The Power of a Diamond – Episode 1

To Look After The Natural World

This episode explores the importance of safeguarding endangered species for future generations and the positive impact that natural diamonds and a brand, such as De Beers Forevermark can have to conserve, protect and restore high levels of biodiversity.

Samantha Conti, London Bureau Chief of WWD sat down with Charlie Mayhew, CEO of Tusk, Kester Vickery, Co-Founder of Conservation Solutions and Stephen Lussier, Chairman of De Beers Forevermark to hear why ecological issues are not just the responsibility of individuals but of everybody including businesses.

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The discussion took place during Positive Luxury’s Positive Week, and begins by looking at the impact of poaching and the devastating effects that it’s having on the natural world.

Charlie Mayhew explains the changes that they have observed with poaching in Africa. “The threat remains. We’ve seen the poaching crisis in many ways shift from East Africa down south."

Poaching is such a huge problem and although there are rangers that are there to protect the animals, when they are not well trained the animals remain extremely vulnerable to poachers. This is why donations from De Beers Forevermark are so important. “What we have been doing, with the support of De Beers Forevermark, is to fund our partners the Southern African Wildlife College and Save the Rhino Trust to train the rangers with the skills and training they need to protect the rhino from poachers.”

Being able to fund this is vital to De Beers Forevermark, and Stephen Lussier reflects on this and how responsible sourcing and protecting nature’s treasures are at the heart of the De Beers Forevermark brand. “It is a different time and we don’t think of this as corporate social responsibility. You have to think that, without the engagement of business, we are not going to be able to solve the world’s problems.”

For Stephen this has been core to the responsible sourcing work of De Beers Forevermark as part of De Beers Group. “When you see dozens of rhinos protected on our land, it is extraordinary. And it makes you emotional about doing something positive to protect them, and once you are emotionally engaged it is a different thing. That is what has happened with our elephant translocation. There is no greater feeling than seeing the elephants coming off the truck and running into the Zinave National Park.”

As we are all living increasingly busy lives, we are becoming more and more disconnected from the natural world and only focused on our short-term problems. However, through this podcast Charlie, Kester and Stephen highlight how important it is for this mindset to change.