DELIVER THE INNOVATIVE PROJECTS THAT AIM TO SAVE AFRICA'S THREATENED HERDS

in Gabon we are lucky to live amid some of the most beautiful forests on the planet and to share our country with one of the world’s most special creatures: the forest elephant. Yet in Gabon we also have some of the hardest-working farmers who help produce the food for our tables.

“This fence is an important step in protecting their livelihoods, while also helping protect our elephants from “If we protect people’s livelihoods, they will be more likely to want to help us preserve the national park.”

The Giants Club is a pan-African conservation initiative uniting Gabon, Kenya, Uganda and Botswana. Its patron is Evening Standard proprietor Evgeny Lebedev. In recent months it has started to fulfil its commitment to help stop poachers and ensure elephants and their habitats thrive.

It follows the summit held in Kenya in April, hosted by the country’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, which generated pledges of $5 million and coincided with the country burning the entirety of its ivory stocks. HE summit and burn generated a focus on the plight of the African elephant which reached a global media audience of 853 million people. In Kenya in June, construction started on the 163km Laikipia electric fence, supported by the Leopardess Foundation and the British Army.

In Botswana, the Giants Club is working with the local Tlhokomela Trust to increase the penalties for poaching, while Uganda is about to unveil a new set of judicial guidelines developed with the club’s legal chief to increase conviction rates for wildlife crime.

Plans are being made to stage the next Giants Club event next year. The club is working with the Ugandan government to develop an investment scheme for its protected conservation areas, and a global forum will take place in Uganda in the spring.

“It is quite unprecedented to see action being taken so quickly,” said Max Graham, chief executive of Space for Giants, the implementation charity of the Giants Club. “But we have to act fast and deliver on the summit’s pledges immediately if the elephants are to be saved, and the landscapes they depend on protected.”