Positive interventions

An organisation called WildAid got a basketball star in Asia to appear in a public service announcement about shark fin soup. It raised awareness of where the sharks came from and how they were killed, and was aired to more than a billion viewers in Asia. Afterwards, 80% of respondents said they would not order shark fin soup any more.

In Lamakera, a village in Indonesia, manta rays were being killed by the hundreds every day so that their gills could be sold to China. It was the main livelihood of the villagers. An advocacy group, including those involved in Racing Extinction, attended an international meeting of Cites in Thailand. Manta rays were put on the agenda and in a vote of 91 to 39, it became illegal to harm, let alone kill, a manta ray. It was acknowledged, however, that an alternative livelihood was needed for the village. The Racing Extinction team ran a campaign there to show that the “rays are worth more alive than they are dead”, and it was reinvented as an ecotourism venue. It went from a hunting culture to a tourism culture.

Through Racing Extinction being made, live footage of animals started being projected on the sides of buildings to raise awareness. When the film opened last week, it had a record 11.5 million viewers.

According to the film, installing solar panels at your home could save enough fuel to drive a car more than halfway around the world each year.