
4/5
9/7/12
bone. At the same time, 34,000 archived forum posts were deleted.
Another Chinese Amazon-like site, Taobao, scrapped sales of ivory products
and has since worked with conservation volunteers to monitor for new words
users were coming up with to describe ivory, and filter them out, too.
"There are 524 million Chinese people online," says Grace Gabriel, Asia
regional director for IFAW. "Removing these platforms is very important."
'Shifting the demand curve'
Increasingly smugglers were seen using traditional national postal systems and
international courier companies to move ivory, especially within Asia.
As soon as that trend was spotted, IFAW began educational seminars with
workers to explain how to look out for ivory products and how to report them –
and to make clear that there were penalties for collusion with the smugglers.
But those penalties are still neither strong enough nor properly enforced, Ms.
Gabriel argues. "The penalties need to be increased everywhere."
"The current slap on the wrist, a fine or confiscating ivory, is not enough," she
says. "The deterrent has to be stronger; the laws have to be tightened.
"We need truly to make this illegal and bloody business high risk, and the return
on capital too low to be profitable."
It's the language of economics again.
Back at Nairobi's elephant orphanage, Knights, the WildAid director, echoes
Gabriel.
"All that we need to do is to shift the demand curve so that nobody wants to
buy ivory. We decrease the profitability by increasing the costs at the supply
end, and reduce the demand at the market end," he says.
"If the buying stops, the killing will, too," he says, simply. "It's necessary, now,
and most important, it's doable."
© The Christian Science Monitor. All Rights Reserved. Terms under
which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy.
5/5
cjr.org
http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/yao_ming_african_elephant_poac.php
The Observatory
The Observatory — September 6, 2012 04:45 PM
Yao Ming and the elephant massacre
Recent coverage of the African poaching crisis strikes at supply and demand
By
After weeks of the media mostly failing to realize why basketball star Yao Ming’s trip to Kenya was fairly
important endangered species news, the terrifying surge in elephant poaching in Africa is finally getting
the treatment it deserves.
On Tuesday, The New York Times published a 3,100-word, front-page article by Jeffrey Gettleman that
spotlighted the startling involvement of African militiamen and soldiers in the slaughter of thousands of
elephants of the last few years. Gettleman likened the ivory they harvest to blood diamonds:
Some of Africa’s most notorious armed groups, including the Lord’s Resistance
Army, the Shabab and Darfur’s janjaweed, are hunting down elephants and using the
tusks to buy weapons and sustain their mayhem. Organized crime syndicates are
linking up with them to move the ivory around the world, exploiting turbulent states,
porous borders and corrupt officials from sub-Saharan Africa to China, law
enforcement officials say.
But it is not just outlaws cashing in. Members of some of the African armies that the
American government trains and supports with millions of taxpayer dollars — like the
Ugandan military, the Congolese Army and newly independent South Sudan’s
military — have been implicated in poaching elephants and dealing in ivory.
Some of the background in Gettleman’s article has been reported before. At the end of December,
many US news outlets carried an Associated Press article reporting that, judging by large seizures of
elephant tusks that year, 2011 was “the worst on record since ivory sales were banned in 1989, with
recent estimates suggesting as many as 3,000 elephants were killed by poachers…”
And three months before that, in a 1,400-word article for The Wall Street Journal (published in the
Asian edition of the paper, but online only in the States), Alexandra Wexler explained that the perhaps
unprecedented massacre is due mostly to demand in Asia. In particular, China’s demand for luxury
goods has soared with rising incomes, and the price of ivory has skyrocketed as a result.
But Gettleman’s exposé, replete with gripping scenes of gunfights in the bush, was the first to unmask
the militarization of poaching (netting him an interview on NPR’s Morning Edition). The day after the his
article ran in the Times, CNN—which has done a relatively good job of following the largely uncovered
story—ran a long web piece about the ivory trade’s “severe toll on Africa’s elephants,” but when it came
to culprits, the segment didn’t get much deeper than familiar statements about “ineffective law
enforcement, official corruption, porous borders and a rapidly expanding population seeking
sustenance…”
Gettleman, by comparison, talked to Sudanese ivory dealers, escaped kidnapping victims of the Lord’s
Resistance Army (a brutal militia in central Africa led by the infamous Joseph Kony), park rangers,
former soldiers, Somali elders, government officials, conservation groups, and others in order to
implicate the specific rebel and military groups involved in the mass killing.
Before Gettlemen’s article, the best that the media could muster in recent weeks was star-struck
coverage of Yao Ming’s trip to Kenya in August to document the elephant and rhino-poaching crisis
there. There was more to the story than Ming’s “Journey to Africa” blog and photos of him standing over
butchered elephant carcasses and playing with a baby elephant, but most in the media missed it.
The exception was The Christian Science Monitor, whose East Africa correspondent, Mike Pflanz,
actually spent some time with Ming and filed an article from Nairobi explaining the point of his work.
The former Houston Rockets center is a spokesman and ambassador for the anti-smuggling group,
WildAid, and, according to Pflanz:
The crisis, the like of which has not been seen since the 1980s, has conservationists
thinking again about how to stop the slaughter.
And they have come up with some clever new approaches, based on the simple
mathematics of economics: Remove the demand for ivory, and you cut the supply…
That is why Yao, China’s best-known sportsman, who carried his country’s flag into the
Bird’s Nest stadium at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is in
Kenya, filming a documentary about poaching.
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http://dailykenya.blogspot.com/2012/08/yao-ming-in-kenya-as-wildaidambassador.html
Yao Ming in Kenya as WildAid Ambassador
Former NBA basketball player Yao Ming is in Kenya
in his role as WildAid Ambassador, to bring attention
to poachers threatening rhinos and elephants. Yao is
also expected to shoot an anti-poaching
documentary in the country.
On Saturday, the former Houston Rockets star
visited the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Nanyuki. The
conservancy serves as a sanctuary for four of the
world’s remaining seven northern white rhinos, and in
spite of increased security in the conservancy, 5 of
its 88 rhinos have been poached in the past one
year.
The documentary titled “The End of the Wild” is expected to show the beauty and economic importance
of wildlife, and the extent of the poaching crisis.
About WildAid
WorldAid’s mission is to end the illegal wildlife trade
in our lifetimes by reducing demand through public
awareness campaigns and providing comprehensive
marine protection. The illegal trade is estimated to be
worthy over $10 billion per year and has drastically
reduced many wildlife populations around the world.
Just like the drug trade, law and enforcement efforts
have not been able to resolve the problem.
Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent
protecting animals in the wild, yet virtually nothing is
spent on stemming the demand for wildlife parts and
products. WildAid is the only organization focused on
reducing the demand for these products, with the
strong and simple message: when the buying stops,
the killing can too.
Photos courtesy of Yao Ming’s blog Yao's Journey to Africa
ecorazzi.com
http://www.ecorazzi.com/2012/08/14/yao-ming-travels-to-africa-to-help-fight-poaching/
Yao Ming Travels to Africa to Help Fight Poaching
Yao Ming is serious about his commitment to wildlife and conservation efforts. He joined in the fight
against shark fin soup and visited a sanctuary for rescued bile farm bears among other efforts for
animals. Now, he has taken a journey to Africa to bring attention to the poachers threatening rhinos and
elephants in the region.
The former NBA star’s blog, “Yao’s Journey to Africa,” features photos and stories of his trip to Kenya
and the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, a wildlife sanctuary. Ming calls the Conservancy a “key player in
protecting one of the world’s most endangered species,” as it is East Africa’s largest black rhino
sanctuary. Ming’s trip is part of his ongoing conservation work with WildAid and Virgin, and part of a
documentary he says is intended for a Chinese and international audience.
He writes that Ol Pejeta has teamed up with the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to protect the
endangered animals from poachers through “rhino patrols, armed teams, tracker dogs, aircrafts, cattle
herders and local communities, and even an electrified fence that surrounds the entire perimeter of this
90,000 acre sanctuary.”
Ming seems to have been impressed with the Conservancy’s patrollers, writing “Rhino patrolling is no
joke- it involves walking for hours on end, several times a day, until every last rhino is spotted at least
once every three days. The rhino patrollers know each and every rhino by name and sight, and if they
can’t find one during their daily patrol, then they use a plane to patrol the entire conservancy until all
rhinos are accounted for!”
Despite these efforts, Ol Pejeta has lost 5 of their 88 rhinos to poachers in the last year, which Ming
reports is their biggest lost in 20 years. He writes, “As you can imagine, protecting rhinos from illegal
poaching is not only time intensive, but also expensive! Richard Vigne, the CEO of the Ol Pejeta
Conservancy, believes that the public and local communities should play an important part in protecting
rhinos and wildlife in general. That’s where tourists, like me, can help out in a big way.”
Ming encouraged others to visit the Conservancy or even join in the patrols. “Ol Pejeta opens its doors
to visitors who come for safaris or to volunteer with rhino patrolling. The revenue generated by tourists
and volunteers is what fuels Ol Pejeta’s conservation efforts, and in essence, what keeps black rhinos
safe.”
Did he hang out with any of the protected rhinos during his stay? Ming writes…”stay tuned!”
Get Ecorazzi in your inbox, once a week:
About Jennifer Mishler
Jennifer is an animal advocate and activist. She is a volunteer coordinator with The Girls Gone Green,
a nonprofit organization advocating for animals rights, veganism, and environmentalism. She is also an
Onshore Volunteer with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and a volunteer with CJ Acres Animal
Rescue Farm, a nonprofit that rescues and rehabilitates farm animals. Along with writing for Ecorazzi,
she writes about veganism and animal rights on her blog, A Dog's Eye View. She lives in Jacksonville,
FL with her husband and their three animal friends. Follow Jennifer on Twitter: @jennygonevegan
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Photo: Kristian Schmidt for WildAid (http://yaomingblog.com/)
Imagine walking through scrubland in Northern Kenya and finding yourself face to face with the carcass
of a poached elephant. This is exactly what recently happened to Chinese superstar and retired NBA
player Yao Ming. Ming is traveling with an international conservation group called WildAid in order to
learn more about the poaching of elephants for their tusks and rhinos for their horns. China is the main
destination for illegal ivory, and Ming hopes his campaign will alert consumers to the issue and help to
decrease demand for products made from ivory.
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/28/charlienaysmith-whale-vomit_n_1837241.html) READ MORE »
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Photobombed
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/28/extremephotobombing-gallery_n_1836787.html) Elephants are truly majestic mammals. One elephant can weigh anywhere from 5,000 to 14,000
pounds. To maintain their huge bulk, when full-grown these animals can eat 300 pounds of food a day!
Aside from eating grass, they also eat fruit, bark and roots, which they dig for with their tusks.
Among the most fascinating characteristics of elephants are their ears. It is crucial for elephants to be
able to keep their body temperature down in the hot African sun. Fortunately, elephant ears provide the
perfect cooling system. An elephant’s ears are filled with blood vessels fairly close to the surface of the
skin. When the blood passes through, it may lose up to 48 °F of heat to the air! That’s a pretty efficient
cooling system!
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Former NBA player and Chinese superstar Yao Ming has a new gig as a goodwill ambassador for
the nonprofit organization WildAid, who recently brought him to Kenya to make all of our photo
dreams come true "document the poaching crisis facing rhinos and elephants, as a result of Asian
demand for rhino horn and ivory." One unintended consequence of his visit was to make
everything in the country appear comically small. ForeignPolicy RT @joshrogin
Dems change platform to include
Jerusalem language after Obama
intervened goo.gl/ivBSF #DNC2012
ForeignPolicy Pakistan's terrible, horrible,
no-good, very bad idea to develop
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Join the conversation
Above, he towers over a baby elephant named Kinango, whose mother was killed by ivory
poachers. "He pushes against me partly for contact, but also testing his strength," Yao writes on
his blog.
But Yao isn't just surrounded by tiny elephants. He's also accompanied by a number of diminuitive
elderly men.
You can read more about Yao's adventures in Africa on his blog.
Kristian Schmidt for WildAid
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9/7/12
Environmentalist Ex-NBA Star Visits Kenya on Anti-Poaching Tour · Global Voices
The world is talking, are you listening?
Global Voices is an international community of bloggers who report on blogs and citizen media from around the
world.
Environmentalist ExNBA Star Visits Kenya on AntiPoaching Tour
[http://globalvoicesonline.org/2012/08/21/environmentalistexnbastarvisitskenyaonantipoachingtour/]
Posted 21 August 2012 15:51 GMT
Written byRichard Wanjohi
Countries China, Kenya
Topics
Environment, Sport
Languages English
Since retiring from the National Basketball Association a year ago, Chinese star Yao Ming
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yao_Ming] has become a committed environmentalist. He is currently working with WildAid
[http://wildaid.org/] to “promote wildlife conservation and to reduce the demand for products from endangered or
threatened species”. China is a significant market for products such as ivory and thus having Yao Ming lead the
cause was a perfect fit for WildAid; well over half [http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/24/ivoryseizureschina
domestictrade] of illegal ivory ends up in China.
From 11 August, 2012, Ming arrived for his first African tour and was hosted in Kenya’s capital Nairobi – one of the
few cities in the world with a national park. The Nairobi National Park plays host to the Kenya Wildlife Services’
headquarters, which is the custodian of the country's national parks and most public conservation areas.
globalvoicesonline.org/2012/08/21/environmentalist-ex-nba-star-visits-kenya-on-anti-poaching-tour/
1/5
9/7/12
Yao Ming comes face to face with a poached elephant in Northern
Kenya. Image by Kristian Schmidt from WildAid Facebook page.
In response to the visit, DailyKenya blog [http://dailykenya.blogspot.com/2012/08/yaominginkenyaaswildaid
ambassador.html] says:
Former NBA basketball player Yao Ming is in Kenya in his role as WildAid Ambassador, to bring attention
to poachers threatening rhinos and elephants. Yao is also expected to shoot an anti-poaching
documentary in the country. On Saturday, the former Houston Rockets star visited the Ol Pejeta
conservancy in Nanyuki. The conservancy serves as a sanctuary for four of the world’s remaining
seven Northern white rhinos and in spite of increased security in the conservancy, 5 of its 88 rhinos
have been poached in the past one year. The documentary titled “The End of the Wild” is expected to
show the beauty and economic importance of wildlife and the extent of the poaching crisis
On his African travel blog, YaoMingBlog [http://yaomingblog.com/] , Yao Ming himself has captured each and every step
of this African tour along with great photos to tell the story further:
2/5
9/7/12
Then I get to meet Najin and Suni, two of the world’s remaining seven Northern White Rhinos –
representing one of the most endangered species on the planet. The Northern White Rhino once
roamed through Congo, Uganda and Sudan but now only seven remain, four of which are at Ol Pejeta.
The four Northern Whites (were) translocated to Ol Pejeta in December of 2009 from a zoo in the
Czech Republic in a last attempt to save the species. They have been totally decimated in the wild, due
to poaching fuelled by demand for rhino horn for traditional medicinal uses in Asia. The transfer was
aimed at providing the rhinos with the most favourable breeding conditions in an attempt to pull the
species back from the verge of extinction. It was thought that the climatic, dietary and security
conditions that the rhinos will enjoy at Ol Pejeta will provide them with higher chances of starting a
population in what is seen as the very last lifeline for the species
Nanyuki and the North blog [http://nanyukiandthenorth.wordpress.com/2012/08/13/strayobservations2/] captures Yao Ming’s
visit from a local’s perspective in a brief post:
1. China’s Growing Presence in Africa - Ol Pejeta, the conservancy very close to Nanyuki, had a big
(see what I did there? Not yet? You will) visitor this past weekend. In fact, I was rather bummed I
didn’t hear about this until after the fact. Apparently, Ol Pejeta has been active in developing an antipoaching initiative. Pretty cool, right? Well, so cool apparently, that in order to support their initiative,
they were visited by none other than YAO MING. Out of control. Yao was 10 miles from my home this
past weekend in Rift Valley, Kenya.
3/5
8/20/12
Chinese basketball star confronts Africa's poaching crisis - big picture | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Chinese basketball star confronts
Africa's poaching crisis - big picture
Yao Ming inspects the corpse of an elephant in Namunyak,
northern Kenya, as part of his conservation mission to document
the poaching crisis in Africa
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 15 August 2012 09.18 EDT
The former NBA player has travelled to Africa for the first time as global ambassador
for WildAid. His conservation mission involves coming face-to-face with elephants and
rhinos and documenting the poaching crisis that is a result of growing Asian demand
for rhino horn and ivory products
Photographer: Kristian Schmidt/WildAid
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www.guardian.co.uk/environment/picture/2012/aug/15/yao-ming-africa-poaching-crisis-big-picture
1/2
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Posted on » Wednesday, August 22, 2012
If you believe in reincarnation, avoid being reborn as an elephant in Kenya. your life will be short. And
your death brutish. Only a few years ago conservationists hoped that they might be beginning to
conquer the curse of ivory poaching. They were wrong. Since 2007 the illegal ivory trade has ballooned.
Traffic, a body that monitors trade in wildlife, branded last year an annus horribilis for African elephants.
It conservatively estimates the weight of illegal ivory seized in 2011 at more than 24 tonnes, a figure
that it reckons represents at least 2,500 elephants. That haul was not only more than twice the amount
seized the previous year, it was also more than had been seized at any time since it began keeping
count 23 years ago.
The illegal ivory's journey follows a well-trodden trade route. Concealed in a container in a Kenyan or
Tanzanian port, it is shipped to Asia, where documentation accompanying an onward shipment is
changed to make it appear as a local re-export thereby camouflaging its origin in East Africa, and ends
up in China or Thailand. But mostly China. Even when the ivory is caught, the criminal masterminds
behind the trade rarely are. Most poachers live to poach another day. Cites, the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species, is so gloomy that in a report last month it warned that the
number of elephants being killed each year "is likely to run into the tens of thousands", with China still
"the paramount destination for large-scale ivory consignments".
Since little headway is being made in choking off the supply of ivory, conservationists are changing
tack by trying to suffocate demand. Their latest recruit is Yao Ming, a 7ft 6in former NBA basketball
player who used to earn $50 million (BD18.85m) a year as the star of the Houston Rockets. As China's
answer to Michael Jordan, he is showing what the power of celebrity and example can achieve.
Through the US-based charity WildAid, Yao has already persuaded officials in Beijing to stop serving
shark-fin soup at official banquets. Now, on a visit to Kenya where he has seen the blackened, rotting
elephant carcasses that are the by-product of the ivory trade, he hopes to cajole his countrymen into
turning their backs on ivory too. "We're trying to deliver the message back to where I live," he said, "that
the only way to stop poaching is to stop the buying." But it is not only elephants that are vanishing to
sate Chinese appetites. Rhinos, too, are poached to meet Chinese - and, increasingly, Vietnamese demand for rhino horn. Powdered horn is prized as a hangover remedy. Also as a mythic cancer cure
for the elderly: given China's ageing population, this makes conservationists queasy.
No one involved in saving Africa's majestic wildlife underestimates the challenge. Chinese medicine
has used rhino horn for 4,000 years and shows little inclination to switch to pharmaceutical alternatives,
regardless of a Cites ban on the trade in rhino horn in place for the past quarter of a century. Asia's
swelling wealth - when coupled with the precarious economic prospects in much of Africa that made
poaching appealing - is doing little to tip the balance back in wildlife's favour.
Joining the senior league of world powers carries world responsibilities. For too long China, showing
little respect for international trade bans, has put a high price on ivory and rhino horn. It is beyond time
that it put an even higher price on safeguarding the world's vanishing species instead.
Herbert Grimes
9/7/12
Yao Ming: A Lesson in Extinction
September 7, 2012
A Lesson in Extinction
Posted: 08/10/2012 9:12 am
For several years now, I've been working with WildAid to promote wildlife conservation and to reduce the demand for products
derived from endangered or threatened species. It's encouraging to see how many people have been supportive of the
campaign to reduce pressure on the world's sharks by saying "no" to shark fin soup. Since becoming involved in this campaign
and learning more about the threats to wildlife, I wanted to go and see what's happening to some of these animals myself and
so I'm heading to Africa for the first time to learn about elephants and rhinos, two species in peril as a result of demand for ivory
and rhino horn.
After finishing up the great experience of commentating on Olympic basketball for CCTV, my journey begins at London's worldrenowned Natural History Museum, a beautiful building dating back to 1873, with one of the world's best collections of fossils
and animal specimens -- approximately 70 million items in total. I wanted to learn more about our planet's wildlife, both past and
present, and better understand the root and the implications of extinction.
My guide is Dr. Samuel Turvey of the Zoological Society of London, who spent time studying in China. We started in the
Dinosaur Hall -- beautiful and impressive. It would have been amazing to see one of these animals alive. Next to these guys, I'm
feeling pretty small. Their extinction is thought to have been caused by an asteroid hitting the earth, causing a massive dust
cloud -- unavoidable and natural.
We saw the skeletons and exhibits of many animals that are now extinct. I learned that, in the grand scheme of things, extinction
can be a natural process, a part of animals and plants adapting and changing -- all part of evolution. But every so often there is a
mass extinction event like the asteroid strike, which scientists believe wiped out the dinosaurs.
Many scientists believe we are now in the middle of the sixth great mass extinction, but for the first time, it's being caused by an
animal -- human beings.
Dr. Samuel Turvey discusses extinction with Yao
Ming and WildAid Executive Director Peter Knights
at the Natural History Museum in London
Courtesy of WildAid
Now for many species facing extinction or near
extinction, the threat is being caused by human
activity -- deforestation or the conversion of habitat to
agricultural land, introducing foreign species that
wipe out local species, and from over hunting.
Scientists estimate the current rate of extinction is
perhaps 1,000 times greater than what would be
considered natural. And the scale and pace of the
changes is so extreme that animals don't have time
to adapt and evolve.
Seeing all these animals made me realize the
amazing diversity of this incredible planet we inhabit
and how shortsighted we are if we let more creatures disappear on our watch and by our hand.
The tour continued with woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths and the Giant Moa bird. From what we know, it seems many
large animals like this lived all over the world. Today, Dr. Turvey tells me that the only places you can really see animals of this
stature and witness great wildlife diversity are in Africa and a few isolated parts of Asia. I learned that elephants and rhinos once
thrived in China, but today we only have a few elephants and rhinos are long gone.
Both elephants and rhinos are being hunted at record levels for their ivory and horns. I was really shocked to learn that even
dead rhinos aren't safe. Across Europe, organized criminals have been stealing rhino horns from museums to supply the Asian
market for rhino horns. Now, museums are replacing the horns on exhibit with fake ones. Sam told me, ironically, many of these
museum horns may have been treated with preservatives so anyone trying to use these stolen horns may actually be poisoning
themselves.
It's sad that even our museums aren't safe from the demand. If people are resorting to stealing rhino horns from museums to
meet the demand, this doesn't bode well for rhinos in the wild.
www.huffingtonpost.com/yao-ming/wildaid-endangered-species_b_1763823.html?view=print&comm_r…
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9/7/12
Yao Ming: A Lesson in Extinction
We'll find out more in Africa. You can follow my journey at http://yaomingblog.com
Dr. Samuel Turvey and Yao Ming in the Central Hall
of the Natural History Museum in London
Courtesy of WildAid
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Chinese NBA Giant Yao Ming Fights Elephant Killers [SLIDESHOW] - IBTimes UK
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August 16, 2012 3:22 PM GMT
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Chinese NBA Hero Yao Ming Fights Elephant Killers
One of the world's tallest men has travelled to Africa to campaign against
ivory smuggling, an illegal trade hugely that has been encouraged by
Chinese consumers.
Yao Ming, the 7ft 6in former basketball player, is on a charity trip to tackle the
unlawful killing of elephants, which feeds China's hunger for ivory.
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China is experiencing a continuous soar in demand for ivory, which is seen
Like
as a status symbol throughout the country. Chinese consumers now account
for around 54% of the world's ivory consignments.
Driven by the demand for consumer goods made from ivory, poaching levels
in Africa are currently at a 10-year high, according to the Convention of
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This is having a particularly severe effect on the local elephant population. In
fact the African elephant is among its continent's most endangered animals.
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"We are trying to deliver the message back to where I live that the only way
to stop poaching is to stop buying," Yao told the Times.
Like
Posing in front of elephants' carcasses, the former Houston Rockets player
added: "It is our responsibility to let people know where those animal
products are from.
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"Because it [Africa] is 10,000 miles away people think there is nothing they
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can do about it, but we are trying to bring the reality to them," said Yao.
Yao's visit to Kenya's Samburu National Reserve provoked widespread
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International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Yao: the poacher eater
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Chinese NBA Giant Yao Ming Fights Elephant Killers [SLIDESHOW] - IBTimes UK
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"If I saw him in the bush I would run the other way. There are legends about
people who eat people; I would think he is one of them," said Litus Lekalaile,
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a Samburu warrior.
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"We hope Yao is going to be a bridge between us," said wildlife guide
Bernard Lesirin.
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Yao, who retired form basketball in 2011 following several injuries, is
considered a sporting legend in China.
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looktothestars.org http://www.looktothestars.org/news/8823-yao-ming-continues-fight-against-poachingin-africa
Yao Ming Continues Fight Against Poaching In Africa
NBA legend Yao Ming has continued blogging from Africa this week, as he travels with WildAid to
document the poaching crisis currently decimating the populations of some of the world’s most
majestic species.
Part of his tour has seen him visit a Samburu village to witness the work of conservation agencies.
“Elephant Watch and Save the Elephants have been working with this community for decades and their
appreciation is clear,” he blogged this week. "Support for education and other community projects
comes directly from the tourism conservation fees.
“Peter Knights of WildAid told me on his last trip he met a a fully-qualified Samburu doctor, whose
training had been paid for by those fees. He asked the doctor what a poached elephant meant to him
personally and the response was, ‘one poached elephants is 200 Samburu children without an
education.’
“In China, we rightly value education very highly. For most parents, our greatest aspiration is the best
possible education for our children. I’m sure if people realized that buying illegal ivory undermined
education in Africa, they wouldn’t want to buy it anymore.
“’Please go back and fight for the elephants for the Samburu people,’ says Bernard Lesirin, a young
warrior and top guide at Elephant Watch.
“Finally, we head out to record a Public Service Announcement with the elephants. They obligingly
march right past me in the vehicle as if they know we need their help to get the message out to please
not buy their ivory.”
To read Yao Ming’s blog and see photos from his trip, click here.
A Cryptic Tweet Opens the Door to Yao Ming’s Africa [PICS]
August 27, 2012 by Sam Laird 1
Yao Ming Plays With a Cute Baby Elephant
Yao Ming Strolls With Samburu Community Members at Sunset
“I came face to face with a large black rhino,” reads the message broadcast to the world via retired NBA star Yao
Ming’s Twitter account Monday afternoon. A rugged, succinct missive more befitting Ernest Hemingway or Bear
Grylls than a 7-foot-6 Chinese basketball legend.
But a link in the tweet indeed leads to a close-up shot of a black rhino’s face. It’s part of a post written from Africa
for yaomingblog.com. Closer inspection reveals the rhino close-up is just one of many epic shots from Yao’s
apparent trip to the continent this month.
But what is the global icon and future Hall of Famer doing in Africa? And what is the meaning behind his cryptic
tweet?
A (minimal) amount of digging finds the blog post is just one of many from a trip Yao embarked on to help bring
attention to the effects that demand for rhino horn and ivory products in Asia has on the animals in Africa. He’s there
on behalf of WildAid, an NGO that works to curb wildlife smuggling worldwide. Turns out, Yao has been an
ambassador for WildAid since 2006, and previously served as the face of its “Say No to Shark Fin Soup” campaign
in China.
This is Yao‘s first visit to Africa — he’s touring Kenya and South Africa, more specifically — and WildAid
spokesperson Eric Desatnik tells Mashable social media is key making the trip have an impact on the global trade
for elephant and rhino parts.
“Social media is critical to the campaign’s success,” Desatnik wrote in an email. “Yao is blogging in China and
internationally and using his social media channels to bring awareness to this issue and to inspire and encourage
conservation. So far, Yao’s trip has received social media ‘shout-outs’ from fellow WildAid Ambassadors, Leonardo
Dicaprio, Edward Norton, and Maggie Q.”
Click through the gallery above for some of the best shots Yao has shared from Africa, and check out his blog for
news.mongabay.com
http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0827-yao-ming-elephant-pod.html#
Picture of the day: Yao Ming with baby elephant
orphaned by ivory trade
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
August 27, 2012
Mongabay.com features a Picture of the Day several days a week
Yao Ming walks with Kinango, an infant elephant whose mother was killed by poachers at the David
Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya. Photo by: Kristian Schmidt/WildAid.
Former NBA Basketball player and Olympian, Yao Ming is taking his first trip through Africa in order to
see the on-the-ground impacts of the black-market ivory and rhino trades in East Asia. Ming, who
stands 7-and-a-half feet (2.3 meters), has become not only well-known for his athletic prowess, but also
his devotion to endangered wildlife.
After highlighting the shark finning trade, Yao Ming is now working with Wild Aid to shine a light on the
bloody nature of the ivory and rhino horn trades, which has decimated the animals' populations across
Africa. Elephant poaching is at its highest level since 1989, while last year saw 448 rhinos killed for
their horn in South Africa alone.
"While in Namunyak, Northern Kenya, I come across a sight I will not soon forget…" Ming writes on his
blog of encountering the carcass of an elephant slaughtered for its tusks. "Since 2008, elephant
poaching has been on the rise, according to Save the Elephants and the Kenya Wildlife Service. I'm
told the main destination for illegal ivory is China."
CITATION:
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com (August 27, 2012). Picture of the day: Yao Ming with baby
elephant orphaned by ivory trade.http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0827yao-ming-elephant-pod.html
Tags:
kenya africa poaching ivory trade elephants mammals animals picture of the day Pictures Photos east
africa rhinos activism activists environmental heroes jeremy hance green elephant wildlife trade wildlife
trafficking china China's Environmental Problems traditional chinese medicine environment
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As part of a massive campaign by the conservation charity WildAid, former NBA star Yao
Ming has been journeying throughout Africa for nearly a month, documenting the crisis
facing wild elephant and rhino populations. TODAY'S MOST POPULAR
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WildAid, which is producing a documentary on the visit called "The end of the Wild,"
estimates the illegal wildlife trade to be worth more than $10 billion per year. While
hundreds of millions are spent on conservation of threatened animals, the organization
says virtually nothing is being done to stem demand for the animal products. "When the
buying stops, the killing can too," the organization states.
In an interview with the Washington Post, the 31yearold Ming echoed his group's
mission statement. "The most effective thing you can do to counter this kind of
situation is raise people’s awareness. Eliminate the demand for rhino horn and ivory
right at the source. That’s what I want to do. It might take some time, sure, but I’m
really hoping that gradually we cam start to see an improvement."
To learn more, visit Yao Ming's daily blog from the field here. A video detailing more
about the poaching trade in Africa is below. Albion
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Yao Ming to African rhino poachers: Make my day
I’m willing to bet that this is the only photo of Yao
Ming with armed rhinoceros protector militia that
you’ll see today. Likewise the photo following the
jump, showing him in close proximity with a lion in the
wild. Also: warthogs! Which one hardly ever sees in
Houston.
The 7-foot-6 Yao, who retired from basketball due to
foot and ankle injuries following a nine-year NBA
career with the Rockets, is in Africa this week on a
conservation mission for WildAid, for which he has
been a global ambassador for the past several
years. Yao is learning about the dangers facing
endangered elephants and rhinoceroses, which are
being hunted in Africa to feed the demand in Asian nations for medicines derived from ivory and
rhino horn. Yao’s simple message to his countrymen: Hey, stop it.
On Tuesday Yao was spotted at the British Natural History Museum in London, noted the Los Angeles
Times, which treated the sighting as if they’d just seen a rare giant fossil. But actually it was the first leg
of his trip for WildAid. Yao, from his web site:
“We saw the skeletons and exhibits of many animals that are now extinct. I learned that, in the grand
scheme of things, extinction can be a natural process, a part of animals and plants adapting and
changing – all part of evolution. But every so often there is a mass extinction event like the asteroid
strike, which scientists believe wiped out the dinosaurs.
“Many scientists believe we are now in the middle of the sixth great mass extinction, but for the first
time, it’s being caused by an animal – human beings.
“Both elephants and rhinos are being hunted at record levels for their ivory and horns. I was really
shocked to learn that even dead rhinos aren’t safe. Across Europe, organized criminals have been
stealing rhino horns from museums to supply the Asian market for rhino horns. Now, museums are
replacing the horns on exhibit with fake ones. Sam told me, ironically, many of these museum horns
may have been treated with preservatives so anyone trying to use these stolen horns may actually
be poisoning themselves.”
In Africa, Yao went on a rhino
patrol at the Ol Pejeta Wildlife
Conservancy in Kenya.
“Rhino patrolling is no joke — it
involves walking for hours on
end, several times a day, until
every last rhino is spotted at
least once every three days. The
rhino patrollers know each and
every rhino by name and sight,
and if they can’t find one during
their daily patrol, then they use a
plane to patrol the entire
conservancy until all rhinos are
accounted for!”
I’d love to see the look on the
faces of the poachers when they
see a 7-foot-6 Chinese guy coming at them with armed backup.
Photos courtesy
WildAid.org.
Back to Homepage
newsday.com http://www.newsday.com/sports/basketball/double-dribble-1.3447479/yao-ming-hangs-outwith-his-new-friend-a-rhino-1.3903637
Yao Ming hangs out with his new friend, a rhino
Tuesday August 14, 2012 10:07 AM By Bobby Bonett
An NBA blog from Newsday's Bobby Bonett
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Tuesday August 14, 2012 10:07 AM By Bobby Bonett
Yao Ming, who has transitioned from
star Rockets center to "Wild Aid
Ambassador," was at the Ol-Pejetta
Conservancy in Nanyuki, Kenya on
Saturday.
Not many of us have the opportunity to
visit the Ol-Pejetta Conservancy.
Fewer get to feed a Northern White
Rhino while we're there. Of course,
even fewer of us are Yao Ming.
According to Kenya's Lifestyle
Magazine, Yao is in Kenya...
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Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images
9/6/12
Slaughtering Of Elephants Is Soaring Because Of China's Demand For Ivory : The Two-Way : NPR
The Two-Way - NPR's News Blog
Slaughtering Of Elephants Is Soaring Because Of China's
Demand For Ivory
Categories: Foreign News, Crime
09:00 am
September 5, 2012
by MARK MEMMOTT
Tony Karumba /AFP/Getty Images
Elephants in Kenya's Tsavo-east National Park earlier this year.
"For the first time in history," hundreds of millions of people in China are now
wealthy enough to buy jewelry, combs and trinkets made of ivory and that's led to a
huge spike in the illegal slaughtering of elephants in Africa, The New York Times'
Jeffrey Gettleman said earlier today on Morning Edition.
With ivory fetching about $1,000 a pound there are armies and militias from all
sides of Africa's several civil wars killing the animals and harvesting their tusks,
Gettleman said, to get money that will buy more guns. In a Times report this week,
he wrote about how "the Ugandan military, one of the Pentagon's closest partners
in Africa" is likely responsible for some of the poaching. So too are "some of Africa's
most notorious armed groups, including the Lord's Resistance Army, the Shabab
and Darfur's janjaweed," he reported.
It's likely, Gettleman told NPR's Steve Inskeep, that "tens of thousands" of
elephants have been killed in the past year or so.
As CNN has reported, "the level of butchery is a throwback to the 1980s, when an
npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/…/slaughtering-of-elephants-is-soaring-because-of-chinas-demand-for-ivory
1/2
9/6/12
Slaughtering Of Elephants Is Soaring Because Of China's Demand For Ivory : The Two-Way : NPR
estimated 100,000 elephants were being killed every year," according to data
compiled by the World Wildlife Fund.
Former NBA star Yao Ming, an ambassador for the environmental organization
WildAid, traveled to Africa this summer to spotlight the problem of elephant and
rhino poaching. The Guardian posted Yao's account of what it was like to see one of
the dead elephants:
"I witnessed how illegal ivory was obtained, along with Peter Knights, executive director of
WildAid, with whom I've worked for several years now. With the help of Kenya Wildlife Service, we
travelled via helicopter to access the carcasses. Iain Douglas-Hamilton of Save the Elephants
had spotted the bodies from the air in his small plane, and marked the spot for our pilot to bring
down the chopper in a dry riverbed. It was so tight we did a little hedge trimming on the way
down.
"Not 20 yards away, I saw the body of an elephant poached for its ivory three weeks ago. Its face
had been cut off by poachers and its body scavenged by hyenas, scattering bones around the
area. A sad mass of skin and bone. The smell was overwhelming and seemed to cling to us, even
after we left.
"I really was speechless. After seeing these animals up close and watching them interact in loving
and protective family groups, it was heart wrenching and deeply depressing to see this one
cruelly taken before its time."
Tags: Yao Ming, elephant poaching, China, Africa
npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/…/slaughtering-of-elephants-is-soaring-because-of-chinas-demand-for-ivory
2/2
outsideonline.com
http://www.outsideonline.com/blog/outdoor-adventure/politics/yao-ming-journey-toafrica-to-raise-awareness-of-ivory-poaching.html?166533596
Yao Ming Goes to Africa to Raise Awareness of Ivory
Poaching
By Adventure Lab
Friday, August 17, 2012
By Adventure Lab
Yao Ming in Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve. Photo: Kristian Schmidt/WildAid
Yao Ming is a giant man, but he paled in comparison to the corpse of the elephant stripped of ivory that
lay at his feet in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya. The 7' 6", 310-pound, retired center from China, a
former player for the NBA's Houston Rockets, landed in Africa on August 10 to raise awareness about
the ills of poaching. His loyal fan base in China, where ivory is viewed as a status symbol whose price
is rising, makes him an appealing celebrity to conservation organizations like WildAid. In 2006, he
stopped eating shark fin soup and later began a campaign to prevent its consumption in China. This
August in Africa, he visited endangered white rhinos, stood over the corpse of that dead elephant, and
visited rooms stockpiled with loads of ivory seized so that it could not be shipped overseas. “I think we
need to increase the public awareness of what ivory is made of,” Yao told the Associated Press. “The
elephants, including rhinos, their numbers are decreasing.”
Ming's visit to Africa will be featured in a new documentary, The End of the Wild. His message has
implications that go beyond the reduction of animals in Africa. In May, the Senate Foreign Relations
Committe held a hearing called "Ivory and Insecurity: The Global Implications of Poaching in Africa."
Senator John Kerry pointed out that the poaching trade in ivory and rhino horn runs primarily from Africa
to Asia, involves armies and organized crime syndicates that cross borders to smuggle parts, and
includes armed men who raid villages and kill people who get in their way. “Poaching is not just a
security threat in Africa,” said Kerry. “It’s also a menace to developing economies, and it thrives where
governance is weakest. Poachers with heavy weapons are a danger to lightly armed rangers and
civilians as well as the animals they target.”
The demand side of this primarily comes from East Asia, where rhino horn is more valuable at times
than gold. In China, elephant ivory is increasingly in demand by a growing upper class. The supply side
is in Africa, where last year enforcement efforts seized 23 metric tons of ivory, or the tusks of nearly
2,500 elephants. That number is a sign that things are getting worse, according to conservation
experts. “In 23 years of compiling ivory seizure data for ETIS, this is the worst year ever for large ivory
seizures—2011 has truly been a horrible year for elephants,” said Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC’s elephant
expert.
The trade in illegal wildlife parts is not restricted to just elephants and rhinos. The U.S. State
Department estimates the trade in wildlife parts is a $10 to $20 billion industry, second only to the
smuggling of drugs and arms in terms of value. Aside from the reduction in species numbers and the
human deaths on the supply side, the smuggling of live and dead animals can result in the transmission
of disease on both the supply and demand side.
The slaughter to meet this demand is driving tigers, elephants, rhinoceros, exotic birds, and many
other species to the brink of extinction. In addition, the alarming rise in virulent wildlife diseases,
such as avian influenza and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which can be spread by
illegal wildlife trade and endanger public health. —U.S. State Department
—Joe Spring
@joespring
facebook.com/joespring.1
Categories: Politics / Nature
1 person listening
planetsave.com
http://planetsave.com/2012/08/17/rhino-crisis-round-up-yao-ming-in-kenya-more/
Rhino Crisis Round Up: Yao Ming in Kenya & More
Retired NBA star Yao Ming was in Kenya to film “The End of the Wild” documentary — and to bring
international awareness to the plight of African rhinos and elephants, whose numbers are being
decimated by demand from China.
Yao’s itinerary included a visit to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, home to four of the world’s last seven
Northern white rhinos. He blogged about the experience at yaomingblog.com:
I meet Najin and Suni with their keeper Mohammed. I’m even able to feed hay to
them and tickle behind their ears. It’s clear these are Mohammad’s babies. He dotes
on them and if anything happened to them he would be heartbroken.
These are immense and powerful creatures. As one of them pushes me, I’m
reminded of the immense pressure I used to feel when I had to guard Shaquille
O’Neal. You knew that pressure while guarding Shaq, and you know it when a rhino
leans on you.
Read more of Yao’s blog post at “Quality Time with Najin and Suni” — and check out this awesome
photo!
Game farmers going to jail
IOL.com reports that two South African game farmers — Ewart Potgieter and Riaan Vermaak — were
given hefty prison sentences for their part in scheming to kill rhinos.
Potgieter was sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment — six years for conspiracy to hunt
rhino and attempting to hunt rhino, 10 years for possession of illegal firearms and two
years for possession of illegal ammunition. Vermaak received 10 years and six
months — six years for for conspiracy to hunt rhino and attempting to hunt rhino, four
years for possession of illegal firearms and six months for possession of illegal
ammunition.
The duo was nabbed in an undercover operation led by Warrant Officer Jean-Pierre van Zyl-Roux, of
the Durban Organised Crime Unit.
Another South African game farmer, Jacques Els, recently began serving his eight-year sentence for
dealing in rhino horn.
More than 300 rhinos have been killed in South Africa since the start of 2012.
Sumatran rhinos confirmed
Although not seen in Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem area for 26 years, camera traps have confirmed
that seven individual Sumatran rhinos are still surviving. The Leuser International Foundation (LIF) said
on their website that the survey team also found footprints, feces, mud wallows, and “twisted branches
left by Sumatran rhinos.”
LIF estimates that the ongoing survey may find as many as 25 Sumatran rhinos in the area.
Image: Rhino charging via Shutterstock
Interested in free solar estimates for your home?
shanghaiist.com
http://shanghaiist.com/2012/08/18/yao-ming-africa.php#photo-1
Photos: Yao Ming on Africa mission to save the elephant
and rhino
By Shanghaiist in News on August 18, 2012 5:13 PM
Former Chinese NBA star Yao Ming has collaborated with the non-profit organisation
WildAid again years after endorsing a TV commercial urging foodies to "Say No to
Shark Fin Soup" in China.
Exploring a wildlife reserve in Kenya to shoot a feature-length documentary titled "The
End of the Wild", the WildAid Ambassador is on an Africa mission to raise awareness of
the insatiable demand for rhino horn and ivory products.
Also read his brand new blog to follow his amazing African adventure.
Photos by WildAid / Kristian Schmidt
Contact the author of this article or email [email protected] with further questions,
comments or tips.
sportsillustrated.cnn.com
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/1208/yao.ming.post.retirement/content.1.html
Yao Ming Since Retirement
Photo: Courtesy of WildAid.org
Since retiring in July 2011, Yao
Ming has been a busy man.
He's enrolled at university,
joined the Chinese People's
Political Consultative
Conference and on occasion,
sat courtside to cheer on his
Rockets. He has also found a
new passion, wildlife
conservation, and has become
a global ambassador for
WildAid, one of the leading
organizations working to
reduce the demand for illegal
wildlife products. As Yao enjoys
a two-week tour of Africa
(follow his adventures at
yaomingblog.com), SI looks at
life after retirement for one of
basketball's true global stars.
2
Thursday August 16 2012 | the times
Leading articles
INSIDE TODAY
Welcome to your
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Bank to Rights
Standard Chartered has been heavily fined for breaching US sanctions on Iran.
The cost is self-inflicted: the bank was complicit in wrongdoing it thought trivial
A bank has wider obligations than to its shareholders alone. Although an elected government
has no business corralling a private business in
support of partisan aims, it has every reason to
expect that a bank will not work to circumvent a
country’s foreign policy.
Standard Chartered, a British bank, has agreed
to pay $340 million to settle a charge of complicity
with Iranian institutions in laundering $250 billion through the bank’s New York office. This is a
far larger penalty than many expected.
Certainly, public animosity towards banks is
easily motivated and the temptation exists for
financial regulators to meet bankers’ failings with
populist invective, knowing the political costs will
be low. But whatever the grandstanding of which
Benjamin Lawsky, head of the recently created
New York State Department of Financial Services, can reasonably be accused, Standard Chartered is the author of its own misfortune. The
bank has behaved abominably.
Mr Lawsky couched his accusations in lurid
terms. He described Standard Chartered as a
rogue institution that committed “wilful and
egregious” violations of US sanctions against
Iran, perpetrated fraud and engaged in a “staggering cover-up”. The charges initially caused the
bank’s share price to fall by some 25 per cent. The
easy assumption that those claims were ventilated for rhetorical effect has been rapidly undermined, however, by the terms of the settlement
that the bank has struck. The language may have
been overwrought but the charges were far from
frivolous.
The New York state regulators accused Standard Chartered of hiding 60,000 illicit transactions
for Iranian institutions. The bank initially admitted to only 300 such transactions, amounting to
$14 million; yet it has now been compelled to
agree to the largest fine yet paid to a single US regulator in settlement of charges of money laundering. It has also agreed to have permanent staff,
chosen by the regulator, in its New York offices to
monitor compliance with controls designed to
prevent money laundering.
Under the terms of that settlement, the bank
will be able to retain its licence to operate in New
York, but it remains the subject of a criminal
investigation by the FBI.
It is a measure of Standard Chartered’s failings
that the bank initially thought the charges trivial.
And while it is absurd to spin a conspiracy theory
about banks, there is a pattern of complicity in
such wrongdoing. HSBC apologised last month
for what it acknowledged were shameful failings
in compliance with US measures to prevent
money laundering by terrorists and drug cartels.
These are episodes not merely of misjudgment
and insouciance, but corporate malfeasance. Regulators have not only the right but the duty to
insist that banks take responsibility for bad things
that happen and have internal controls that can
prevent their recurrence.
A competitive banking sector is essential to a
successful economy. But banks are not like other
companies. Their commercial purpose is not only
to maximise returns to shareholders but also to
serve their depositors and maintain financial
stability. And more fundamental even than those
requirements is the need to adhere to the stipulations and laws established by democratic governments. Financial institutions may span borders,
but they are not above national laws.
US sanctions against Iran are not some obscure
idiosyncrasy. They are a foreign policy stance
maintained in the furtherance of human rights.
Such policies are devised not for the soundbite of
their announcement, but for the effects they are
intended to provoke. In aiding the violation of
sanctions, Standard Chartered behaved with arrogance and irresponsibility.
Tusk Force
Most poachers live to poach another day. Cites,
the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, is so gloomy that in a report last
month it warned that the number of elephants
being killed each year “is likely to run into the tens
of thousands”, with China still “the paramount
destination for large-scale ivory consignments”.
Since little headway is being made in choking off
the supply of ivory, conservationists are changing
tack by trying to suffocate demand. Their latest
recruit is Yao Ming, a 7ft 6in former NBA basketball player who used to earn $50 million a year as
the star of the Houston Rockets. As China’s
answer to Michael Jordan, he is showing what the
power of celebrity and example can achieve.
Through the US-based charity WildAid, Yao
has already persuaded officials in Beijing to stop
serving shark-fin soup at official banquets. Now,
on a visit to Kenya where he has seen the blackened, rotting elephant carcasses that are the byproduct of the ivory trade, he hopes to cajole his
countrymen into turning their backs on ivory too
(see page 27). “We’re trying to deliver the message
back to where I live,” he told The Times, “that the
only way to stop poaching is to stop the buying.”
But it is not only elephants that are vanishing to
sate Chinese appetites. Rhinos, too, are poached
to meet Chinese — and, increasingly, Vietnamese
— demand for rhino horn. Powdered horn is
prized as a hangover remedy. Also as a mythic
cancer cure for the elderly: given China’s ageing
population, this makes conservationists queasy.
No one involved in saving Africa’s majestic wildlife underestimates the challenge. Chinese medicine has used rhino horn for 4,000 years and
shows little inclination to switch to pharmaceutical alternatives, regardless of a Cites ban on the
trade in rhino horn in place for the past quarter of
a century. Asia’s swelling wealth — when coupled
with the precarious economic prospects in much
of Africa that make poaching appealing — is doing
little to tip the balance back in wildlife’s favour.
Joining the senior league of world powers carries
world responsibilities. For too long China, showing
little respect for international trade bans, has
put a high a price on ivory and rhino horn. It is
beyond time that it put an even higher price on safeguarding the world’s vanishing species instead.
Ones that didn’t
get away: re-create
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17
Raised cycle lanes over railway lines are a big idea and a splendid one
alongside London’s overground railway lines.
This is an old idea that will not go away, for the
very simple reason that it is also a good idea.
Railway lines cut swaths in and out of the hearts
of our cities. By definition they travel the routes
that commuters wish to go. Through traffic, a
five-mile commute by bicycle might be considered a daunting prospect. Along a dedicated cycle
lane it becomes a wholly feasible option for all.
Such an option is cheaper than road-building,
or indeed, rail-building, but would nonetheless
require enormous investment. But, since The
the table
Today’s weather
Over and Out
Amid the enjoyable soap opera of rivalry between
Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, and David
Cameron, the latterly somewhat overshadowed
Prime Minister, it should not be forgotten that
both men still have jobs to do.
Yesterday Mr Johnson criticised government
inertia on London’s airports. It might be overlooked that he also outlined a bold vision for transforming London. It is one which should be taken
entirely seriously, and to which he should be held.
Mr Johnson revealed plans, albeit in their infancy, for a network of raised cycle paths running
Pages 2, 3
TV&Radio
A Chinese sports star seeks to shame his compatriots into not buying illegal ivory
If you believe in reincarnation, avoid being reborn
as an elephant in Kenya. Your life will be short. And
your death brutish. Only a few years ago conservationists hoped that they might be beginning to conquer the curse of ivory poaching. They were wrong.
Since 2007 the illegal ivory trade has ballooned.
Traffic, a body that monitors trade in wildlife,
branded last year an annus horribilis for African
elephants. It conservatively estimates the weight
of illegal ivory seized in 2011 at more than 24
tonnes, a figure that it reckons represents at least
2,500 elephants. That haul was not only more than
twice the amount seized the previous year, it was
also more than had been seized at any time since it
began keeping count 23 years ago.
The illegal ivory’s journey follows a welltrodden trade route. Concealed in a container in a
Kenyan or Tanzanian port, it is shipped to Asia,
where documentation accompanying an onward
shipment is changed to make it appear as a local
re-export thereby camouflaging its origin in East
Africa, and ends up in China or Thailand. But
mostly China. Even when the ivory is caught, the
criminal masterminds behind the trade rarely are.
Out of the concrete
jungle: inner-city
youngsters take
a crash-course
in citizenship
Times began campaigning for cities fit for cycling
last year, our position has always been that major
investment is required.
Making Britain’s cities into places where
cycling is both a safe option and a pleasurable one
is not a matter of daubing paint upon stretches of
road. Rather it requires a whole new vision of how
they ought to function and look.
If projects such as this are the upshot of cheerful
rivalry between a cycling Mayor and a cycling
Prime Minister then such rivalries are wholly to
be welcomed.
22
18
20
17
22
23
25
20
Cloudy in the West with showers or periods
of rain, brighter and drier in the East.
Full report, page 56
Firstnight17Opinion 21Morten Morland23Letters24, 25DailyUniversalRegister26World27 Business33FocusReport46,47Register51 LawReport53 Law54 Sport57 Crossword67
the times | Thursday August 16 2012
27
Balaclava protests as
Pussy Riot defenders
clash with Moscow police
Page 31
World
Kenyans in
traditional
garb, left,
greet Yao
Ming in
Samburu.
Above: the
former NBA
star visits the
reserve before
being
confronted,
right, by the
handiwork of
the ivory
poachers he
hopes to
defeat
Photography: David Bebber
China star battles to save elephants
with a challenge to ivory tradition
Kenya
Jerome Starkey Samburu, Kenya
Flies buzzing around the reeking carcass did not deter China’s best-known
sportsman from facing the tragedy.
Three tonnes of African elephant lay
rotting in the bush, scraps of blackened
hide still clinging to bones too large for
scavengers to steal.
It was the third dead elephant that
the retired basketball star Yao Ming,
had seen that day. Two had had their
tusks hacked off by poachers. The third
had died of an infected gunshot wound
but had fled to a quiet place in a dry riverbed in the lee of the Matthews mountain range in Kenya. Wardens removed
its tusks before the poachers could.
“We’re trying to deliver the message
back to where I live that the only way
to stop poaching is to stop the buying,”
the former NBA player told The Times,
as he watched a herd of elephants wade
across the Ewaso Nyiro river. “Here,
next to a group of elephants, it feels like
you are walking into your neighbour’s
house — just we are different animals.
We are humans, they are elephants.
That’s how I feel.”
Yao, who earned many millions of
dollars a year as a player for the Houston Rockets, made his first trip to
Africa as part of efforts to curb China’s
soaring demand for ivory.
The Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species (Cites)
has warned that the number of elephants killed each year “is likely to run
into the tens of thousands”. A report
published last month said that China remained the main destination for largescale ivory consignments. More than
24 tons of illegal ivory was seized worldwide last year, the most since a ban on
the trade was introduced in 1989.
“It’s our responsibility to let people
know where those animal products are
from,” Yao said. “Because it’s 10,000
miles away, people think there’s nothing they can do about it, but we are
trying to bring the reality to them.”
He confessed that he had used traditional Chinese medicines in the past,
almost certainly made from smuggled
animal parts, including rhino horn.
“We used something. I don’t know
what they really put in there, or if it is
fake. But that’s before we realised.”
Working with the American charity
WildAid, Yao has helped to persuade
officials in Beijing to stop serving
shark-fin soup at banquets. Peter
Knights, the charity’s director, said he
hoped that a series of public service
announcements and a documentary
filmed in Kenya and South Africa
would have a similar effect on demand
for elephant tusks and rhino horn.
“It’s all about the popularisation of
conservation,” Mr Knights said.
“Poachers are prepared to risk their
The dreamer in a cowboy hat
Profile Zhuo Qiang
I
nspired by the
cartoons of his
childhood, Zhuo
Qiang grew up
dreaming of a life
in Africa (Jerome
Starkey writes)
Now, he believes
that he is the only
full-time Chinese
conservationist
working on the
continent, and goes by
his African name,
Simba, the Swahili
word for lion. “It
reminds me of the lion
survival crisis. I have
to devote all of my life
to save them.”
Based in Kenya’s
Masai Mara, Mr Zhuo
specialises in big cat
research and
education. “When I
was very young I
watched a TV cartoon
called King of the
Jungle,” he said.
“From then I began to
dream of Africa and
lions.”
He moved to Kenya
in 2005, leaving a job
and his family in
southwestern
Chongqing. Although
most Chinese still see
Africa as a land of
pestilence and danger,
Mr Zhuo, 39, said
attitudes were slowly
changing. “More
Last year was an “annus
horribilis” for elephants
people take photos
and stories back to
China and Chinese
people are beginning
to realise that Africa is
the best place to enjoy
wildlife.”
Wearing a cowboy
hat and the khakis of
the savannah, Mr
Zhuo joined Yao Ming
on his trip around
Kenya to act as an
interpreter. He said
that the basketball
star’s visit would
inspire a generation of
Chinese to visit Africa
and eschew medicines
made of animal body
parts. “Yao Ming is a
superstar,” Mr Zhuo
said. “Especially for
the young generation.
Many people follow
his words and his
actions . . . not to
consume rhino horns
and ivory.”
lives to kill these animals, so there’s not
much more that rangers can do. It has
to be done at the consumer end.”
Yao was welcomed to the Samburu
National Reserve by traditional tribal
warriors, who presented him with a
custom-made 9ft spear — because, at
7ft 6in, he stands higher than most of
their weapons. “If I saw him in the bush
I would run the other way,” said Litus Lekalaile, a Samburu warrior. “There are
legends about people who eat people. I
would think he was one of them.”
Bernard Lesirin, a wildlife guide at
the Elephant Watch Camp, was more
welcoming. “If he defends our elephants, he defends us as a people,” he
said. “We hope Yao is going to be a
bridge between us.”
David Tang, a member of China’s expatriate community in Kenya, said it
was becoming harder to buy ivory in
China. “There used to be shops selling
ivory openly, but not any more.”
Iain Douglas-Hamilton, the director
of Save the Elephants, said he was optimistic that the campaign would work.
“One only has to look at how Western
attitudes changed from the days that
people wiped out the last buffalo on the
great American plains,” he said. “We
were rapacious in that era. There is no
reason to assume that rapacity is a Chinese characteristic, any more than it
was one of our own.”
Leading article, page 2
the-star.co.ke
http://www.the-star.co.ke/national/national/90494-kenyan-conservationists-and-yao-mingcall-on-chinese-government-to-solve-poaching-crisis
The Star - Fresh, Independent, Different
Former NBA star Yao Ming, famously referred to as China's favourite son, has been in Kenya filming a
wildlife documentary. The documentary will feature Kenya’s wildlife tourism and the threat of poaching .
Speaking at a collective press conference, the director of Kenya Wildlife Services Julius Kipng’etich
said Kenya’s ties with China should be strengthened.
“Elephants should not separate us”, he said. “When people wear ivory, it is time to say ‘No’, Africa has
only 400,000 elephants. That’s it. If we kill all of those. It’s finished.” KWS along with Kenya’s
conservation fraternity are hopeful about the campaign, in recognising the vital role of Chinese
leadership in the fight to protect Kenya’s remaining elephants.
“It is now scientifically accepted that the demand for ivory exceeds the number of elephants,” said Dr
Iain Douglas-Hamilton. Yao Ming joined the Save The Elephants team in Samburu to mingle with the
community and also learn about elephants and how the community live in peace with the animals.
When asked how he felt when he saw a poached elephant, Yao Ming responded: “Animals on this
planet either live or die, but to die in that way, is evil.” The former basketball star was visibly saddened
when recalling his experience.
In his closing remarks, Dr Douglas-Hamilton reiterated the plight of the African elephant. He recounted
his experience when they toured China’s last forest elephants. “These wild elephants get high
protection and respect. If the Chinese government felt about the African elephant, the same way they
feel about their own elephants, we may see change very quickly.”
Yao Ming said Chinese government “need to do a lot of things to stop ivory trade.” He expressed his
fondest memory of his trip to Kenya as being a morning on Ol Pejeta Conservancy, “at 6am, the sunrise
with wild animals…”
“China is now a major player in Africa. Chinese leadership is needed to solve this problem.” Stressed
Dr. Hamilton. In the meantime, poaching remains on a high as KWS continues to battle with poachers
to protect Kenya’s remaining elephants.
9/7/12
Photos: Yao Ming Visits Kenya to Stop Elephant and Rhino Poaching : TreeHugger
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communities to stop consuming shark's fin soup. Now, Ming has focused from
ocean to land, and has traveled to Kenya with WildAid to bring awareness to
These recipes for preserving,
elephant and rhino poaching and the damage demand for their horns and tusks
canning, and jarring the ultimate
summer fruit allow you ...
in Traditional Chinese Medicine have caused to the species.
by Blythe Copeland in Easy Vegetarian Recipes
DRONES TO JOIN THE FIGHT
AGAINST POACHING IN
NEPAL
Weekday Vegetarian:
Easy Tomato Canning
Recipe
Of all of the fruits and vegetables I
can, I get the most ...
by Kelly Rossiter in Easy Vegetarian Recipes
Should You Prune Your Tomato Plants?
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Pruned or left to grow wild? Does
pruning tomatoes result in a better
...
by Ramon Gonzalez in Lawn & Garden
From his blog: "Yao Ming travels to Africa for the first time to come face-to-face
with some of the world’s most majestic species – the elephant and the rhino and to document the poaching crisis these creatures are facing as a result of
growing demand for rhino horn and ivory products."
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Ming is working with WildAid, the same organization that he works with to
Nothing is the Next Big
Thing
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greener is a challenge, but if ...
promote conservation of sharks. Some of the stop-offs include Ol Pejeta, a
private, non-profit wildlife sanctuary that is also the largest black rhino
by Graham Hill in Interior Design
sanctuary in East Africa. But the demand for horns has put the animals even in
9 Energy Innovations
that Make the Future
Brighter!
this sanctuary at risk.
Ming notes on his blog that "last year alone, Ol Pejeta lost five of their 88 rhinos
to poachers, which has been their greatest loss in twenty years."
The reality of poaching can hit hard when you see the effects first-hand, which is
why Ming traveled to Kenya. However, even those viewing the photos can be
I want to share with you some of
the things that have made ...
by Michael Graham Richard in Renewable Energy
struck by the sadness of the problem. In Namunyak, Northern Kenya, Ming
came across the body of a poached elephant. "Since 2008, elephant poaching
has been on the rise, according to Save the Elephants and the Kenya Wildlife
Service."
2/6
9/7/12
Ming is also visiting the Elephant Watch Camp in Samburu National Reserve,
which includes a visit with Save The Elephants and Elephant Watch staff,
including David Daballen from Save the Elephants. While observing an elephant
herd, Ming writes:
Suddenly I realize that between 3 medium-sized elephants is a tiny baby
lying down resting, her sisters towering over her, positioned in a protective
triangle. David knows every member of every family in the reserve, as well
as their family history. Poachers killed this one’s mother two years ago,
another member of the family had to then step into the role of matriarch at
a very early age and the responsibility of leading the herd to food, water
and out of harms way ways heavily upon her, she looks a bit depressed. At
first I think the emotions are exaggerations, perhaps too much, but the
more I learn and observe, the more I realize how much they share with
humans – lifespan, adolescence, family bonds and emotions – as David
explains this I can see it there in front of me by the way they are interacting
with each other.
3/6
9/7/12
WildAid writes, "African elephants are currently found in 37 countries in subSaharan Africa. Their numbers fell from 1.3 million in 1979 to less than
600,000 today, as a result of the ivory trade."
WildAid writes, "Today, only 5 rhino species remain and all are listed as
endangered or vulnerable. 2/3 of the world's rhinos live in South Africa, the
poaching epicenter of the world. In 2011, an estimated 450 rhinos were killed in
4/6
9/7/12
South Africa - more than one a day, on average. If poaching continues at current
rates, rhino populations will become unsustainable and even more species will
be lost to extinction."
The expedition is teaching Ming quite a lot about elephants and rhinos, and
their plight. Hopefully his millions of fans will learn as much as he travels
through and records his adventures.
Many more photos and information can be found on Yao Ming's blog.
Tags: Animals | Conservation
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http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2012/08/photos-yaoming-and-a-baby-elephant/1#.UEgNl6RYuxB
Game On: Bringin' the buzz on sports
Aug 28, 2012
PHOTOS: Yao Ming and a baby elephant
By Chris Chase, USA TODAY
Updated 2012-08-28 5:11 PM
Want to see a picture of Yao Ming walking with a baby elephant?
Of course you do, even if you're a little confused as to why the prospect of seeing said picture is so
exciting. I could have said "LeBron James with an adolescent hippo," and interest would have been
mixed. "Kevin Love and a puma kitten?" Not as intriguing. But you hear "Yao Ming and baby elephant"
and you're clicking. There's just something about it.
The former NBA star recently visited Kenya as part of an anti-poaching documentary he's developing.
He took some photos at Daphne Sheldrick's Elephant Orphanage and posted them to his blog, where
he also described the visit and discussed the evils of poaching.
An elephant isn't small - not even a
baby one. But it sure seems small
when it's next to 7-foot, 6-inch Yao
Ming.
Via YaoMingBlog
After visiting with Yao, the elephant
fractured its foot and will miss 8-12
weeks.
Yao Ming and a baby elephant
hanging out.
Via YaoMingBlog
.
vancouversun.com
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Former+star+sees+evil+ivory+trade/7104123/story.html
Former NBA star sees 'evil' of ivory trade
By Jason Straziuso, Associated PressAugust 17, 2012
One of China's most visible stars wants his countrymen to know their rising appetite for ivory is resulting
in dead elephants across Africa.
elephants and walked with indigenous tribes. The trip is part of an effort to let China's increasingly
affluent middle class know that its interest in small ivory trinkets results in the deaths of six-tonne
beasts.
"I think we need to increase the public awareness of what ivory is made of," Yao said. "The elephants,
including rhinos, their numbers are decreasing."
Images of Yao in Kenya's Samburu National Reserve included the towering former Houston Rockets
centre walking among colourfully dressed Kenyan tribeswomen and riding in a safari vehicle through a
field full of elephants. But one of the starkest images was of Yao bending down to look at the carcass of
an elephant whose face was carved away by poachers seeking the beast's valuable ivory tusks.
Labelling the question too sad to answer, Yao demurred when asked about his feelings on seeing the
dead elephant, a withered, faceless corpse, though he said he saw "evil" in the killing.
Julius Kipng'etich, the director of the Kenya Wildlife Ser-vice, gave Yao a tour of a KWS room filled with
hundreds of elephant tusks. Kip, as the director is known, said he hopes Ming takes back the message
to China to say that when Chinese people buy ivory, they are helping lead elephants to extinction.
"It's time to say no, because only elephants should wear ivory," Kip said. "Africa has only 400,000
elephants. That's it. If we kill all of those. It's finished."
The world's elephant population plummeted in the 1980s as poaching became endemic. An
international ban on the ivory trade in 1989 helped save the species, but conservationists have been
warning the last couple years that the poaching of elephants and rhinos is expanding at an alarming
rate, fuelled by demand from Asia.
"This new surge of poaching that we experienced intensely last year and in the first part of this year is
rife across Africa," said Iain Douglas-Hamilton, the founder of Save The Elephants, who travelled with
Yao this week. "It is now time for individuals and governments to reduce demand for ivory."
Douglas-Hamilton recounted how he and his wife travelled to China two years ago to see the last of
China's elephants. He said the residents there treated the elephants reverently. "If the Chinese people
felt about African elephants the same way they feel about their elephants," he said, Africa's poaching
problem would end quickly.
A feature film aimed at increasing awareness called The End of the Wild is being made out of Yao's
trip, and Yao pointed out China's government has punished many people for participating in the ivory
trade.
Yao called his time in Kenya, his first trip to Africa, "wonderful."
"Living in a wild place is not as comfortable as a hotel room or a home, but it's a totally different
experience," said the towering athlete. "My best moments [were] at 6 a.m. with the sun-rise and the wild
animals."
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Print this Article
9/6/12
Yao Ming joins fight against poaching - The Washington Post
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Yao Ming joins fight against poaching
The former NBA star teamed up with the wildlife protection group WildAid to help publicize the loss of African elephants and rhinoceroses to poachers.
Yao Ming stands in the open top of a safari vehicle to
observe African elephants in the Samburu National Reserve.
The former NBA star is making his first visit to Africa on
behalf of WildAid, a nonprofit organization that fights the
illegal trade in wildlife.
Kristian Schmidt for WildAid / WildAid
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ExiledinBali wrote:
9/5/2012 5:56 AM PDT
Thanks Yao! Hope you are successful in turning China from the world's biggest biggest consumer of ivory, seahorses,
shark fins, bear and tiger parts to the world's biggest conservationist country.
leroi1152 wrote:
9/4/2012 10:57 PM PDT
Looks like Yao has put on a couple of lbs. As a Rockets and Yao fan I say good job, Yao. Now, if you could
washingtonpost.com/world/…/edec71de-f164-11e1-adc6-87dfa8eff430_gallery.html
1/2
washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/yao-ming-uses-his-starimage-to-help-fight-elephants-rhino-poaching/2012/09/04/1ad6fd00-f5d8-11e18b93-c4f4ab1c8d13_blog.html
Yao Ming uses his star image to help fight elephants,
rhino poaching
Posted at 09:01 AM ET, 09/04/2012
TheWashingtonPost
Yao Ming, the Chinese basketball player who played in the NBA for the Houston Rockets, wants to help
stop elephant and rhinoceros poaching.
As a goodwill ambassador to WildAid, a nonprofit dedicated to ending illegal wildlife trading, Yao took
a trip to Kenya last month in August, where he spent several days interacting with wildlife officials and
seeing some of the effects of poaching firsthand.
Yao Ming meets Najin and Suni,
two of the world’s remaining
seven Northern White Rhinos,
four of which are located at The
Ol Pejeta Conservancy. (Kristian
Schmidt for WildAid) (Kristian
Schmidt for WildAid - WILDAID)
( See more images from Yao
Ming’s trip to Kenya. )
With an estimated 400,000
elephants remaining in Africa,
conservation activists are
pushing hard to prevent poaching
for ivory tusks. According to the
World Wildlife Fund, 2011 saw
the highest volume of illegal ivory
seized.
We asked Yao Ming a few questions about his new initiative. Here are his responses, which were sent
to us via WildAid, in an e-mail:
How did you come to become interested in protecting rhinos and elephants?
I like animals and I’m keen on spending more time on wildlife protection initiatives. For the past few
years, I’ve cooperated with WildAid on several activities in a joint effort to protect sharks and other
forms of wildlife. Before going to Africa, compassionate public figures like Jackie Chan wanted me to
take an interest in elephant and rhino conservation. Having also seen some related news coverage, I
came to feel that I have a responsibility to act and to do something for wildlife conservation work in
Africa.
What was the most powerful memory from your recent trip to Kenya?
The living conditions for the local Kenyans left me with a really deep impression. Even though their lives
are relatively primitive, they are closely connected to the animals of the natural world and to the plants
and even to the land and the rivers – and they live on, coexisting pretty harmoniously. Getting along with
the local Kenyans over the past few days has given me a deep understanding of this incredible sense
of awe and devotion that they hold for nature – and that’s something I had never ever felt before
China is the world’s most prominent destination for distribution and use of rhino horn and
ivory. What’s the message you’re taking home to convince the Chinese to stop massive
consumption of illegal wildlife parts?
There’s no way you can deny that rhino horn has definite medicinal value in traditional medical practice,
both in China and around Southeast Asia. At the same time, elephant ivory products are prized as a
collector’s item all around the globe. But let’s face it: we’re not talking about irreplaceable necessities
here. According to the local Africans, a century ago, it was the Europeans and Americans who valued
Africa as a big bazaar for animal wildlife products. So in those days, the main forces driving the
slaughter of African rhinos and elephants came from market demands in Europe and the U.S. Later on,
with the rise of environmental awareness, social approval of this kind of consumption gradually tapered
off. But in the past decade, we’ve started to see a rising demand in Southeast Asia and in China for
valuable animal wildlife products. Motivated by huge economic factors, illegal poaching in Africa is on
the rise too – and I really wish this wasn’t happening. The Chinese government banned the illegal rhino
horn and elephant ivory trades way back in 1993, but as it turned out, the prohibition only served to
stimulate a price spike for these products on the black market. The most effective thing you can do to
counter this kind of situation is raise people’s awareness. Eliminate the demand for rhino horn and
ivory right at the source. That’s what I want to do. It might take some time, sure, but I’m really hoping that
gradually we cam start to see an improvement.
See photographs from Yao Ming’s trip below (All images courtesy of WildAid).
Read more news from around
the world .
8/16/12
Former NBA star Yao Ming in Kenya to help raise awareness on ivory poaching - The Washington Post
Back to previous page
Former NBA star Yao
Ming in Kenya to help
raise awareness on ivory
poaching
By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday,
August 16, 11:01 AM
NAIROBI, Kenya — One of China’s most visible stars
wants his countrymen to know that their rising appetite
for ivory is resulting in dead elephants across Africa.
elephants and walked with indigenous tribes. The trip is part of an effort to let China’s increasingly affluent
middle class know that its interest in small ivory trinkets results in the deaths of 6-ton beasts.
“I think we need to increase the public awareness of what ivory is made of,” Yao said. “The elephants,
including rhinos, their numbers are decreasing.”
Images of Yao in Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve included the towering former Houston Rockets
center walking among colorfully dressed Kenyan tribeswomen and riding in a safari vehicle through a field
full of elephants. But one of the starkest images was of Yao bending down to look at the carcass of an
elephant whose face was carved away by poachers seeking the beast’s valuable ivory tusks.
Labeling the question too sad to answer, Yao demurred when asked about his feelings on seeing the dead
elephant, a withered, faceless corpse, though he said he saw “evil” in the killing.
Julius K. Kipng’etich, the director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, gave Yao a tour of a KWS room filled
with hundreds of elephant tusks. Kip, as the director is known, said he hopes Ming takes back the message
to China to say that when Chinese people buy ivory, they are helping lead elephants to extinction.
“It’s time to say no, because only elephants should wear ivory,” Kip said. “Africa has only 400,000
elephants. That’s it. If we kill all of those. It’s finished.”
The world’s elephant population plummeted in the 1980s as poaching became endemic. An international
ban on the ivory trade in 1989 helped save the species, but conservationists have been warning the last
couple years that the poaching of elephants and rhinos is expanding at an alarming rate — fueled by
demand from Asia.
washingtonpost.com/world/africa/…/3f1f7b34-e7c2-11e1-9739-eef99c5fb285_print.html
1/2
Former are
NBA now
star Yao
Ming in Kenya
to helpto
raise
awareness
ivory
poaching
Theand
Washington
Post and
More Chinese
working
in Africa
build
roadsonand
pump
out- oil
minerals,
8/16/12
“This new surge of poaching that we experienced intensely last year and in the first part of this year is rife
across Africa,” said Iain Douglas-Hamilton, the founder of Save The Elephants, who traveled with Yao this
week. “It is now time for individuals and governments to reduce demand for ivory.”
Douglas-Hamilton recounted how he and his wife traveled to China two years ago to see the last of China’s
elephants. He said the locals there treated the elephants reverently. “If the Chinese people felt about African
elephants the same way they feel about their elephants,” he said, Africa’s poaching problem would end
quickly.
Yao worked previously with the conservation group WildAid to help raise awareness about shark fin soup,
a delicacy in China that is leading to the deaths of countless sharks.
Hanging over the news conference was the idea that the Chinese people are responsible for so many animal
deaths, though Yao and the wildlife experts he traveled with underscored that the issue was one of
education: If the affluent Chinese buying animal products only knew the animal suffering their buying
habits were causing, the demand would soon drop.
A feature film aimed at increasing awareness called “The End of the Wild” is being made out of Yao’s trip,
and Yao pointed out that China’s government has punished many people for participating in the ivory trade.
Yao called his time in Kenya — his first trip to Africa — “wonderful.”
“Living in a wild place is not as comfortable as a hotel room or a home, but it’s a totally different
experience,” said the towering athlete. “My best moments here was at 6 a.m. with the sunrise and the wild
animals.”
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten or redistributed.
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Poaching is something we have all heard of
Photos
at one point or another, and it’s a sad act of
unkindness and ignorance that still goes on
today. Simply put, poaching is the illegal
killing of wild animals that often
incorporates criminals taking parts of the
animals to sell on the black market.
Wildlife officials say that legal hunters kill
tens of millions of animals every year but
for each of those animals, another is killed
illegally, and few poachers are ever caught
and punished. In the late 1970s the demand
for ivory was so high it caused elephant
Poaching is on the rise again, resulting in the depletion of
populations to decline to dangerously low
animal populations. But activists like basketball player Yao
Ming are trying to do something about it.
levels, cutting Africa’s elephant population
in half.
One memorable case was when elephant
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researcher Michael Fay was flying over a
forest in Northern Congo when he spotted
several elephant carcasses. Fay decided to
investigate and returned the next day only
Select images available for purchase in the
to find thousands of elephants slaughtered
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all for their tusks. Fay decided to take
Article appeared on page 47A of the The Weekender
action into his own hands and chased
poachers out by destroying their camps
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and getting local villagers involved. A few
Print | EMail | Save | Hear QR years later, Fay had won the battle and had
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stopped illegal hunting of elephants in the
Northern Congo region.
Another man hopes to do the same as Fay. Famous basketball player Yao Ming is an
animal advocate taking a stand to stop poaching. Ming brings his celebrity status to
Kenya to do work with WildAid with the hope of raising awareness on the severity of
elephant and rhino poaching. As he comes faces to face with some of the world’s most
majestic species, he plans on documenting the poaching crisis so people around the
world will understand what these creatures are facing.
Ming notes on his personal blog that one of the largest black rhino sanctuaries in East
Africa is at risk, stating: “Last year alone, Ol Pejeta lost five of their 88 rhinos to
poachers, which has been their greatest loss in twenty years.”
According to WildAid, since 2008 elephant poaching has been on the rise and their
numbers fell from 1.3 million in 1979 to less than 600,000 today, as a result of the
theweekender.com/stories/Wildlife-poaching-on-the-rise,194626
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GREEN PIECE: Wildlife poaching on the rise - The Weekender
ivory trade.
Ming hopes his fans will learn from his travels and realize that poaching is a deadly
crime against wildlife that needs to be stopped.
Check out the rest of Yao Ming’s journey to Africa by visiting yaomingblog.com.
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Yao Ming visits Kenya to film anti-poaching documentary aimed at protecting African elephants, rhinos …
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Yao Ming visits Kenya to film anti-poaching documentary
aimed at protecting African elephants, rhinos (VIDEO)
By Dan Devine | Ball Don't Lie – Mon, 20 Aug, 2012 3:05 PM EDT
Retired NBA star Yao Ming is using
his international renown and
domestic status as one of China's most
recognizable public figures to try to
convince his fellow Chinese citizens to
stop seeking products made from
elephant ivory and rhino horn, hoping
to curb the demand that fuels
poaching in Africa and is helping
bring Kenyan elephants and rhinos
perilously close to extinction.
The former Houston Rockets center
arrived in Kenya on Friday, Aug. 10,
2012 — his first-ever visit to the
African nation — to meet with local
scientists and conservationists, to
begin filming and to see the animals
first-hand. From Jason Straziuso of
Yao Ming gets up close and personal with a rhino. (Photo by Kristian Schmidt for WildAid, via
The Associated Press:
yaomingblog.com)
Poaching deaths of elephants and rhinos are increasing, animal experts say, because of increased demand in Asia
for rhino horns and elephant ivory.
Yao, the former NBA star from China, said Thursday he thinks increased public awareness about where ivory
comes from is needed.
Julius K. Kipng'etich, the director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, gave Yao a tour of one of the organization's rooms
filled with ivory from poached elephants. Kip, as the director is known, said Thursday that he hopes Yao takes
back the message to China to say that when Chinese people buy ivory, they are helping lead elephants to
extinction.
[Also: Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak thought Dwight Howard deal 'was dead']
Bringing the message to China — and having one of that nation's greatest sporting heroes serve as the messenger — is
especially critical for activists because "China is the world's most prominent destination for rhino horn and ivory, with
projections suggesting there will be an added 250 million middle class consumers over the next 10 [to] 15 years," according to
Laura Walubengo of Kenyan radio station/lifestyle site CapitalFM:
ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/…/yao-ming-kenya-africa-ivory-poaching-animals-191100313--nba.html
1/4
9/7/12
The massive consumption in China of the illegal wildlife parts and products meanwhile has been blamed on a
combination of "old customs and traditions with new money," among other things.
Increasing populations of rhino and elephant between 1989 and 2007 have started dwindling dramatically due to
an escalation of poaching activities.
Hit the jump for more photos from Yao's visit to Kenya, plus video of a press conference he gave in Nairobi after his 10-day
stay.
There are only seven northern white
rhinos left in the world; four of them
are housed at Kenya's Ol Pejeta
Conservancy, which is working with
London-based nonprofit Save the
Elephants and wildlife charity
organization WildAid on the
documentary project, tentatively titled
"The End of the Wild." Yao became
involved in the film through his work
as one of several celebrity
ambassadors for WildAid; he has
already filmed a public service
announcement for the organization in
which he blocks a bullet headed for an
elephant as if it were a layup.
That image might appear somewhat
goofy, but Yao's commitment to
speaking out against practices
harmful to animals is serious; this
Yao Ming watches Kenyan elephants. (Photo by Kristian Schmidt for WildAid, via
yaomingblog.com)
isn't the first time he's done it. Last September, he joined billionaire Virgin
Group chairman Richard Branson in entreating consumers, especially those in
his homeland of China, to stop buying and eating shark fin soup, an in-demand
delicacy that requires shark fins for its production, leading to fishermen catching
sharks, cutting off their fins and ostensibly leaving them to die, wreaking havoc
on underseas ecosystems.
[Also: Michael Beasley holds estate sale to get rid of some weird stuff]
Yao has been writing about his trip to Africa on a just-started blog, detailing his
introduction to the extent of the elephant and rhino poaching problem, his flight
to Kenya on Virgin Atlantic — "my first time with Virgin (there's probably a joke
in there somewhere)" — and his visit to the conservancy. He described his first
physical encounter with a pair of rhinos named Najin and Suni in terms hoops
fans might appreciate:
These are immense and powerful creatures. As one of them pushes me,
I'm reminded of the immense pressure I used to feel when I had to guard
Shaquille O'Neal. You knew that pressure while guarding Shaq, and you
Yao called seeing a dead, poached elephant 'a
sight I will not soon forget.' (AP)
know it when a rhino leans on you.
2/4
9/7/12
But this power is meaningless in the face of a poacher's bullet or wire snare. [...]
It's tragic to know these impressive animals are among the last of their kind, just because some people believe their
horn, which is just keratin like our fingernails, has healing properties.
The documentary is slated for release in 2013.
Yao walks with Samburu warriors in Kenya. (Photo by Kristian Schmidt for WildAid, via
yaomingblog.com)
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Yao Ming visits Kenya to film anti-poaching documentary
aimed at protecting African elephants, rhinos (VIDEO)
By Dan Devine | Ball Don't Lie – Mon, Aug 20, 2012 3:05 PM EDT
Retired NBA star Yao Ming is using
his international renown and
domestic status as one of China's most
recognizable public figures to try to
convince his fellow Chinese citizens to
stop seeking products made from
elephant ivory and rhino horn, hoping
to curb the demand that fuels
poaching in Africa and is helping
bring Kenyan elephants and rhinos
perilously close to extinction.
The former Houston Rockets center
arrived in Kenya on Friday, Aug. 10,
2012 — his first-ever visit to the
African nation — to meet with local
scientists and conservationists, to
begin filming and to see the animals
first-hand. From Jason Straziuso of
Yao Ming gets up close and personal with a rhino. (Photo by Kristian Schmidt for WildAid, via
The Associated Press:
yaomingblog.com)
Poaching deaths of elephants and rhinos are increasing, animal experts say, because of increased demand in Asia
for rhino horns and elephant ivory.
Yao, the former NBA star from China, said Thursday he thinks increased public awareness about where ivory
comes from is needed.
Julius K. Kipng'etich, the director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, gave Yao a tour of one of the organization's rooms
filled with ivory from poached elephants. Kip, as the director is known, said Thursday that he hopes Yao takes
back the message to China to say that when Chinese people buy ivory, they are helping lead elephants to
extinction.
[Also: Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak thought Dwight Howard deal 'was dead']
Bringing the message to China — and having one of that nation's greatest sporting heroes serve as the messenger — is
especially critical for activists because "China is the world's most prominent destination for rhino horn and ivory, with
projections suggesting there will be an added 250 million middle class consumers over the next 10 [to] 15 years," according to
Laura Walubengo of Kenyan radio station/lifestyle site CapitalFM:
sports.yahoo.com/blogs/…/yao-ming-kenya-africa-ivory-poaching-animals-191100313--nba.html
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The massive consumption in China of the illegal wildlife parts and products meanwhile has been blamed on a
combination of "old customs and traditions with new money," among other things.
Increasing populations of rhino and elephant between 1989 and 2007 have started dwindling dramatically due to
an escalation of poaching activities.
Hit the jump for more photos from Yao's visit to Kenya, plus video of a press conference he gave in Nairobi after his 10-day
stay.
There are only seven northern white
rhinos left in the world; four of them
are housed at Kenya's Ol Pejeta
Conservancy, which is working with
London-based nonprofit Save the
Elephants and wildlife charity
organization WildAid on the
documentary project, tentatively titled
"The End of the Wild." Yao became
involved in the film through his work
as one of several celebrity
ambassadors for WildAid; he has
already filmed a public service
announcement for the organization in
which he blocks a bullet headed for an
elephant as if it were a layup.
That image might appear somewhat
goofy, but Yao's commitment to
speaking out against practices
harmful to animals is serious; this
Yao Ming watches Kenyan elephants. (Photo by Kristian Schmidt for WildAid, via
yaomingblog.com)
isn't the first time he's done it. Last September, he joined billionaire Virgin
Group chairman Richard Branson in entreating consumers, especially those in
his homeland of China, to stop buying and eating shark fin soup, an in-demand
delicacy that requires shark fins for its production, leading to fishermen catching
sharks, cutting off their fins and ostensibly leaving them to die, wreaking havoc
on underseas ecosystems.
[Also: Michael Beasley holds estate sale to get rid of some weird stuff]
Yao has been writing about his trip to Africa on a just-started blog, detailing his
introduction to the extent of the elephant and rhino poaching problem, his flight
to Kenya on Virgin Atlantic — "my first time with Virgin (there's probably a joke
in there somewhere)" — and his visit to the conservancy. He described his first
physical encounter with a pair of rhinos named Najin and Suni in terms hoops
fans might appreciate:
These are immense and powerful creatures. As one of them pushes me,
I'm reminded of the immense pressure I used to feel when I had to guard
Shaquille O'Neal. You knew that pressure while guarding Shaq, and you
Yao called seeing a dead, poached elephant 'a
sight I will not soon forget.' (AP)
know it when a rhino leans on you.
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But this power is meaningless in the face of a poacher's bullet or wire snare. [...]
It's tragic to know these impressive animals are among the last of their kind, just because some people believe their
horn, which is just keratin like our fingernails, has healing properties.
The documentary is slated for release in 2013.
Yao walks with Samburu warriors in Kenya. (Photo by Kristian Schmidt for WildAid, via
yaomingblog.com)
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Ex-NBA star Yao in Kenya for poaching awareness
By By JASON STRAZIUSO | Associated Press – Thu, Aug 16, 2012
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — One of China's most visible stars wants his countrymen to know that their rising appetite for ivory is
resulting in dead elephants across Africa.
The former NBA star Yao Ming on Thursday ended a weeklong trip to Kenya where he mingled among elephants and walked
with indigenous tribes. The trip is part of an effort to let China's increasingly affluent middle class know that its interest in
small ivory trinkets results in the deaths of 6-ton beasts.
"I think we need to increase the public awareness of what ivory is made of," Yao said. "The elephants, including rhinos, their
numbers are decreasing."
Images of Yao in Kenya's Samburu National Reserve included the towering former Houston Rockets center walking among
colorfully dressed Kenyan tribeswomen and riding in a safari vehicle through a field full of elephants. But one of the starkest
images was of Yao bending down to look at the carcass of an elephant whose face was carved away by poachers seeking the
beast's valuable ivory tusks.
Labeling the question too sad to answer, Yao demurred when asked about his feelings on seeing the dead elephant, a
withered, faceless corpse, though he said he saw "evil" in the killing.
Julius K. Kipng'etich, the director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, gave Yao a tour of a KWS room filled with hundreds of
elephant tusks. Kip, as the director is known, said he hopes Ming takes back the message to China to say that when Chinese
people buy ivory, they are helping lead elephants to extinction.
"It's time to say no, because only elephants should wear ivory," Kip said. "Africa has only 400,000 elephants. That's it. If we
kill all of those. It's finished."
The world's elephant population plummeted in the 1980s as poaching became endemic. An international ban on the ivory
trade in 1989 helped save the species, but conservationists have been warning the last couple years that the poaching of
elephants and rhinos is expanding at an alarming rate — fueled by demand from Asia.
More Chinese are now working in Africa to build roads and pump out oil and minerals, and conservationists say poaching
often increases where those workers are located.
"This new surge of poaching that we experienced intensely last year and in the first part of this year is rife across Africa," said
Iain Douglas-Hamilton, the founder of Save The Elephants, who traveled with Yao this week. "It is now time for individuals
and governments to reduce demand for ivory."
Douglas-Hamilton recounted how he and his wife traveled to China two years ago to see the last of China's elephants. He said
the locals there treated the elephants reverently. "If the Chinese people felt about African elephants the same way they feel
about their elephants," he said, Africa's poaching problem would end quickly.
Yao worked previously with the conservation group WildAid to help raise awareness about shark fin soup, a delicacy in China
that is leading to the deaths of countless sharks.
Hanging over the news conference was the idea that the Chinese people are responsible for so many animal deaths, though
Yao and the wildlife experts he traveled with underscored that the issue was one of education: If the affluent Chinese buying
animal products only knew the animal suffering their buying habits were causing, the demand would soon drop.
A feature film aimed at increasing awareness called "The End of the Wild" is being made out of Yao's trip, and Yao pointed
out that China's government has punished many people for participating in the ivory trade.
Yao called his time in Kenya — his first trip to Africa — "wonderful."
"Living in a wild place is not as comfortable as a hotel room or a home, but it's a totally different experience," said the
towering athlete. "My best moments here was at 6 a.m. with the sunrise and the wild animals."
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright © 2012 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. | Yahoo! - ABC News Network | / 8/16/12
Yao Ming Documents African Poaching Crisis | ThePostGame
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Yao Ming Documents African Poaching Crisis
Tuesday, August 14, 2012 7:17 pm
Written by: ThePostGame Staff
While Yao Ming will always be remembered for his on-court accolades with the Houston Rockets, his career as a humanitarian may one day be just as notable, if
not more so.
During the past few years, Yao has played in and hosted numerous charity basketball games, donated millions to an earthquake relief fund and led a crusade
against the consumption of shark fin soup in China.
Recently, Yao took on another challenge. The 31-year-old, who has worked with the wildlife conservation group WildAid before, went with them on a fact-finding
trip to Africa in which Yao documented the continent’s growing poaching crisis.
Yao Ming's Conservationist Visit To Africa
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Yao inspects the corpse of a poached elephant in Namunyak,
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