Wildlife conservation is now more pressing than ever and greater efforts to target the root of the problem are needed, says Nadya Hutagalung, co-founder of conservation initiative Let Elephants Be Elephants.
It has been two years since Nadya Hutagalung—television host and one of Asia’s most recognised faces of sustainable and “green living”—and zoologist Tammie Matson started on their journey to save elephants from extinction. In 2013, they founded Let Elephants Be Elephants (LEBE), a conservation project with a focus on reducing Asia’s demand for ivory by raising awareness on the increasingly endangered status of elephants due to a growth in poaching for their tusks.
“From the year 2010 to 2012, 100,000 elephants were killed just for ivory and there are just 400,000 of them left in Africa,” Nadya laments. “At the speed that they are going, they could disappear before most of our next generation gets to see them. Did we ever think that elephants would disappear from our world?”
In the realm of wildlife conservation, on-the-ground efforts such as training and arming anti-poaching rangers to guard the animals have been the traditional way to go. However, such methods are becoming less effective in eliminating the illegal multimillion-dollar trade. That’s where a new, consumer-targeted technique such as LEBE’s comes in.
“With regards to ivory, it’s guns against guns, which literally resembles a war taking place. Now, more conservationists are recognising that the consumer demand is what has to stop. And when it stops, the poaching of elephants can be stopped,” explains Nadya.
For LEBE, knowledge is power. And educating the masses with it is the way to protect elephants now. “Most people or buyers don’t know that an elephant has to die for ivory to be obtained from it,” says Nadya. “Hence, what people need is education so they’d fight this battle with us and to make a change.”
Since establishing LEBE, Nadya and Dr Matson have been working intensively on producing impactful campaigns in countries around Asia, including Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia. Through them, they hope to give the public a clearer understanding of the direct impact of their ivory demands on the poaching rates in Africa.
A major milestone was crossed when their documentary, a heart-wrenching half-hour film that chronicled the plight of elephants in Africa, was picked up and screened on the National Geographic Channel across Asia. The United Nations (UN) and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge have also since given their support.
Nadya has also taken on a new role as a Great Apes Survival Partnership ambassador, which saw her make her first address to the UN General Assembly in New York in March for World Wildlife Day. Her approach is the same: to promote education of the general public as a key method to furthering wildlife conservation efforts today.
For the Australia-born Bali resident, the UN initiative hits close to home. “Given my Sumatran roots and hearing tatler_tatler_stories of my mother having rescued two orangutans when I was younger, this is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
In the role, she will tap on her media presence in Asia to draw public attention to the diminishing populations of bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and, in particular, orangutans, and their dwindling natural habitats. “I want to make others more aware of how they purchase, what they are purchasing, where their products come from and how their purchases affect their environment.”
And as she gradually adapts to her new responsibilities within the role, she gathers inspiration from her peers, which include celebrated wildlife activists Jane Goodall and Richard Leakey.
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