World Celebrities ‘Join the Herd’ to Fight for Africa’s Elephants

With momentum building to finally stop the illegal ivory trade and end the years-long poaching war on elephants, a global team of celebrities and conservation groups led by WildAid has launched #JoinTheHerd, a new social movement to make 2016 the year when more African elephants are born than killed.

Actors, musicians, authors and athletes “joining the herd” Thursday on social media represent five continents and include Academy Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o, Yao Ming (former NBA star), Yoko Ono, Ian Somerhalder (Vampire Diaries) & Nikki Reed (The Twilight Saga), Alikiba (Tanzanian music artist), Lang Lang (virtuoso pianist), Maggie Q (Nikita and Scandal), Sir Trevor McDonald (British news presenter), Bo Derek (actress and longtime WildAid ambassador), Kristin Bauer (actress, HBO’s True Blood), Laurie David (American environmental activist), Tony Jaa (Furious 7), Amy Tan (author, The Joy Luck Club), and Li Bingbing (China’s most famous actress).

Launched internationally in both English and Mandarin, the campaign encourages anyone who cares about elephants to #JoinTheHerd by changing their social media profile photo at YearoftheElephant.org or even learn to say the greeting in Chinese. To coincide with the upcoming Chinese New Year, visitors to the website are encouraged to join a cast of celebrities in wishing their social media friends and followers a “Happy Year of the Elephant” — a new twist on welcoming the Chinese Zodiac’s Year of the Monkey on February 8.

WildAid Ambassador and Academy Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o’s #JoinTheHerd photo

This week’s social media blitz is the first in a year-long series of international campaign activities for Year of the Elephant, including celebrity-hosted events, rallies, and design and photography competitions to celebrate elephants and ensure that the world’s illicit ivory trade is shut down, once and for all.

For nearly a decade, rising consumer demand for ivory has fueled a poaching epidemic throughout Africa — decimating forest and bush elephants alike, leaving baby elephants without their mothers, and stripping local communities of desperately-needed tourism revenue. Meanwhile, militant groups have profited from the ivory trade, creating regional instability and strife. An estimated 33,000 African elephants are killed every year for their tusks.

But in just a few short months, world leaders have finally charted a course to ending the crisis. In September, President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping agreed to phase out commercial ivory sales in the United States and China — an accord that also depends upon the closure of the Hong Kong SAR market, which caters overwhelmingly to visitors from mainland China, the world’s largest ivory market.

The Hong Kong SAR government has been a fierce supporter of its large domestic ivory trade. With international criticism mounting, however, last month Hong Kong SAR Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying made a stunning announcement: The government will work to ban the local ivory market.

To make 2016 the Year of the Elephant, the #JoinTheHerd movement is calling upon the worldwide closure of ivory markets and is asking the US, China and Hong Kong SAR to provide specific details and a detailed timeline for phasing out ivory sales.

#JointheHerd and Year of the Elephant were created by WildAid and Grey London in partnership with Lovesocial in New York.