Hillary Clinton, who until recently had avoided the spotlight in the wake of her election defeat in November, has made a surprise appearance at New York's Tribeca Film Festival as a panellist to discuss illegal elephant poaching.
Saturday's discussion followed the premiere of Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow's virtual reality documentary The Protectors: Walk in the Rangers' Shoes. The eight-minute film allows viewers to experience what it is like to work as a park ranger trying to save elephants in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
"We've got to bust this market," Clinton said of the global ivory trade.
The unexpected appearance was one of several Clinton has made recently, following a period of silence after the former Democratic presidential candidate lost the November election to President Donald Trump.
Clinton said she first began focusing on the "horrific slaughter" of elephants when she was secretary of state and later helped launch an anti-poaching initiative at her family's nonprofit Clinton Global Initiative.
More than 30,000 elephants are killed by poachers every year in Africa.
"When we were looking at this, we thought there were three overriding goals: stop the killing, stop the trafficking and stop the demand," she said.
While China is the world's biggest market for illegal ivory, the United States ranks No.2, Clinton said, requiring Americans to take a leading role in fighting elephant poaching.
Clinton also mentioned the March for Science, which took place in Washington and other cities around the world earlier on Saturday. The Earth Day event was in effect a protest against what critics say has been the Trump administration's disregard for evidence-based knowledge and research.
"Here it is, Earth Day, and we are marching on behalf of science," Clinton said to applause in the theatre.
Earlier this month Clinton granted her first interview since the election. In front of a live audience, she voiced support for US bombing raids on Syrian airfields and said Russian interference in the presidential election was a theft more damaging than Watergate.
Share
