II. Poaching, Wildlife Trafficking and Conflict

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Notes

1 Damian Carrington, ‘Cheetah Smuggling Driving Wild Population to Extinction, Report Says’, The Guardian, 15 July 2014; CITES, ‘Sixty-Fifth Meeting of the Standing Committee Geneva (Switzerland), 7­–11 July 2014: Interpretation and Implementation of the Convention Species Trade and Conservation: Illegal Trade in Cheetahs (Acinonyx Jubatus)’, 2014, <https://www.cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/com/sc/65/E-SC65-39.pdf>, accessed 26 September 2015; p. 4.

2 Andrew J Plumptre et al., ‘Support for Congolese Conservationists’, Science (Vol. 288, No. 5466, 2000); Sarah Zielinski, ‘Congo’s Civil Wars Took a Toll On Its Forests’, Smithsonian.com, 26 February 2014; G Vogel, ‘Conflict in Congo Threatens Bonobos and Rare Gorillas’, Science (Vol. 287, No. 5462, 2000).

3 There are a few exceptions. See Avi Brisman et al. (eds), Environmental Crime and Social Conflict: Contemporary and Emerging Issues (Abingdon: Routledge, 2015).

4 Joseph P Dudley et al., ‘Effects of War and Civil Strife on Wildlife and Wildlife Habitats’, Conservation Biology (Vol. 16, No. 2, 2002); Thor Hanson et al., ‘Warfare in Biodiversity Hotspots’, Conservation Biology (Vol. 23, No. 3, 2009); Andrew Plumptre et al., L'impact de la guerre civile sur la conservation des aires protégées au Rwanda (Washington, DC: Biodiversity Support Program, 2001).

5 Christian Nellemann et al. (eds), Elephants in the Dust: The African Elephant Crisis (Arendal: GRID-Arendal, 2013), p. 57; Richard A Matthew et al. (eds), Conserving the Peace: Resources, Livelihoods and Security (Winnipeg: International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2002).

6 Okech Francis, ‘South Sudan Says 500 Elephants May Have Died During Two-Year War’, Bloomberg, 9 February 2016.

7 Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), ‘Ongoing War Threatens Existence of Elephants and Other Key Wildlife Species in South Sudan’, press release, 4 December 2014.

8 Ibid.

9 Radio Tamazuj (Sudan), ‘Elephant Herds Devastated in South Sudan Civil War: Report’, 17 November 2014.

10 Christina Russo, ‘New Doubts About Whether Elephants Can Survive South Sudan's Civil War’, National Geographic, 8 December 2014.

11 James Butty, ‘South Sudan's Riek Machar Calls for Armed Struggle', Voice of America, 26 September 2016.

12 Plumptre et al., ‘Support for Congolese Conservationists’; Jefferson S Hall et al., ‘A Survey of Elephants (Loxodonta africana) in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park Lowland Sector and Adjacent Forest in Eastern Zaire’, African Journal of Ecology (Vol. 35, No. 3, 1997); Curtis Abraham, ‘Endangered Primates Caught in Congolese Conflict’, New Scientist, 28 November 2012; Brian Clark Howard, ‘Chief Warden Shot in Africa's Oldest National Park’, National Geographic, 17 April 2014.

13 See Chris Dishman, ‘The Leaderless Nexus: When Crime and Terror Converge’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism (Vol. 28, No. 3, 2005); Ian Bannon and Paul Collier (eds), Natural Resources and Violent Conflict: Options and Actions (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003).

14 US Department of State, ‘Remarks at the Partnership Meeting on Wildlife Trafficking’, speech given by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Benjamin Franklin Room, Washington, DC, 8 November 2012, <http://www.state.gov/secretary/20092013clinton/rm/2012/11/200294.htm>, accessed 17 August 2015.

15 Aggrey Mutambo, ‘US State Department Links Poaching to Terrorism’, Daily Nation, 15 November 2013; US National Intelligence Council (NIC), ‘Wildlife Poaching Threatens Economic, Security Priorities in Africa’, 6 September 2013.

16 NIC, ‘Wildlife Poaching Threatens Economic, Security Priorities in Africa’.

17 UN General Assembly, ‘Statement by the President at the Commemoration of World Wildlife Day’, New York, NY, 4 March 2015, <http://www.un.org/pga/040315_statement-world-wildlife-day>, accessed 17 August 2015.

18 Rosaleen Duffy, ‘Al-Shabaab and Ivory (1)’, Marjan Centre for the Study of War and the Non-Human Sphere, 26 September 2015.

19 Horand Knaup and Jan Puhl, ‘“Blood Ivory”: Brutal Elephant Slaughter Funds African Conflicts’, Spiegel Online, 13 September 2012.

20 Richard Schiffman, ‘Ivory Poaching Funds Most War and Terrorism in Africa’, New Scientist, 14 May 2014.

21 See, for example, Liana Wyler and Pervaze A Sheikh, ‘International Illegal Trade in Wildlife: Threats and U.S. Policy’, Congressional Research Service, RL34395, July 2013, pp. 5–6.

22 NIC, ‘Wildlife Poaching Threatens Economic, Security Priorities in Africa’; UN General Assembly, ‘Statement by the President at the Commemoration of World Wildlife Day’.

23 Ibid.

24 Philippe Le Billon, Wars of Plunder: Conflicts, Profits and the Politics of Resources (London: Hurst, 2012).

25 I O Lesser, Resources and Strategy: Vital Materials in International Conflict, 1600–The Present (New York, NY: St Martin's Press, 1989); Mats Berdal and David M Malone (eds), Greed and Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000).

26 David Keen, The Economic Functions of Violence in Civil Wars (London: International Institute of Strategic Studies, 1998).

27 Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars: Organised Violence in a Global Era (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999).

28 Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler, ‘Greed and Grievance in Civil War’, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 2355, May 2000.

29 Le Billon, Wars of Plunder.

30 Didrik Schanche, ‘Ivory Price Rise Brings Surge in Elephant Slaughter’, Lawrence Journal World, 25 May 1988.

31 Ros Reeve and Stephen Ellis, ‘An Insider's Account of the South African Security Forces’ Role in the Ivory Trade’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies (Vol. 13, No. 2, 1995).

32 Ibid.; Graham Ferreira, ‘SA's Part in Ivory Scandal’, Sunday Tribune (Durban), 22 April 1984.

33 Reeve and Ellis, ‘An Insider's Account of the South African Security Forces’ Role in the Ivory Trade’.

34 Ibid.

35 Ibid.; authors’ correspondence in May 2016 with Keith Somerville regarding interviews with Colonel Jan Breytenbach, commander of the South African Defence Force's 32 Battalion in southern Angola, November 1990.

36 Authors’ correspondence in May 2016 with Keith Somerville regarding interviews with Colonel Breytenbach, November 1990; with Stephen Ellis, December 2014; and with Anthony Turton, a former South African intelligence operative, April 2015. See also M B Kumleben, ‘Commission of Inquiry into the Alleged Smuggling of and Illegal Trade in Ivory and Rhinoceros Horn in South Africa: Report of the Chairman, Mr Justice M B Kumleben Judge of Appeal’, January 1996, p. 111.

37 De Wet Potgieter, ‘War Veteran Links SADF to Unita Ivory Slaughter’, Sunday Times (Johannesburg), 19 November 1989.

38 Keith Somerville, Ivory: Power and Poaching in Africa (London: Hurst, 2016), pp. 176–78.

39 Exceptions which do touch upon ivory and conflict in this sense include R T Naylor, ‘The Underworld of Ivory’, Crime, Law and Social Change (Vol. 42, Nos. 4–5, January 2005).

40 US Department of State, ‘Conflict Diamonds’, <http://www.state.gov/e/eb/tfs/tfc/diamonds/index.htm>, accessed 9 May 2016; Global Witness, ‘The Dodd-Frank Act’, 26 January 2015.

41 Hannah Osborne, ‘Elephant Herd Massacred in Central African Republic National Park’, International Business Times, 10 May 2013.

42 The Guardian, ‘Central African Republic Humanitarian Crisis Deepens Following Coup’, 26 March 2013.

43 UN News Centre, ‘UN Envoy Calls on International Community to Engage More with Central African Republic’, 11 January 2013; WWF, ‘Poachers Storm “Village of Elephants”’, 7 May 2013.

44 Warren Manger, ‘Ivory Poaching's Direct Links to the World's Most Evil Terrorists, Warlords and Dictators is Exposed’, The Mirror, 18 September 2015.

45 Foreign Affairs Committee, ‘H.R. 2494, Eliminate, Neutralize, and Disrupt Wildlife Trafficking Act’, 25 June 2015, <https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/legislation/h-r-2494-global-anti-poaching-act/>, accessed 26 September 2016.

46 Bryan Christy, ‘How Killing Elephants Finances Terror in Africa’, National Geographic, 12 August 2015.

47 Todd Maxwell Pelfrey, ‘Africa: Poachers and Blood Ivory’, presentation to the Quest Club, 15 January 2016.

48 Ibid.

49 UN Security Council, ‘Resolution 2217 (2015), Adopted by the Security Council at its 7434th meeting, on 28 April 2015’, S/RES/2217 (2015), preamble.

50 International Crisis Group (ICG), ‘Central African Republic: The Roots of Violence’, Africa Report No. 230, 21 September 2015.

51 The Economist, ‘No One is in Charge of the Central African Republic’, 8 January 2016.

52 ICG, ‘Central African Republic’.

53 Council on Foreign Relations, ‘Violence in the Central African Republic’, 11 April 2016.

54 MISCA was itself preceded by a strengthened UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic (BINUCA). See UN, ‘MINUSCA Background’, <http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/minusca/background.shtml>, accessed 6 August 2016.

55 WWF, ‘Field Reports Indicate Slaughter of Elephants, Conservation Staff Evacuated’, 25 April 2013.

56 Samuel K Wasser et al., ‘Genetic Assignment of Large Seizures of Elephant Ivory Reveals Africa's Major Poaching Hotspots’, Science (Vol. 349, No. 6243, 2015).

57 Dzanga Sangha National Park, ‘The Sangha River Tri-National Protected Area (STN)’, <http://www.dzanga-sangha.org/node/309>, accessed 15 May 2016; Congo-site, ‘Le site tri-national de la Sangha inscrit au patrimoine mondial de l’UNESCO’, 5 July 2012.

58 Terrence Fuh Neba and David Greer, ‘Update: Conflict in the Central African Republic’, Gorilla Journal (November 2014), <http://www.berggorilla.org/en/gorillas/threats-protection/threats/articles-threats/update-conflict-in-the-central-african-republic-1/>, accessed 22 June 2016.

59 Since its opening in the late 1980s, Dzanga Sangha has been supported by the WWF, headquartered in the village of Bayanga. Author interview with Terence Fuh Neba, WWF, Dzanga Sangha, November 2014. See also Neba and Greer, ‘Update: Conflict in the Central African Republic’.

60 Neba and Greer, ‘Update: Conflict in the Central African Republic’.

61 Ibid.

62 David Smith, ‘Christian Militias Take Bloody Revenge on Muslims in Central African Republic’, The Guardian, 10 March 2014.

63 Jacey Fortin, ‘Deadly Conflict Spirals Out of Control in Central African Republic as Foreign Troops Deploy’, International Business Times, 12 October 2013.

64 Laurel Neme, ‘Chaos and Confusion Following Elephant Poaching in a Central African World Heritage Site’, National Geographic, 13 May 2013.

65 Peter Canby, ‘Elephant Watch’, New Yorker, 11 May 2015; Yannick Weyns et al., ‘Mapping Conflict Motives in the Central African Republic’, International Peace Information Service, November 2014, p. 41; UN Security Council, ‘Report of the Panel of Experts on the Central African Republic Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 2127 (2013)’, S/2014/452, 1 July 2014, p. 20.

66 UN Security Council, ‘Report of the Panel of Experts on the Central African Republic Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 2127 (2013)’, p. 19.

67 Ibid.; Kasper Agger, ‘Behind the Headlines: Drivers of Violence in the Central African Republic’, Enough Project, May 2014.

68 UN Security Council, ‘Report of the Panel of Experts on the Central African Republic Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 2127 (2013)’, p. 19.

69 Author interview with Congolese lieutenant, MINUSCA, Nola, CAR, December 2014.

70 See, for example, Schiffman, ‘Ivory Poaching Funds Most War and Terrorism in Africa’.

71 Christy, ‘How Killing Elephants Finances Terror in Africa’.

72 UN Security Council Resolution 2217.

73 WWF–Dzanga Sangha Protected Areas After-Action Anti-Poaching Reports, January 2015.

74 Author interview with chief executive officer of Maisha Consulting, Bayanga, CAR, September 2014; Varun Vira and Thomas Ewing, ‘Ivory's Curse: The Militarization and Professionalization of Poaching in Africa’, C4ADS and Born Free USA, April 2014, pp. 31–32; Canby, ‘Elephant Watch’; Hilo Glazer, ‘Heart of Darkness: Israeli Expedition Hunts Elephant Killers in Africa’, Haaretz, 9 November 2013.

75 Author interview with Central African army sergeant complicit in trafficking, corroborated by author interviews with Dzanga Sangha conservation warden and ranger team leaders, Bayanga, CAR, January 2015.

76 WWF–Dzanga Sangha Protected Areas After-Action Anti-Poaching Patrol Reports and Dzanga Sangha Protected Areas authority investigations, March 2015.

77 Vira and Ewing, ‘Ivory's Curse’, pp. 31–32.

78 Ibid., pp. 31–32; UN Security Council, ‘Report of the Panel of Experts on the Central African Republic Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 2127 (2013)’, p. 19.

79 Internal WWF/Dzanga Sangha Protected Areas After-Action Anti-Poaching Patrol Reports, May 2015, and law enforcement monitoring tools (SMART, GIS and local intelligence gathering).

80 Author interview with ranger team leader patrolling in northern Dzanga Sangha Protected Areas, Nola, Bayanga, CAR, April 2015. This ranger team leader reported Anti-Balaka mining of illegal diamonds while employing poachers, and local army units poaching ivory and selling elephant meat.

81 Nellemann et al. (eds), Elephants in the Dust, p. 58.

82 Christian Nellemann et al. (eds), The Environmental Crime Crisis – Threats to Sustainable Development from Illegal Exploitation and Trade in Wildlife and Forest Resources (Nairobi and Arendal: UNEP and Grid-Arendal, 2014), p. 8.

83 See UNODC, World Wildlife Crime Report: Trafficking in Protected Species, 2016 (New York, NY: UN, 2016), p. 44, Figure 4. The numbers presented are calculated on the basis of data from the IUCN Species Survival Commission's African Elephant Specialist Group, covering both ‘definite’ and ‘probable’ elephant numbers. In this calculation, it is noted that countries with insurgencies include those affected by Boko Haram (Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria), the LRA (CAR, DRC and Sudan), civil war (South Sudan, CAR and Somalia), and the various insurgent groups active in DRC, Ethiopia and Burundi.

84 Somerville, Ivory, pp. 303–04.

85 Ibid.

86 Ibid.

87 Ministry of Defence, ‘British Forces Support Gabon's Fight against Elephant Poachers’, 28 April 2016, <https://www.gov.uk/government/news/british-forces-support-gabons-fight-against-elephant-poachers>, accessed 14 July 2016.

88 Somerville, Ivory, p. 258.

89 Jasper Humphreys and M L R Smith, ‘The “Rhinofication” of South African Security’, International Affairs (Vol. 90, No. 4, 2014).

90 UN Security Council, ‘Resolution 2127 (2013) Adopted by the Security Council at its 7072nd meeting, on 5 December 2013’, S/RES/2127 (2013), 5 December 2013, para. 54 (d).

91 Ibid., preamble.

92 Ibid., para. 16.

93 UN Security Council Resolution 2217, para. 38.

94 Author interviews with Dzanga Sangha Protected Areas ranger in charge of operations and law enforcement, Bayanga, CAR, June 2015.

95 ICG, ‘The Central African Crisis: From Predation to Stabilisation’, Africa Report No. 219, 17 June 2014, p. 4.

96 This term describes weapons and ammunition classified as war material, including AK-47 assault rifles and belt-fed machine guns (7.62 mm), MAS model 36 bolt-action rifles (7.5 mm), pistols and automatic sub-machine guns (9 mm).

97 Cameroonian rangers do not carry firearms but are reinforced by the army when judged necessary, creating significant gaps when on-the-spot coercion is needed for protection and law enforcement.

98 Given the circumstances facing Dzanga Sangha, the 2015 strategy was introduced to update the 2012 strategy, covering necessary adaptations to wildlife law enforcement.

99 ICG, ‘Central African Republic’.

100 Katarzyna Nowak, ‘Letter to the United Nations General Assembly: It is Time to Formally Recognize Conflict Ivory’, A Voice for Elephants blog, National Geographic, 21 September 2015.

101 Ibid.