Botswana Joins the Giants Club Initiative

(From left), FA chairman Greg Dyke, Space for Giants CEO Dr Max Graham, Botswana Tourism executive Jillian Blackbeard and High Commissioner Roy Blackbeard at the Giants Club event. (Nigel Howard)

On 11th November, the elephant conservation charity Space for Giants and Botswana’s High Commissioner to the UK, hosted a launch party at Northcliffe House, the offices of The Independent and Evening Standard in London.

The event was held in order to celebrate Botswana joining the Giants Club, an elephant-protection initiative founded by Space for Giants; and to launch Tlhokomela, a Botswanan trust fund that aims to protect the country’s wildlife from potential extinction.

High Commissioner Roy Blackbeard, Space for Giants CEO Dr Max Graham and Botswana Tourism executive Jillian Blackbeard were joined by the high society of the conservation world, from ministers and high commissioners to philanthropists and conservation experts. Stop Ivory CEO Alex Rhodes, FA chairman Greg Dyke and ESI Media executive editor Oliver Poole were among notable guests.

The event also featured a video link from Hon. Tshekedi Khama, Botswana’s Minister for Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, in which he praised the work being done in conservation across Africa, and encouraged guests to support Tlhokomela, and initiatives to protect the African elephant.

African elephants are still being poached for their ivory, and hundreds of thousands have been killed in the last decade. If this rate of poaching continues, the African elephant could be extinct within our lifetimes.