Wildlife Works: Capitalism saving wildlife and helping third world poor

[Guest guest]

If you've ever wondered whether capitalism could ever have a human face,

wait 'till you hear this. Wildlife Works, recently featured on CNN, is a

for-profit company from San Francisco that preserves wildlife habitat by

creating sanctuaries in the third world. It gets local villagers to stop

poaching and protect wildlife in return for jobs created in their own

communities. According to the CNN story, the company has successfully

preserved natural elephant habitat in Kenya by turning it into an elephant

sanctuary. The nearby Kenyan villagers, who once poached these animals, now

protect them as the price for investments in their community and jobs making

clothing for sale in the USA. Those jobs have significantly raised the

villagers standard of living by providing income, a school and clean water,

virtually none of which existed before. Here's how Wildlife Works describes

itself on its website:

 

" Wildlife Works mission is to harness the power of the global consumer to

create innovative and sustainable solutions for wildlife conservation.

 

" We call our radical new approach Consumer Powered Conservationsm " .

 

" Founded in San Francisco in 1997, we are the worlds first business designed

from the ground up around a consumer brand that stands for wildlife

conservation. Our promise to all our customers is that we use the proceeds

of our product sales to save the wildlife we all love. We achieve this by

protecting wilderness and providing jobs, building schools and providing

other economic benefits for those people that share their land and resources

with wild animals.

 

" In our first location in Kenya, Africa, we created our 80,000 acre Rukinga

Wildlife Sanctuary, where elephants, cheetahs and 46 other large mammal

species now roam freely. In addition, we built and operate an Eco-factory

next to the sanctuary, where we employ members of the local community to

create some of our products. These jobs have radically changed the way they

view the wildlife. Before we came, they saw wildlife as either bushmeat or

money, and were poaching, clear-cutting and rapidly destroying their natural

environment. With Wildlife Works they can earn enough to feed their families

and send their kids to school without killing wild animals. The wildlife has

become an asset to them worth much more alive than dead. The poaching has

stopped and the animals are returning.

 

" By purchasing a Wildlife Works product youre joining our conservation

revolution. Youre wearing the brand that says you wont sit quietly by, while

the last wild things in the last wild places disappear forever. And our

products are as good for the planet as they are for your soul. Our premium

quality, contemporary womens sportswear, is inspired by endangered species

and their habitats. They are made from organic cotton, hemp and other

environmentally friendly fabrics. The products are sold in over 200 top

boutiques and high end major retailers. Click on the " Store Locator " button

to the left and locate a store near you.

 

" We have received a tremendous amount of support from the conservation

community for our approach, including Dr. Richard Leakey, who says, " I am

convinced their [Wildlife Works] for-profit wildlife conservation venture

represents an important new direction for conservation, tying the

conservation of wildlife and habitat to sustainable economic development in

rural Kenya. "

 

" In the future, we plan to use our Consumer Powered Conservationsm business

model to expand our conservation activities to other places around the world

where animals are under threat of extinction.

 

" And our promise to our customers will remain that every product purchased

from Wildlife Works helps us fill the future with magnificent creatures. So

buy from us, and be part of the solution. Get involved, get informed, and

evolve at www.wildlife-works.com.

 

" Visit OUR STORE Today:

Buy a Great Shirt... Save an Elephant's Hide! "

 

In my opinion, if this concept can be successfully applied elsewhere in the

third world, other for-profit companies just might figure out that there's

more money to be made by saving wildlife and creating jobs for third world

people than there is in exploiting wildlife and ignoring the squalor in

which so many third world people live. You can support the wildlife, the

Kenyan villagers and the company by shopping at their online store and even

investing in the company. I encourage you all to visit their website.