Dear Avaazers,
Dozens of heavily-armed hunters rode into a national park in Cameroon, butchered over 600 majestic elephants, then hacked off their faces for their tusks. Poachers have annihilated half of central Africa’s last elephants. And no one's been able to stop them.
Until now!
Brave investigators have gone undercover in poaching rings in eight African countries, and already 1,000 traffickers have been jailed!
It’s awe-inspiring stuff, and it’s won awards, but many funders are wary of going head-to-head with organised crime. We may be the best community to scale this extraordinary operation, fast.
Four elephants are killed an hour -- it’s a race against time before we lose these gentle giants forever. But if we each give now, this team can expand to more countries, lock up more kingpins and complicit officials, and we can campaign to rescue these beautiful creatures from industrial-scale slaughter.
No other effort is having this rate of success! Chip in now :
To donate another amount, click here.
This carnage is happening across the continent. Paid-for-hire poachers track elephants, leopards, apes, and all kinds of endangered creatures, then bigwigs bring in helicopters and heavy weapons to hunt them down and butcher them for their skins and tusks. This is a 19 billion dollar business run by international mafias, and they’re getting away with it by bribing everyone in sight.
But now the courageous Eco-Activists for Governance and Law Enforcement (EAGLE) network is taking them on at each step of the criminal chain -- infiltrating the gangs undercover, working with police to supervise arrests, and making sure the bosses are jailed.
Their unprecedented success has won awards from Interpol, the Duke of Edinburgh and others, inspiring other groups to adopt similar tactics. But so far these heroes work on a tiny budget, powered primarily by a deep love for these animals. If we all donate a small amount, here’s what we could do:
Help train and sustain dozens of undercover investigators to infiltrate the most wanted networks in more countries and get their chiefs behind bars;Support investigations of complicit officials and politicians who enable the bloody trade;Run massive campaigns around arrests and court appearances to change the culture of impunity; andInvestigate and expose companies and governments profiting from selling ivory and other wildlife products.
Few of us would be prepared to put our lives on the line to save our fellow species from human ruthlessness and immeasurable greed. Now, we can support these wildlife warriors who are doing just that. Let’s put the power of our community behind them -- click to donate now:
To donate another amount, click here.
Our community has always supported brave frontline activists to do dangerous but crucial work -- from Syria’s citizen journalists to volunteers fighting Ebola. We back the most brilliant ideas that can have the most impact -- especially if no one else will. Let’s get behind these heroes now, so Africa’s beautiful savannahs and forests can be filled again with thriving populations of wildlife, just as they should be.
With hope and determination,
Alice, Alex, Iain, Patricia, Spyro, Joseph, Nataliya, Emily, Ricken and the whole Avaaz team.
Further information:
Organised crime sets sights on wildlife (BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26153516
African Conservation Group With Unusual Mission: Enforcement (New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/science/african-conservation-group-with-unusual-mission-enforcement.html
Elephant population halved in Cameroon killing spree (IFAW)
http://www.ifaw.org/united-states/news/elephant-population-halved-cameroon-killing-spree-graphic-images
Senegal seizes illegal elephant hair jewellery (Reuters)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-senegal-elephants-idUKKBN0OR29920150611
Wildlife chief arrested as net closes on traffickers selling chimpanzees to Far East (The Express)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/602475/Wildlife-trafficker-selling-chimpanzees-arrested
Avaaz.org is a 42-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 18 countries on 6 continents and operates in 17 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here, or follow us onFacebook or Twitter.
You became a member of the Avaaz movement and started receiving these emails when you signed "Join Avaaz!" on 2015-11-06 using the email address pedroproff@gmail.com.
To ensure that Avaaz messages reach your inbox, please addavaaz@avaaz.org to your address book. To change your email address, language settings, or other personal information, contact us, or simplygo here to unsubscribe.
To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to us at www.avaaz.org/en/contact or call us at +1-888-922-8229 (US).
