Hong Kong – Ivory is exquisitely beautiful but its prize is worth the lives of thousands of elephants.
Demand is especially high in Asian markets, with Hong Kong as the world’s largest retail market for ivory, but a new campaign from WWF and Geometry Global seeks to literally rewrite the country’s notoriety and end wanton ivory trade.
Called “Rewrite Their Future,” the campaign seeks to create a new Chinese character for ivory, which the WWF Hong Kong, Geometry and Ogilvy Hong Kong, found out was partly the root cause of the apathy among Hong Kongers on the issue.
“We discovered that the Chinese character for ivory literally translates to ‘Elephant Teeth’, leading to a common misconception that they just fall out harmlessly. So we realized we had to change more than just the law, we had to change the language,” says Reed Collins, CCO of the Ogilvy Group.
When creating their characters, now to accurately portray the nature of ivory extraction, via the campaign website (http://rewritetheirfuture.wwf.org.hk), Hong Kongers are also submitting a petition to the Hong Kong government to take concrete action to prohibit the city’s ivory trade. To garner support, the campaign will extend into schools, shopping malls and social media. The petition to ban ivory sales in Hong Kong will be presented to the government in early 2016.
Numbering three to five million in the last century, African elephant populations were severely reduced to less than 470,000 today primarily because of hunting and loss of habitat. In recent years, growing demand for ivory, particularly from Asian markets, such as Hong Kong, Bangkok and Beijing, has led to a surge in poaching.
“The ivory trade is the primary driver for the killing of over 30,000 elephants a year; if actions are not taken soon, this majestic species can be extinct within our lifetime,” said Cheryl Lo, Senior Wildlife Crime Officer, WWF-Hong Kong.
“We need to rectify the misconception that the ivory trade does not harm elephants, and we believe that the creation of a new Chinese character that accurately portrays the loss of elephants in the procurement of their tusks will go a long way to help achieve this.”
