Kenya Airways Launches Wildlife Fundraising Campaign

African bush elephant at the Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary in Kenya

Kenya Airways launched a fundraising campaign in November 2013 to raise nearly $860,000 annually toward wildlife conservation efforts.

Under the program, launched in partnership with the Born Free Foundation, funds will be collected on all Kenya Airways flights for wildlife-related causes worldwide.

The new initiative comes at a time of heightened concerns regarding wildlife conservation in eastern Africa including Kenya. A number of cases involving indiscriminate killing of rhinos and elephants to meet the demand for rhino horn and ivory in China have been reported in east Africa in the past year.

Kenya alone has lost 214 elephants and 36 rhinos to poaching since the beginning of the year, according to the Kenyan Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources.