On 23 May, Yue Lei, Senior Vice President of Sanpower Group and ambassador of United for Wildlife (UfW), had individual meetings with Sasara George, ambassador of Botswana to China, and Paul Chikawa, ambassador of Zimbabwe to China, to discuss wildlife protection issues.

Botswana and Zimbabwe are not only paradises for the survival of wild animals, but also important sites of wildlife protection. Approximately 300,000 African elephants live in these two countries, accounting for half of all of the continent’s elephants. There are over 30 national parks and wildlife reserves in the Botswana and Zimbabwe, and 38% land of Botswana is classified as a wildlife sanctuary.

Yue Lei showed the two ambassadors the nominees for the animal protection-themed poster competition held as part of the 2016 London Design Festival Nanjing Week. “We Don’t Need the Art of Cruelty”, “I Am Not a Commodity” and many other posters promoting the protection of elephants and rhinoceros resonated with the ambassadors.

 

Yue Lei and Sasara George, Ambassador of Botswana to China, hold a poster. (In the poster, the ivory is labelled and becomes a trading commodity for humans. The poster speaks for elephants and protests, “I am not a commodity!”)

In recent years, Botswana and Zimbabwe have made some progress in combating illegal poaching and illegal hunting has been contained effectively. The situation is still not entirely optimistic, however. A mass poisoning of elephants occurred in Zimbabwe last October and more than 60 elephants were poached.

Protecting wildlife is a global issue. In recent years, there have been discussions on the wildlife protection issue during high-level visits between government officials of China and these two countries and last year the Chinese government donated wildlife protection supplies to the two countries. Yue Lei hoped that the people of the two countries could establish a cooperation mechanism and establish workstations for Chinese volunteers to tackle the issue together.

Yue Lei and Paul Chikawa, Ambassador of Zimbabwe to China. (The theme of the poster is ivory protection and states, “We don’t need the art of cruelty!”)

The two ambassadors invited Yue Lei to visit Africa to understand the situation on the ground. Paul Chikawa, Ambassador of Zimbabwe to China, noted that Zimbabwe was committed to building a balanced ecosystem and he hoped that the Chinese programme could provide new ideas. Sasara George, Ambassador of Botswana to China, strongly identified with Yue Lei’s suggestion creating volunteer workstations. He said, “Wildlife protection needs cooperation between people. We are looking forward to the addition of Chinese power.”

 

Currently, the Wildlife Protection Foundation established by Sanpower and the British Royal Family has set up two animal observation and protection stations in Kenya and Botswana with the aim of upgrading the hardware and software at the observation stations and strengthening the training of patrol personnel. Yue Lei said, “Next, we will continue to act. The focus is to work with nongovernmental protection organisations in the two countries to fight against illegal poaching together.”