http://www.takepart.com/articl...on-elephant-poachers

Kristin Davis screened her documentary 'Gardeners of Eden' at the U.S. Department of State as part of its Earth Day events.

In the time it takes to read this story, another African elephant will be dead, slaughtered to feed a seemingly insatiable global appetite for ivory. Yet if the massacre isn’t halted—and soon—an ancient, graceful species that once roamed the earth in the tens of millions could vanish within a generation, jeopardizing humanity as well as the environment.

That urgent message is at the heart of Gardeners of Eden, a powerful documentary produced by Kristin Davis, an actor best known as the kindhearted but lovelorn yuppie Charlotte York on the hit TV show Sex and the City. In real life, Davis is a passionate environmental activist committed to saving African elephants, one at a time if necessary.

With elephants vanishing from the wild, “I feel like it’s a tipping point,” said Davis, who screened the 61-minute film at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., as part of its Earth Day events. Poachers, she added, “have no qualms about anything they’re doing. They’ve committed themselves to the dark side. And that’s why the rest of us have to stand up and say we actually care. We have to tell our lawmakers we care.”

The film, which premieres on May 6 on our sister network, Pivot TV, shows how elephants have been mutilated, stressed, and hunted to the brink of extinction. The story centers on the heroic elephant-rescue efforts of The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, a wildlife conservation center on the edge of Kenya’s Tsavo National Park—a prime hunting ground for poachers.

Gardeners of Eden also illuminates the big picture: how economic, cultural, and political forces drive illegal poaching for ivory—a precious resource coveted by status seekers—as well as financiers for terrorists and warlords around the world.



At a roundtable discussion following the State Department screening, Davis, Michelle Gadd of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Africa Program, and Bryan Christy, an investigative journalist with National Geographic magazine, described a dire situation for African elephants.

Despite campaigns linking ivory to the carnage driving elephants to endangerment, demand remains high, while the risk for poachers remains low, they said. That’s largely because corrupt governments in Africa—and leaders in China and the U.S., the world’s top-two ivory markets—haven’t made the protection of elephants a top priority.

“If you’re in the wildlife trade, the people who are going after you are going to be the least well funded even in the best of times,” even though elephants and other African game have been used to fund wars and terrorism, Christy said. “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is one of the best in the world, and it is always outnumbered and always outgunned.”

Indeed, the film illustrates the Sisyphean task faced by a small squad of rangers at Tsavo National Park, a sprawling, arid territory the size of Maine. Tracking footsteps and bits of a wounded animal’s flesh, rangers get to the scene a step behind active poachers, yet they consider it a good day because they have found and dismantled 24 snare traps.

Although the film shows elephants orphaned or horrifically wounded, “the irony is that these elephants in this movies are actually the lucky ones,” Gadd said. “Somebody rescued them; somebody took them to the [Sheldrick] orphanage; somebody took care of them. The tragic thing is these events are happening across Africa every day, and there's no one there to film it.”



Watch the Trailer for Kristin Davis' Elephant-Poaching Doc 'Gardeners of Eden'

The best way to stop poaching, Davis said, is for ordinary people to get involved and demand action.

“It is something in all of our interests” because the danger extends beyond Tsavo National Park, Davis said. Poachers, she said, “are also doing other bad things. People who are interested in doing bad things to [other] people for gain are interested in killing elephants because of the money.”

At the same time, “normal people, who are good people, and who would care about the elephants if they knew, are really busy trying to just live their lives and buy their groceries and take care of their kids, and they don’t really know,” she said. “And I think if they did know, they would want to rise up because it’s not just the elephants—it’s the entire world. These people who are bad—who have the ability to move illegal wildlife, weapons, and people around the world—they’re no joke.”

“We have to stand up,” Davis declared, “and we have to stand up now.”

Gardeners of Eden premieres Wednesday, May 6, at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, only on Pivot TV. To learn more and take action against elephant poaching, visit takepart.com/ivory.

A fading tv show actor wants to stop the actions of poaching conducted by ;
the powerful global organised crime syndicate thats intertwined with officials from foreign embassies
and that has war lord terrorists working the field for them.

...good luck.

Maybe she should join that loudmouth US female Marine mechanic parading herself in camo and holding a self-loader,
but who in reality has only been employed in Africa to show female park rangers on how to insert tampons.

Im convinced these type people are primarily out to better their profile & fading or directionless careers
and Elephant or Rhino seems to be a powerful convenient coat-tail subject for them to latch on to.

people like the deceased LAdy Diana was advised to do something about her fading profile, after she lost her
high profile HRH title following her divorce.
So her pr managers then had her on camera in her new Crusader cause 'sweeping for land mines'....

prior to that, Diana had made one last attempt to salvage the H.R.H. before the decree,
appealing to Sir Robert Fellowes, her brother-in-law, who was Queen Elizabeth's private secretary.
but he declined the request.

she then desperately needed a new global high profile career move to replace the old one....

quote:

Im convinced these type people are primarily out to better their profile & fading or directionless careers
and Elephant or Rhino seems to be a powerful convenient coat-tail subject for them to latch on to.

Exactly!

Slash of Guns n Roses fame has a video and song on the same matter.

People like these are bored and need attention.
Besides , they are not normal people in normal sense. They live in BUBBLE.
Clueless dreamers.

Just like all the Hollywood and bleeding heart idiots who got behind ending Apartheid. They had not a clue what they were doing or what the outcome would be, but that certainly didn't stop their emotionally charged rants against it.

It would be so much better if they would all just focus on ending global warming and leave the rest of the planet and intelligent life alone.

Anytime anyone from Hollywood says something, it is time to ignore it.

These idiots are only seeking attention to better themselves.

Period!

I am curious as to what Trax has done to help anything any where besides his egomaniacal diatribes?

Sean Russell,

Im glad that I don't claim to be anyones false hero

if you think the fading female actor, fading female US marine mechanic or fading Lady Diana were actually
out to help anyone but themselves,...Then it just proves how easy it is to excite & fool the uneducated masses.