GABON'S WAR ON WILDLIFE CRIME

46 images  |  View slideshow  |   | 
twitterlinkedinfacebook

Synopsis

Gabon 28th June 2012.

I'm in the president's helicopter. A reporter from an African news channel is sitting beside me apologetically throwing up in a plastic bag. Yesterday president Ali Bongo Ondimba made history by setting fire to Gabon's entire stockpile of illegal ivory. A bonfire with an estimated black market value of almost 10 million dollars - money that would have ended up in the hands of international crime syndicates. Today he is flying journalists over the Wonga...
more »

  • Security and patrol forces in Gabon have increased as part of new measures to crack down on poaching. Here Mba Ndong Marius, an Eco Guard from Oyem, holds seized elephant tusks in front of a stockpile of confiscated weapons.
  • Although Gabon is a country rich in oil and resources, the majority of its people live in poverty. As a result, poaching remains a lifestyle many fall into. Family members working in or against wildlife crime may be gone for weeks at a time, their return uncertain.
  • Two elephants in the Wonga Wongue reserve, Gabon. The tusks for which many lives are forfeit end up on a black market for wildlife products that stretches across continents and is worth billions of dollars to the criminal networks running the show.
  • A night hunter in a logging concession outside Menkebe national park. Hunting in the hours of darkness is illegal in Gabon but it is still a common practice in rural areas.
  • Aurelie Kumbe and Tuburse Mouyamba take me to see an elephant carcass they found outside their village in the Gamba district of Gabon. The tusks are long gone, but bones as large as these are not easily buried.
  • Convicted poachers are interrogated at the jail in Oyem. The two men on the right have three year jail sentences for killing elephants in addition to other crimes.
  • Two convicted poachers are handcuffed after interrogation at the jail in Oyem. Elephant poaching brings much needed income that, for some, outweighs the risk of a three year jail sentence.
  • In Gabon, eco guard Soho Jocelyn prepares to leave his family and go on patrol in Menkebe national park. It will be two weeks before they see him return safely.
  • Eco guards patrol the Oua river in North West Gabon. Rivers are often used as quick ways to export poached ivory and bush meat out of the jungle.
  • Eco guards investigate some suspect tyre marks in a logging concession near Minkebe national park.
  • Seized weapons used by poachers are audited at the justice tribunal in Oyem, before being transported to Libreville where they will be burnt along with Gabon's confiscated ivory.
  • An ecoguard is carefully watched as he counts elephant tusks the night before the burn.
  • President Ali Bongo Ondimba arrives at the ceremony in which Gabon's ivory stock pile will be set alight.
  • The audited Ivory and weapons are piled up on a hill overlooking Libreville.
  • Gabon's seized ivory goes up in smoke, beckoning a new era in the country's commitment to put an end to poaching and other wildlife crimes.
  • The stock pile of Ivory burns on into the night, closely watched by an ecoguard.
  • An eco guard supervises the burning of Gabon's Ivory stock pile.
  • Stockpiled Ivory waits to be burnt in Libreville
  • Norbert Pradal, the conservateur of Wanga Wangue presidential reserve stands two elephant tusks in front of the a patrol helicopter.
  • Eco guards under the authority of ANPN - the national parks agency are briefed before going on patrol to Menkebe national park.
  • Eco guards under the authority of ANPN - the national parks agency are briefed before going on patrol to Menkebe national park.
  • Soho Jocelyn, an eco guard from Makokou, Gabon, says goodbye to his wife before going on patrol in Menkebe national park. He will be on patrol for two weeks.
  • Soho Jocelyn, an eco guard from Makokou, Gabon, prepares to go on patrol in Menkebe national park. He will be on patrol for two weeks.
  • Eco guards on patrol near Menkebe Village in North West Gabon.
  • Eco guards on patrol near Menkebe Village in North West Gabon.
  • Eco guards photograph some gold found by an small scale gold miner in the forest along the Oua river.
  • An ecoguard finds the discarded skin of a duiker that has been killed for bush meat.
  • An eco guard quizzes a small-scale gold miner. There is a strong link between gold mining and poaching as gold miners will often spend long periods of time alone in the jungle.
  • Eco guards check a dug out canoe on the oua river. Rivers are often used as quick ways to export poached Ivory and other bush meat out of the jungle.
  • Eco guards patrol the Oua river in North West Gabon. Rivers are often used as quick ways to export poached Ivory and other bush meat out of the jungle.
  • Eco guards cook dinner on patrol in a logging concession outside Minkebe national park.
  • An ecoguard searches the hut of a goldminer who has come to Gabon from Equatorial Guinea to work in a gold mining collective.
  • Eco guards on patrol at night in a logging concession outside Minkebe national park.
  • Mba Ndong Marius, an Eco Guard from Oyem holds up a poached leopard skin in front of a collection of seized Ivory and weapons.
  • A large haul of bush meat laid out next to a police post outside Oyem. Species include: xxxx
  • A juvenile mandril monkey, it's mother was killed by poachers and it now lives in Minkebe village.
  • Tuburse Mouyamba take me to an elephant carcas he found outside Sounga village in Gamba district, Gabon.
  • Bush meat for sale along the road from Libreville to Makokou
  • In Mekobe village a man rolls the skin of a water cobra. The meat of the snake will be eaten and the skin preserved to hang on his wall.
  • A heard of buffalo in Wanga Wangue presidential reserve, Gabon.
  • A heard of buffalo in Wanga Wangue presidential reserve, Gabon.
  • A latterite quarry off the new road from Libreville to Makokou. Latterite is used to harden the surfaces of roads.
  • A worker saws logs in the rimbunan hijau logging concession. The wood form this concession is uncertified. Increased logging pressures push elephants closer to villages and increase instances of poaching.