1 - Understanding the problem and introducing the solution

Summary

“Those who destroy the environment get rich, while we who protect it remain poor.”

John Kahekwa, Pole Pole Foundation

It is far easier to make money exploiting the environment than it is protecting it. It is that basic insight that is at the heart of the strategy set out in this book to help bring the global illegal wildlife trade to an end.

I’ve worked with John Kahekwa and his team in the Pole Pole Foundation (or POPOF for short) for over a decade. As a multi-award-winning conservation charity and Earthshot Prize finalist working in one of the toughest countries on earth, they are at the sharp end of conservation and have seen it all. John started his career as a ranger protecting and habituating gorillas in Kahuzi-Biega National Park where in the 1980s he took tourists to visit them, including Al Gore and Bill Gates, while also helping with the filming of Gorillas in the Mist. After using a ten dollar tip to launch a successful souvenir business, he launched the Pole Pole Foundation in 1992 to give back to the community and to further protect the critically endangered gorillas. Since then he and his family have experienced the horrors of what has been termed “Africa's World War”, which is estimated to have caused around 5 million deaths, and killed 80–90 per cent of the Grauer's gorillas that he works to protect. In the chapters that follow I have sought to combine the insights gained from working with John and his team with the work of other researchers and practitioners, including those focused on global demand reduction and countering international organized crime, to develop an effective strategy to counter the illegal wildlife trade (IWT).

A lot of people I come across in my work, including some on the frontline of conservation, do not think that IWT can be stopped and that the current “fire-fighting” approach is all that can be realistically achieved in the face of what seem overwhelming odds. Anyone who watches the news can understand their point of view, but the outlook is not all negative. Progress has been made.