Dear Name of Contact at NGO

Dear [name of contact at NGO]

Global March for Elephants and Rhinos

On 4 October 2014, cities all over the world will march as one voice in the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos to draw attention to the crisis facing these two species and to call for an end to the ivory and rhino horn trade that is pushing them rapidly towards extinction.

This march will be the biggest international event ever held to save our planet’s vanishing wildlife, with the focus on the endangered elephants and rhinos. To date, 94 cities [replace with current number] are participating, with the support and sponsorship of many corporations, organizations, and celebrities from all walks of life.

Will the Environmental Investigation Agency [name of NGO] add its name to support this worldwide event?

As you know, the poaching of elephants and rhinos has surged to unprecedented levels in recent years, fuelled by the demand for ivory and rhino horn from mainly China and Vietnam. The ivory trade is also funding terrorist groups, transnational criminal gangs, and armed militias that are destabilizing African countries as well as posing serious threats to international security.

An elephant is brutally killed every 15 minutes – that’s around 100 every day and an annual toll of 35,000--50,000. With so few elephants left (some estimates put the figure as low as 250,000 for the entire African continent), and with such a slow reproductive cycle, the outlook is very bleak. Unless we take action NOW to stop the killing, it will be too late to save elephants – they will vanish from the wild forever, in less than 10 years.

A rhino is poached every 9-11 hours, with an estimated 24,000 left in the world. Over 1,000 rhinos were poached last year alone, compared to just 13 in 2007. If the rate of killing continues to rise, rhinos too will face extinction within the decade.

The Global March in October calls for urgent concerted action to be taken on all levels to save these highly intelligent, emotionally sentient, socially complex species who have roamed the earth for millions of years. Now they face a military-style onslaught from poachers using AK-47s, mass poisoning, grenades, snares, night-vision equipment, and helicopter gunships to indiscriminately wipe out entire herds at a time.

This is a war, and the elephants and rhinos need you on their side if they are to survive.

Can we count on the EIA [name of NGO] to give its support to the Global March? Please consider ways you can use your outreach channels, social media platforms, and membership network to help get the word out and encourage your supporters to attend the march. For example, you could:

·  Promote and publicize the march on your website and Facebook page

·  Let your membership know about the march in your newsletter or emails

·  Join us in tweeting news about the march

·  Allow us to add EIA’s [name of NGO] name as an official backer of the march

For more information about the march, please see its website: http://www.march4elephantsandrhinos.org/ – here you will find a full list of participating cities, information about the crisis (including articles, graphics, and videos), tweets, petitions, Strategies and Objectives documents, and Memorandums of Demand to be presented to embassies.

We look forward to hearing from you and the ways in which you can participate and lend your support to this global effort. Given your vital role in protecting and helping wildlife, can you afford NOT to be part of this?

Kind regards,

Co-organizer, Global March for Elephants and Rhinos

http://www.march4elephantsandrhinos.org/

email:

[and add your city’s FB event URL and email address]