Environmental protection has always been an integral part of Truefitt & Hill’s ethos, therefore we are proud and very excited to announce Truefitt & Hill’s sponsorship of Elephant Family charity and their CoExistence campaign, which aims to raise awareness and funds to make sure that humans and the natural world can not only coexist in the future, but that wildlife is given an opportunity to thrive.
CoExistence is an environmental campaign, which amongst other events, includes an art exhibition by Elephant Family and Real Elephant Collective, featuring a herd of one hundred life-sized Asian elephants, crafted deep in the jungles of Tamil Nadu in India, by indigenous communities who live in close proximity to their real-life counterparts. Here, people and elephants coexist in denser proximity than anywhere else in the world. The CoExistence campaign is a response to the increasing overlap between the human and animal worlds, where the unnatural propinquity of humans and animals is in part responsible for the spread of deadly zoonotic diseases.
The campaign aims to trigger an awareness, as well as collective empathy for the world’s largest and one of the most intelligent land animals which, like so many other magical creatures, are now sadly forced to live in human-dominated landscapes. Launched by Elephant Family charity, the campaign uses indigenous art to turn green spaces across the globe into examples of successful human-animal coexistence, with the Royal Parks being used as exhibition fora in London. More poignantly, creation of the huge elephant sculptures, which are hand crafted from lantana plant, not only generates employment for local communities, but serves also to remove this fast growing, highly invasive and toxic weed from the protected areas, which hugely benefits the wildlife and the local ecosystems.
The campaign marks a unique moment in time when a global reduction in human activity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, has had a positive effect on wildlife around the world. It has now been scientifically demonstrated that the moment we lighten our footprint, wildlife almost instantly flourishes and, in doing so, transforms the health of the planet for us all.
Ruth Ganesh, Creative Lead and Trustee, of Elephant Family commented: “Over the past 18 months, many countries have gone into lockdown. Brought about by tragic circumstances, this ‘great pause’ – coined the ‘anthropause’ - is providing crucial guidance on how to best share space with animals in our crowded planet. The elephants are here to tell their story about the inspiring ways we can coexist with all the other living beings that make our world magical – from tigers and orangutans to nightingales and elephants.”
Flying in with the elephant herds, are flocks of extinct or endangered British birds, such as the nightingale, curlew, dalmatian pelican and turtle dove. These tiny feathered treasures draw attention to the biodiversity we have lost in the UK and to another campaign; one of the most ambitious coexistence visions to launch in the past 12 months - the WildEast project. Initiated by three East Anglian farmers, WildEast calls for all land owners to return 20% of their land in order to facilitate nature recovery. Their aim is to lead the UK towards a future of greater biodiversity and to bring the wildlife back to our landscapes.
It is these priceless projects, undertaken by organisations such as Elephant Family, which include the securement of wildlife corridors enabling safe movement for animals and people, the expansion of national parks and the protection of vital tribal knowledge and livelihoods, that will secure our planet for the future generations.
Let us all do everything we possibly can to champion these pioneering projects by supporting Elephant Family charity or, perhaps even by adopting an elephant!! www.coexistence.org
