New York, London – Hillary Clinton who avoided the spotlight after her elections defeat in November, made a surprise appearance at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival as a jury member to discuss illegal elephant poaching.

Clinton’s participation followed the premiere of the virtual reality documentary, “The Protectors: Walk in the Rangers’ Shoes” directed by Kathryn Bigelow.

The eight-minute film allows viewers to experience what it is like to work as a park ranger trying to save elephants in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Speaking about the global ivory trade, Clinton said: “We’ve got to bust this market”.

The unexpected public appearance on Earth Day was one of several Clinton had made recently, following a period of silence after the former Democratic presidential candidate lost the November election to Donald Trump.

Clinton said she first began focusing on the “horrific slaughter” of elephants when she was secretary of state and later helped launch an anti-poaching initiative at her family’s nonprofit Clinton Global Initiative. More than 30,000 elephants are killed by poachers every year in Africa.

Clinton noted that in addition to endangering vulnerable elephant populations, trafficking also provides financial support to extremist groups.

“When we were looking at this, we thought there were three overriding goals: stop the killing, stop the trafficking and stop the demand,” she said.

While China is the world’s biggest market for illegal ivory, the United States ranks number two, Clinton said, requiring Americans to take a leading role in fighting elephant poaching.