SEAL Team raids against terrorist bases in Somalia
and Libya. OK, we’re a hunting magazine, and not a
political commentator, but at the same time we have to
acknowledge the connection between African wildlife
and the world’s myriad terrorist organisations’ funding.
Some are supported by wealthy nations (bad career
move, Saddam), but they all need revenue which they
cannot acquire legally. Such as blood diamonds.
And now, blood ivory and rhino horn.
On a fairly regional level, Uganda’s Lord’s
Resistance Army and Darfur’s Janjaweed outlaw
factions are linked to elephant poaching to garner
funding, but when you stop to think that some thirtyodd tonnes of illegal ivory pass through Somalia’s
ports each year, that alone adds up to just under ten
million dollars in untraceable revenue. Add another
three zeros onto that and you are in the ballpark for
what the multi-billion dollar illegal ivory and rhino
horn trade is worth in a year. And Somalia’s last viable
export is the terror group al-Shabaab.
According to Agence France-Presse, some 40% of
al-Shabaab’s funding comes from illicit trafficking in
wildlife products. Al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda are more
or less the same thing, and that’s about as big league as
it gets. So how long is it going to be before the world’s
governments take aim at the ivory and rhino horn trade
to try and dry up another source of terrorist dollars if
local governments can’t keep a lid on it?
The US State Department has just offered its
first-ever reward for information leading to the
dismantling of a transnational criminal organization.
According to Secretary Kerry “The involvement of
sophisticated transnational criminal organizations in
wildlife trafficking perpetuates corruption, threatens
Above: al-Shabaab the puppets.
Left: Chinese illegal ivory
buyer in the Congo the puppet masters
Malaysia, Vietnam, and China - and has as its core
business the killing of elephants, rhinos, and other
species for products such as ivory.
African governments - especially those without
strong sport hunting traditions - have long struggled
to control poaching. Perhaps because it’s not really a
cultural priority, perhaps because finances are strained,
or perhaps because some within the governments are
themselves the principal traffickers. But these countries
are no longer sleepy backwaters facing just local
challenges. There’s this whole global village thing
now, and when you start putting coins in al-Shabaab’s
begging bowl, willingly or not, a lot of Big Brothers
are going to start paying the kind of attention to you
that you don’t want.
Perhaps the motivation for the outcry following the
recent SEAL team raids is because governments are
starting to wake up to the fact that if they don’t control
their poaching problem transparently, or are perhaps
themselves involved in the cartels, and money is going
to the wrong folks, they may wake up one fine morning
only to find that SEAL Team Six has paid them a visit
during the night.
I was invited out to my local shooting range one
afternoon not long back to watch a demonstration
of drone technology which was being presented to
various private anti-poaching units. Known more
correctly as unmanned aerial vehicles, drones have
been in the forefront of the world’s news stories for
a few years now. Both for their use in military special
operations and civilian policing, and because of the
ethical questions that arise from their use by hunters.
But they’re probably less well-understood than most
folks would care to admit. And more on that in this
issue, see page 22.
Happy African hunting in 2014!
the rule of law and border security in fragile regions,
and destabilizes communities that depend on wildlife
for biodiversity and eco-tourism.” So the Department
of State is offering a reward of up to $1 million
for information leading to the dismantling of the
Xaysavang Network, which operates out of Laos with
branches in South Africa, Mozambique, Thailand,
http://www.africanhunteronline.com
Page 6
I J Larivers
African Hunter Vol. 19 No. 3