Elephants might be thousands of miles away in Africa, but a DU activist group is taking a stand to fight the illegal ivory trade all the way from Denver.
A World With… (AWW) is a student activist group that is trying to fight the illegal sale of elephant ivory and to stop the slaughtering of elephants around the world.
Founded by International Studies Professor, Robert Uttaro, last spring, the group became an official student organization in September and also joined forces with the Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) to help stop this issue.
Uttaro has been a professor at DU for four years and believes students and the younger generation have the ability to help fight larger global problems.
“If young people realize that by organizing, they are actually making a political demand and the right to exercise their future, which my generation has the obligation to let them have, then they can begin to address the other things and there are a vast number of things,” said Uttaro.
As part of their action to stop this, AWW created a petition for a non-binding resolution that will completely ban the international sale of ivory.
The petition is currently being circulated around campus and is also available for e-signatures on change.org. The online petition was signed by 443 people from the US and around the world. Members of AWW also received 58 signatures after standing at the corner of Evans and University on Oct. 3, according to Uttaro.
One member of the group, senior international studies and German major, Jake Schuss, grew up in the middle of nature in Basalt, Colo. and always had a connection to nature and animals.
“To me, this issue is just as relevant in Colorado as it is anywhere else. People might say ‘well, the elephants are really far away’ but that’s the whole point. The idea that a lot of kids in our generation, they don’t seem apathetic, but indifferent or that they can’t do anything to change the way things are, but I want to tap back into that energy of the generation before us. No matter what generation you are part of, you have to be the one who sees it as your future,” said Schuss.
The group currently has around 15 undergraduate students as well as the students from the Graduate School of Social Work. They also have another co-faculty advisor, Sarah Bexell, a visiting scholar in the Graduate School of Social Work who is the director of conservation education and communications at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China.
The name of the group comes from a quote from Richard Ruggiero, the Chief of the Fish & Wildlife Service in Near East, South Asia and Africa. Uttaro was intrigued after reading an interview with Ruggiero where he asked, “Is the world better with elephants or without?”
“We came up with A World With… because [the world] doesn’t have to end,” said Uttaro.
Sophomore international studies and Spanish major, Natalie Neubert, from Easton, Conn., believes the issue of elephant slaughtering and the illegal sale of ivory has a lot more to do with other, larger global issues like poverty.
“When we first started the group, there was a big connection to the problem of poverty in general in the world and how the ivory trade ties into that and the connection between supply and demand amongst the poachers. It was not just about the elephants, but also the other problems that were encompassed within it,” said Neubert.
According to Uttaro, Oct. 4 marked the International March for Elephants Day and 15 cities around the world demonstrated to bring an end to the ivory trade.
AWW is looking to get a few thousand signatures by January so they can deliver the petition to the legislature when they reconvene for the year.
“This was our way of saying, we in Denver are with you, even if it is not official,” said Uttaro.
Sophomore international studies and geography major, Cody Broncucia from Denver, became a member of AWW because he wants other generations to have a world with elephants and other animals.
“Every year we hear of things disappearing and you hear of just how our world is constantly losing things and so for me, it really is in our title, it is who we are. It is making sure that my kids and I can continue to have a world with things that I enjoy and care about,” said Broncucia.
Although AWW is a student organization, their goal is to make this a movement across high schools, universities and campuses around the world.
“We are an activist group and we can’t keep it here on campus. We have to explore how we can replicate this around the world because this is a global issue and we are not going to solve it here at DU; but why not start here?” said Uttaro.
Uttaro believes that the Korbel School’s mission is in conjunction with AWW’s mission and that the connection will help them develop and gain international awareness in the future.
“This is about empowerment,” said Uttaro. “I think for too long, and it still exists in a lot of people’s minds, that the world is heading for a cliff and there is nothing we can do about it. That is the underlying reason we want this to become an international and national- type organization where people realize, if we can, saving the elephants will not save the world but it is a step towards that.”
The group meets every Wednesday at 6:30 in the Cherrington Hall Room 310. To sign the petition visit: chn.ge/17PbN8T
