Religious leaders can help stop wildlife crime.

CA: What is the scale of illegal killing?
DC: Tens of thousands of wild elephants are being killed each year, simply for their tusks, to meet the demand for ivory coming from China, Thailand, and other Asian countries. The profits made from the killing of African rhinos and elephants and Asian tigers are about $10 billion each year. This is not local poaching, it is wildlife crime. It is a trade run by international crime syndicates who benefit from the senseless killing of these animals. All of this simply to feed a craze for luxury items and status symbols.

CA: What is the scale of illegal killing?
DC: Tens of thousands of wild elephants are being killed each year, simply for their tusks, to meet the demand for ivory coming from China, Thailand, and other Asian countries. The profits made from the killing of African rhinos and elephants and Asian tigers are about $10 billion each year. This is not local poaching, it is wildlife crime. It is a trade run by international crime syndicates who benefit from the senseless killing of these animals. All of this simply to feed a craze for luxury items and status symbols.

CA: Are Asian elephants and rhinos also poached for their ivory and horns?
DC: Yes. The greater one-horned rhino is the most robust of the three Asian rhino species but still classified as vulnerable. Unfortunately, we believe that there are no more than 50 Javan rhinos in the wild today and fewer than 250 Sumatran rhinos, as a result of rampant poaching and habitat loss.

With fewer than 35,000 individuals, the Asian elephant is classified as endangered and is gravely threatened due to habitat loss and poaching. Elephants are migratory mammals and, in the face of rapidly growing human populations, are becoming more and more isolated in small pockets across Asia. We think faith leaders can play a crucial role in reinforcing the importance of coexistence between humans and wildlife.

CA: Is the Sacred Earth approach working?
DC: In the Himalayas, we went from simply training monastic representatives on environmental issues to helping establish an association called Khoryug of more than 50 Buddhist monasteries that have developed their own projects. These include river clean-ups, reforestation, environmental education, and climate change adaptation. In India, the monks of Tergar Monastery have planted 600 trees on degraded lands. In Nepal, the nuns of Thrangu Tara Abbey have established recycling programs.

In some of the most fragile and ecologically important landscapes in the Himalayas, other monasteries have planted organic gardens, set up solar power stations, and switched from firewood to gas for cooking. Their leadership radiates into the community. By installing solar panels for water heating, for example, a monastery not only demonstrates its commitment to energy efficiency, but also confirms a new climate reality.

CA: Are there any similar initiatives under way in North America?
DC: In the United States, we are exploring a partnership with the Washington National Cathedral and other religious communities on the role of faith in climate change issues. With record droughts, floods, and fires in the last year alone, climate change impacts are evident all across the United States. The conversation we need to be having now is about building resilience for communities and reducing our carbon footprint.

CA: Once WWF gets these initiatives started, is it down to religious leaders to keep them going?
DC: We see ourselves as technical consultants who can help provide the capacity needed—but the leadership and decision-making has to come from faith leaders themselves. It is the only way such a partnership can work and be fruitful in the long term.

This article originally appeared in New Scientist.

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