Our PPG project (Projet Protection des Gorilles’) in Congo has recently embarked on an initiative (named PALF) to co-ordinate efforts (along with the Wildlife Conservation Society and Congo’s Ministry of Economic Forestry) to decrease the level of wildlife trafficking in-country.
Following on from investigations co-ordinated by PALF in Brazzaville, a wildlife trafficker trading in panther pelts was identified in the capital’s main hotel. He was arrested on the 8th May with the assistance of the local Department of Economic Forestry and police.
There were two operations carried out on the 12th May, which led to the arrest of an ivory dealer and a wildlife trafficker selling chimpanzees (making this the second arrest of a chimpanzee trafficker since December 2008). In November 2008, a young orphan gorilla was also seized from a police officer that was attempting to sell it. The gorilla infant, named Loketo, was around 18 months old at the time of confiscation and was suffering minor injuries from the chain that was securing him. Loketo was taken into care by ‘Projet Protection des Gorilles’ (www.ppg-congo.org), the world’s only successful gorilla rehabilitation and reintroduction project. He has now joined a group of 5 other orphans who will be reintroduced into a protected reserve within the next few years. With the support of the three-year old male Kingoue, Loketo continues to develop well and is enjoying his new discoveries in the forests of the Lésio-Louna Reserve.
In addition those efforts being made to decrease the level of wildlife trafficking in the region, the other main focus of the project is to encourage high-profile media attention regarding any trafficking-related arrests, as well as the subsequent sentences delivered to the people involved. With regards to the latter, a trafficker dealing in chimpanzees was sentenced to a year in prison in March 2009, becoming the first individual to be prosecuted for wildlife trafficking in the Republic of Congo. This event received a great deal of publicity – which the project is continuing to develop on over time. Over the course of May 2009, 53 media items were produced and publicised in the Republic of Congo via written media, radio, internet and television. Thanks to this intensive media publicity, the Congolese people have gained an increased awareness about wildlife protection laws and the risks associated with the trafficking of protected wildlife or products derived from them – such as live great apes, panther skins or ivory.
