Poaching War Escalates

Two rangers and 13 endangered okapi [photo] were killed when militiamen attacked the Okapi Wildlife Reserve near the village of Epulu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on June 24th. Four other persons were killed including the wife of one of the rangers. Some of the okapi were residents of the station for twenty-three years where they served as specie ambassadors to help educate visitors and locals about the rainforest and its inhabitants. John Lukas, head of the Reserve, said the attacks were in retaliation for efforts to stop elephant poaching and illegal gold mining. The army and UN troops are pursuing the murderers, but they must proceed with caution since the Mai Mai Simba bandits took over 30 local villagers hostage to help transport loot through the forest. Led by a man named Morgan the militia are armed with automatic weapons which they purchase with money gotten from the illegal and deplorable trade in elephant ivory that is threatening to destroy surviving elephants continent-wide.

Conservation work has taken on a dangerous edge in recent years as field researchers, activists, and staff face the possibility of death at the hands of thwarted poachers, exploiters and militia living off the land. Global Witness counts 711 persons killed defending land and forest rights between 2002 and 2011. Last year alone 106 were killed, the highest number in ten years. In the DRC a conflict between villagers and a logging company resulted in beatings and rapes by state security forces. Seventy-year old Frederic Moloma Tuka was killed, but very few such deaths result in legal prosecutions. Two months ago Cambodian forest advocate, Chut Wutty, was shot dead while escorting journalists to the scene of illegal logging. The Cambodian military has provided various versions of what happened when Wutty was stopped by military police. One of its soldiers was also killed in the confrontation.

Gabon burned its stock of 1200 confiscated ivory tusks last week as a message to the world about how Gabon will deal with wildlife crime. President Ali Bongo said his country does not want "our children to inherit an empty forest". The Wildlife Conservation Society recently reported that monitored elephant populations in central Africa were cut in half between 2006 and 2011. Elephant poaching is at its worst levels in a decade according to TRAFFIC and MIKE two programs that monitor elephant populations. The good news in this bleak picture of extermination is that seizures of illegal ivory are up--in 2011 there were 14 large scale seizures amounting to 24 tons of ivory--but successful prosecutions of organized crime syndicates must be obtained if elephants and other seriously endangered animals are to be saved from extinction by the greed of man.