Vanity Fair Nominates Veronica Varekova
Julian Sancton nominates Veronica Varekova, for working it on behalf of Africa’s wildlife.
Because, generally speaking, Veronica Varekova raises awareness wherever she goes. Focuses the senses. Heightens the reflexes. Hones animal instincts. The Czech-born gazelle has exerted that effect on runways, in Victoria's Secret catalogues and international magazines, on two Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue covers, and on behalf of several luxury brands. because now, at 33, she's lending her powers to the cause of the African Wildlife Foundation, as a goodwill ambassador. Since she's got your attention—your awareness, sorry—she may want to direct it to the 2,000 Grevy's zebras, the 720 mountain gorillas, or the 400 adult Ethiopian wolves left on the continent. because she'd also want to inform you of the efforts the A.W.F. is making to ensure that conservation doesn't work at cross-purposes with struggling local populations; the organization takes pains to find alternative solutions to the problems that lead people to threaten these animals, including poverty (elephants threaten crops, lions threaten livestock, and thousands of species occupy potentially profitable woodland), hunger (bonobos are hunted as a rare source of protein in areas of the Congo), and superstition (the rhinoceros is a victim of rumors about the invigorating properties of its horn). because perhaps the greatest service Varekova has done the A.W.F. is to remind us of how similar the silverback gorilla is to man. Returning from a mission in the hills of Rwanda, she wrote, rather girlishly, of her amazement at seeing one in the flesh. “Their facial expressions are tender,” she recalled. “And on occasion flirtatious.” Consider their awareness raised. Mission accomplished.