By Herp News
Tackling the illegal trade in wildlife requires tremendous concern for the welfare of other species and a passion for change. Ofir Drori, founder of EAGLE (Eco-Activists for Governance and Law Enforcement), embodies both of these traits. Mongabay recently interviewed Drori about how his organization strives to combat corruption and save species endangered by the illegal wildlife trade in Africa. Globally, wildlife poaching and organized criminal trade in wildlife have escalated over the past 10 years, decimating populations of large mammals, particularly those with high-value body parts such as tusks or horns. Criminal syndicates increasingly control these activities and have become better armed and organized as the illegal trade—estimated at over US$18 billion per year—becomes more profitable. These violent organized criminal groups use their illegal revenue to strengthen their organizations: employing more local poachers, buying impunity, bribing corrupt officials and broadening their distribution networks. Three wildlife traffickers arrested in Benin in June 2015, with 4 elephant feet, 2 leopard skins and scales of 2 pangolins, as well as 50 chameleons, heads and skins of crocodile, skins of antelopes and civets and baboon heads. Photo credit: EAGLE To tackle a problem of this scale and gravity, Drori suggests that “the best approach to protecting species is to ensure the perpetrators involved in wildlife trafficking are prosecuted,” a solution he says is long overdue and for which he founded EAGLE (previously Last Great Apes Organization, or LAGA), in 2003. What does EAGLE do? EAGLE tackles wildlife crime through innovative…
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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