I've had a crazy idea for a while: sell certificates for those crazy collectors.
The certificates show that the collector has financed x and y to protect species z.
The certificates are numbered and traced.
Get a couple of celebrities to buy a couple of pre-owned certificates for a higher figure than they were sold originally and hey - we git an instant collectible.
(Yes, tongue in cheek; for those who likes blockchains: You can even have your own blockchain for supporting animals..!)
The stakes are higher when losing a keystone species, say, versus a Van Gogh (just for examples sake, I certainly hope we can preserve both). Yet sadly more people identify with the creations of their own species, than outside their species.
Irrespective of the challenges their sheer size presents, they’re also relatively smart, and happen to live in conflicted territories. Convincing elephants that they should feel safe, and command enough familiar territory to breed openly is an additional complexity.
Is there enough room for 100,000 or a million more elephants? I’d like to think so, but what do I know?