TAF initiated a wildlife law enforcement project called ‘PALF’ in Congo a little over a year ago. The project was created in response to a lack of enforcement of national wildlife laws that was providing no real deterrent to stem the trafficking of wildlife. Since the project began, TAF has been implicated in the capture and prosecution of a number of people involved in this illegal activity. They have arrested dealers trading in gorillas body parts, leopard and drill skins and – most significantly – ivory.
Five major ivory traffickers were recently apprehended – three from Kinshasa, another from Makoua, and a dealer implicated in the seizure of 100 kilos of ivory on the outskirts of Brazzaville. The latter is regarded as one of the most important traffickers in the Mbomo area (western Republic of Congo), and has admitted to the slaughter of numerous elephants as well as trading in ivory. In the Republic of Congo, the maximum sentence that can be enforced for trafficking is five years, but dealers are often so well connected that they are usually released after serving just months, or even weeks, of their sentence. One of the aims of the wildlife law enforcement project is to make sure sentences are being properly enforced.
In June 2009, the PALF project was one of a handful of field conservation projects selected by the UNEP ‘Year of the Gorilla’ for a targeted fundraising campaign: http://gorilla.wildlifedirect.org/ and has benefited from support by LAGA (Last Great Ape Organisation), the UN Environmental Program, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Congolese Ministry of Economic Forestry.
