The Lion’s Share Fund has huge potential to make a real impact – and they’re doing so already. In Mozambique, they’ve equipped rangers with new communication equipment to help fight elephant poaching; they went from 200 elephants being killed to zero. In Indonesia, they’ve purchased palm oil plantations and are restoring them back to rainforest to re-create lost habitat. And in Australia, they’ve donated funds to the Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital to help with the treatment and rehabilitation of injured wildlife after the bushfire crisis.
We’re at the beginning of extreme climate change, and we need to put the brakes on and change the course before it’s too late. There needs to be a shift – and I am hopeful it will happen. If you look at what we’ve been able to create as a species in the past 100 years, I absolutely believe we will be able to find solutions and change our ways. Initiatives such as The Lion’s Share Fund give me hope. So, too, does [environmental activist ] Greta Thunberg. I’m in awe of what she’s done and achieved. And how the hell she can be calm and collected under intense pressure, and still be so clear in her message? I think she’s proof individual people can have an impact.
I hope my children and grandchildren will have the same joy of being on this planet as we have had. I want a future where humans coexist with the rest of the planet’s animals and plants. There’s room for all of us.
This article originally appeared in the May issue of marie claire: on sale now.
