Resource Management Project

In this Project, me and my partner Haidee Pacheco, chose African elephants as the mismanged resource the earth has. Because my partner and were very unaware how brutally mostly african elephants are treated and even killed for their ivory which happen to be their tusks. We wrote a letter to the senator regarding our concerns, created a PSA, and also created pamphlets to raise awareness, we are currently selling silicon wristbands to help support the cause.

Boxer, Barbara or Feinstein, Dianne
112/ 331Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510

Dear Senator:

Our names are Haidee Pacheco and Jacqueline Tovar, we are writing to express our concern about the unpracticed laws of elephant poaching. Elephants’ have been known to contain the most valuable material to make ivory in their tusks; with such a big demand on ivory, elephants are being killed daily. The African Elephant, one of many different species of elephants that are being poached are close to extinction, yet nothing is being done to protect then. In 1976 Africa had 1.3 million elephants; 10 years later it had dropped to 610,000. Around the same time period Kenya used to hold the largest elephant population in, the population dropped 85% in those 10 years. In Uganda the population dropped from 16,000 to 1,600 elephants. Something has to be done, which is why we are writing to you.

In 1973 the ESA, Endangered Species Act, was established, in order to help species that were close to extinction. The problem with this was that it only protected animals that once they were endangered or threatened. This Act failed to help the African Elephant, and lots of animals that were close to endangerment. Finally in 1989, members of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, created laws in the Appendix I, that banned the international trade of elephant products. However if you were to look at the present facts, it is obvious that this problem hasn’t been solved yet. Recently, in a research by the World Wildlife Fund, for conservation of species, have stated that the African and Asian Elephant are among many of endangered animals in the world.

As we first saw these shocking numbers, we realized that as the youth of tomorrow we have to make a change in our community and if not, a least our school. Ignorance on elephant’s lives had been an issue in our school years, and we won’t be able to intrude a class schedule to use a teacher’s class to inform on this issue. But what we will do is plan events/fundraisers and raise awareness at our local zoo’s and in our community. With our support of our senator.

Sincerely,

Haidee Pacheco



Jacqueline Tovar