At the NIAF, 50th Anniversary Gala, Charles Marsala (left) and John F. Calvelli (right) reflected on the success of Italy's efforts in saving endangered species, especially elephants. 2025 is also the 50th anniversary of the CITES Treaty, which Italy signed in 1975. CITES is the acronym for Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
John is Chairman of the Board of NIAF; Charles is an Area Coordinator of NIAF and Ambassador of We the Italians. Both individuals became involved in saving elephants and other endangered species around 2013. At that point in time the poaching of elephants was at 96 per day, the source of Ivory Funded Terrorism, and leading to the possible extinction of elephants in the wild in 20 years.
John is the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Executive Vice President of Public Affairs. During his time at WCS, John has played a leadership role in innovative policy campaigns such as the 96 Elephants campaign that led to the closure of ivory markets in the United States and raised the profile of wildlife trafficking as a major threat to wildlife populations. John was instrumental in the 2015 Ivory Crush in Times Square and having states pass legislation to ban Ivory sales.
Charles is the founder and producer of AWE News which started in 2014 to bring attention to people making an Awesome Wildlife Effort to save endangered species. AWE News airs on WLAE-TV in New Orleans and has a You Tube Channel. In 2015, he produced a documentary on the elephant poaching crisis, created a New Orleans Mardi Gras Krewe to bring awareness to the public.
Charles is a former Mayor of Atherton, CA. In 2015 he drafted a bill to make wildlife trafficking a RICO Crime and sent it to the forty members of the House Judicial Committee. In 2016, the house passed H.R. 2494 which elevated the trafficking of endangered species from a hunting violation to a RICO Crime.
Since 2016, elephant poaching has decreased from 96 per day to approximately 30.
