Behati lights up Empire State
Behati Prinsloo says growing up in Namibia, she was lucky enough to see elephants, lions and rhinos in the wild.
Namibian-born supermodel Behati Prinsloo flipped the light switch at the Empire State Building in New York to celebrate World Wildlife Day yesterday.
World Wildlife Day takes place annually on 3 March and Prinsloo, who is the global ambassador for Save the Rhino Trust Namibia (SRT), joined forces with the United Nations Development Programme to mark the day.
“At the Empire State Building, an iconic feature on the New York skyline made famous through movies like King Kong and Sleepless in Seattle, Prinsloo flipped the switch to light the building blue, green and gold, reflecting the colours of the oceans, earth and plains of Africa to highlight the plight of wildlife, including rare and endangered species,” SRT said in a statement.
Sharing her commitment to Namibia's rhinos, Prinsloo also made it possible to have the image of a rhino circling the spire as part of the design, as a symbol of the many majestic species that face critical threats.
“Growing up in Namibia, where I was lucky enough to see elephants, lions and rhinos in the wild, I never imagined that their future would be so precarious that we would need to set aside a day to remind ourselves of what we have to lose if they go extinct. We simply cannot let that happen,” Prinsloo said.
“Wildlife is under immense threat, even in my homeland, Namibia, where rhinos are being senselessly poached. We human beings are doing this to them, yet we have the power to prevent this ancient, noble species from going extinct. Immediate action is needed to conserve wildlife so that our children can grow up with a sense of wonder and appreciation of our rich and diverse planet,” she said.
The CEO of SRT Namibia, Simson Uri-Khob, stressed that efforts to stop poaching and fight wildlife crime are an ongoing battle, with local communities, regional partnerships and international allies deeply involved in the fight.
SRT is part of a USAID-funded initiative, the Combatting Wildlife Crime Project (CWCP).
Launched in 2017, the five-year, five-country project aims to increase rhino numbers in Namibia and reduce the poaching of elephants. It also aims to increase opportunities for range expansion in select areas of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area.
“Working closely with our local partners, we have achieved two years without a rhino poaching incident in the northwest of Namibia, while at the same time helping to raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity to the planet and to the lives of local people,” said Uri-Khob.
The head of World Wildlife Fund Namibia, Chris Weaver, said the scale of wildlife crime is vast and sophisticated, requiring many donor-funded initiatives to work in a collaborative manner to counter it.
It has been recognised that no single approach will end wildlife crime.
“But by raising awareness, building capacity, benefiting communities, stopping poaching and strengthening investigations and prosecution, these initiatives and the CWCP are giving wildlife and communities a fighting chance,” he said.
This year's World Wildlife Day celebrations focused on wildlife as a component of biodiversity in its many beautiful and varied forms, raising awareness of the multitude of benefits of wildlife to people, the threats it faces and the urgent need for private and public sector commitments.
ELLANIE SMIT
World Wildlife Day takes place annually on 3 March and Prinsloo, who is the global ambassador for Save the Rhino Trust Namibia (SRT), joined forces with the United Nations Development Programme to mark the day.
“At the Empire State Building, an iconic feature on the New York skyline made famous through movies like King Kong and Sleepless in Seattle, Prinsloo flipped the switch to light the building blue, green and gold, reflecting the colours of the oceans, earth and plains of Africa to highlight the plight of wildlife, including rare and endangered species,” SRT said in a statement.
Sharing her commitment to Namibia's rhinos, Prinsloo also made it possible to have the image of a rhino circling the spire as part of the design, as a symbol of the many majestic species that face critical threats.
“Growing up in Namibia, where I was lucky enough to see elephants, lions and rhinos in the wild, I never imagined that their future would be so precarious that we would need to set aside a day to remind ourselves of what we have to lose if they go extinct. We simply cannot let that happen,” Prinsloo said.
“Wildlife is under immense threat, even in my homeland, Namibia, where rhinos are being senselessly poached. We human beings are doing this to them, yet we have the power to prevent this ancient, noble species from going extinct. Immediate action is needed to conserve wildlife so that our children can grow up with a sense of wonder and appreciation of our rich and diverse planet,” she said.
The CEO of SRT Namibia, Simson Uri-Khob, stressed that efforts to stop poaching and fight wildlife crime are an ongoing battle, with local communities, regional partnerships and international allies deeply involved in the fight.
SRT is part of a USAID-funded initiative, the Combatting Wildlife Crime Project (CWCP).
Launched in 2017, the five-year, five-country project aims to increase rhino numbers in Namibia and reduce the poaching of elephants. It also aims to increase opportunities for range expansion in select areas of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area.
“Working closely with our local partners, we have achieved two years without a rhino poaching incident in the northwest of Namibia, while at the same time helping to raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity to the planet and to the lives of local people,” said Uri-Khob.
The head of World Wildlife Fund Namibia, Chris Weaver, said the scale of wildlife crime is vast and sophisticated, requiring many donor-funded initiatives to work in a collaborative manner to counter it.
It has been recognised that no single approach will end wildlife crime.
“But by raising awareness, building capacity, benefiting communities, stopping poaching and strengthening investigations and prosecution, these initiatives and the CWCP are giving wildlife and communities a fighting chance,” he said.
This year's World Wildlife Day celebrations focused on wildlife as a component of biodiversity in its many beautiful and varied forms, raising awareness of the multitude of benefits of wildlife to people, the threats it faces and the urgent need for private and public sector commitments.
ELLANIE SMIT
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