The Elephant Protection Initiative (EPI) Foundation has appointed two of Africa’s most eminent conservation leaders to its Board of Trustees: Nigeria’s former Minister of State for the Environment, Sharon Ikeazor, and Professor Lee White, who is Gabon’s former Minister of Water, Forests, the Sea and the Environment.
Ikeazor has also accepted an invitation from the board members to serve as chair of the board.
In warmly welcoming Ikeazor and White to the board, the EPI Foundation’s CEO, John Scanlon AO, said: “Sharon Ikeazor is a dedicated and effective advocate for the environment, both in Nigeria and at the international level, and Lee White has been a renowned conservationist in Gabon and is a tireless spokesman for nature conservation in Africa. We are thrilled that the EPI Foundation will benefit from their deep expertise and vision and consolidate its position as Africa’s voice in elephant conservation,”
The EPI Foundation serves as the secretariat to the EPI, an alliance of 26 African countries with common policies on elephant conservation. The EPI was formed in 2014 by the leaders of Botswana, Chad, Ethiopia, Gabon, and Tanzania and has grown steadily ever since. Most of Africa’s surviving elephants are in EPI countries.
Ikeazor and White have already served on the EPI’s Leadership Council, where they provided valuable guidance and advice to the EPI Foundation.
Following her appointment as Chair of the Board, Ikeazor said: “I am determined that Africa should save its elephants, but we must also ensure a better future for the people who live near them, and I will use my position as Chair to advance those objectives.”
Professor White said: “Over the past decade, the EPI has succeeded in preserving the international moratorium on ivory trade and worked to close many ivory markets. I want to help the EPI Foundation consolidate those achievements, but also to expand its good work in addressing the growing challenge of conflict between people and elephants as they compete for land and diminishing natural resources.”