Editor’s note: On April 18, 2018, Conservation International released its virtual reality film, “ My Africa .” The film tells the story of a young Samburu woman in Kenya whose community is working to save elephants, reknitting an ancient coexistence between people and wildlife. In honor of this film, Conservation News is telling stories about the people, places and wildlife of “My Africa.” This post was updated on September 10, 2020. Surveys suggest there are only about 415,000 African elephants left in the wild, down from over one million a generation ago. Each year, tens of thousands of elephants are killed by ivory-seeking poachers and other forms of conflict. On top of being amazing creatures, elephants actually make life better for all of us, sometimes in surprising ways. Here, Human Nature explores four ways elephants benefit your life. 1. Elephants plant trees and fight climate change. Studies have shown that elephants help protect forest health in central Africa by distributing the seeds of trees.…