The elephants of Africa are under serious threat due to large scale habitat loss and poaching for their ivory tusks.

The current poaching surge is resulting in almost 25,000 elephants being killed throughout Africa each and every year. This equates to approximately one elephant being killed every 15 minutes to supply the black market demand for ivory.

The Tsavo Trust is a small Kenyan not-for-profit organisation that works tirelessly with the Kenya Wildlife Service in protecting the wildlife of the region.

Their flagship program is their aerial reconnaissance flights that patrol Tsavo each day looking for illegal activity such as livestock grazing in protected areas, habitat destruction & charcoal production and of course the illegal poaching of elephants and other wildlife.

One of their important projects, the Big Tusker Project monitors the handful of great tuskers left in the Tsavo ecosystem. These elephants have enormous tusks, each weighing 100lbs on each side, and as a result have been the target of mass poaching over several decades, almost entirely wiping out the gene pool of these impressive and special animals.

Elephants are also increasingly coming into contact with rural people in competition over food crops and resources, resulting in Human Elephant Conflict, and in extreme cases in deaths on both sides and increasing animosity.

Two organisations - Save The Elephants and The Tsavo Trust are working hard to protect elephants and people in and around the Tsavo ecosystem in Kenya.

Save The Elephants focuses on research, education, grass-roots conservation, monitoring and protection of the species and is involved in projects across Africa, including the pioneering Elephants and Bees project under the direction of Dr Lucy King. The Elephants and Bees project uses beehive fences as an innovative eco-deterrent against crop raiding elephants, protecting elephants from Human Elephant Conflict and at the same time protecting crops and providing farmers an alternative income source through honey sales.

View a short video about the elephants and bees project here :

On the 31st of August 2017, Ro Vince, Save the Elephants’ Project Officer at Elephants and Bees will be participating in a 9 day fundraising trek in conjunction with The Askari Project in an attempt to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro - which at 5,895m is the highest peak in Africa, all to raise funds for elephant conservation in Tsavo, Kenya.

The funding raised through her efforts will be divided between the Elephants & Bees Project, and the aerial & ground operations of The Tsavo Trust.

This 9 day adventure trek up the Rongai route of Kilimanjaro is being completed by 11 dedicated participants -

Ro Vince (Elephants & Bees Project)

Josh Outram (Tsavo Trust Pilot)

Bradd Johnston (The Askari Project)

Phil Richmond

Kevin Johnston

Michelle Campbell

Laura Trollope

Jake Williams

Natasha Weekes

Courtney Krause

Margaret Krause

Her goal is to raise as much funding as possible for the conservation of elephants in the Tsavo region of Kenya - comprising more than 42,000 square kilometres - an area larger than the Netherlands.

Please get behind Ro and support her dedicated efforts, which will include the countless hours of training and preparation that are involved in ensuring she and the rest of our fundraising group reach the summit for a very important and worthy cause!

Thank you for supporting Ro and for taking an interest in elephant conservation and our combined efforts in protecting some of the last Great Tuskers of Africa.

For more information about elephants and the conservation activities Ro is supporting please click on the  links  below :

www.elephantsandbees.com

www.tsavotrust.org

www.theaskariproject.org