Last Days (2014 film)

Last Days

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Produced by Megan Ellison
Written by Scott Z. Burns
Edited by James Ryan
Mike Andres
Release date
  • September 27, 2014 (2014-09-27) (New York Film Festival)
Running time
 3 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Last Days is a 2014 animated short film about the killing of African elephants and the illegal ivory trade.[1] It was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, director of the films The Hurt Locker (2009) and Zero Dark Thirty (2012). The film makes the claim that the poaching of elephants in Africa contributes significantly to the funding of terrorist networks.

Claims of a link between terrorism and the ivory trade had also been made by former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, UK foreign secretary William Hague, and Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta. These statements were based on a 2013 report by the Elephant Action League (EAL), which claimed that the militant organization Al-Shabaab profited from the sale of elephant ivory. The film shows footage of the 2013 Westgate shopping mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya, which has been attributed to Al-Shabaab.[2]

A report published jointly by Interpol and the United Nations Environment Programme disputed the claimed link between Al-Shabaab and ivory.[2][3] According to the report:

Media and NGO reports suggesting that Al Shabaab was shipping out 30.6 tons of ivory or corresponding to ivory from 3,600 elephants per year out of southern Somalia [are] likely highly unreliable. To do so, they would have to gather all or nearly all ivory from killed elephants from west, central and eastern Africa and bring it to one port in southern Somalia. So far this route has not featured in any reporting as an ivory smuggling route.[4]

The report indicates that illegal trade in charcoal, a major cause of deforestation, is the principal source of funding for the terror group through informal taxation.[3][4]

A spokesperson for the conservation program TRAFFIC, which monitors the illegal wildlife trade, said that the group has been unable to verify that Al-Shabaab receives significant funding from the trade in ivory. Matthew Bryden, former director of the U.N. Monitoring Group for Somalia and Eritrea, stated that it was more likely that some Somali poachers paid taxes to Al-Shabaab while smuggling ivory through their territory, representing an insignificant funding source for the group.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Foundas, Scott (28 September 2014). "Kathryn Bigelow Decries ‘Last Days’ of the African Elephant". Variety. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 McConnell, Tristan (14 November 2014). "Illegal ivory may not be funding African terror group". USA Today; GlobalPost.
  3. 1 2 Veríssimo, Diogo (16 January 2015). "Kathryn Bigelow and the bogus link between ivory and terrorism". The Conversation.
  4. 1 2 Nellemann, Christian; et al., eds. (2014). The Environmental Crime Crisis: Threats to Sustainable Development From Illegal Exploitation and Trade in Wildlife and Forest Resources. Nairobi, Kenya; Arendal, Norway: United Nations Environment Programme; GRID-Arendal. pp. 78–81. ISBN 978-82-7701-132-5.

Further reading

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