Project update - April 2006

Motek's story: chimps, drugs and CITES enforcement

On 29th January this year, an orphan chimpanzee suffering from a head wound caused by a poacher's bullet was seized from a wildlife dealer in Bafia, Cameroon. The baby chimp - since named Motek, which means "sweet" in Hebrew - was found in the back of the dealer's car squashed between four huge sacks filled with 50kg of marijuana. He was close to death and unable to walk.

Motek's rescue, along with the drugs bust and dealer's arrest, was thanks to the work of Ofir Drori, founder of the Last Great Ape Organisation (LAGA), an NGO specializing in wildlife law enforcement in Cameroon. Since 2002, LAGA has worked to combat trafficking in endangered wildlife through investigations and assisting authorities to enforce CITES - the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Chimpanzees are listed on CITES Appendix I, which means that commercial trade is banned internationally. But illegal trade persists, and as Motek's case illustrates so graphically, it is linked with trafficking in other illicit goods such as drugs.

Wildlife law enforcement agencies in most African countries are ill-equipped to fight traffickers who have easy access to money and arms and move across borders with impunity. Their enforcement efforts are frustrated by lack of cooperation - not only with agencies in neighbouring countries but with other agencies in their own country such as police and customs. DSWF's long-standing support of the Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF) assists cross-border cooperation between wildlife law enforcement agencies in its member countries. But many cases slip through the net because police or customs officers are the first on the scene and, for want of specialized knowledge on wildlife crime and an effective mechanism to cooperate with their wildlife law enforcement colleagues, they let the dealer go. Motek's seizure is the result of a concerted effort by LAGA to tackle this problem in Cameroon by bringing together agencies from different Ministries - Forestry and Wildlife (which administers CITES), Justice, and National Security - to carry out joint investigations and prosecutions.

Building cooperation and information exchange between enforcement agencies within and across borders - and with NGOs working on wildlife law enforcement - is essential if we are to win the battle against wildlife crime and consign Motek's ordeal to history. Recognising LAGA's work on national CITES enforcement and its need to strengthen international links, DSWF supported Drori's attendance at Interpol's first consultative meeting with NGOs on wildlife crime. The Project Adan Open Forum on Criminality and Illegal Trade in Elephant Ivory was held in Paris in November 2005. Named in memory of LATF's first Director, Adan Dullo, Project Adan is a worldwide analysis of illegal ivory trade, the results of which are expected to be published by Interpol before the next CITES conference in 2007. Drori presented information to the Forum on ivory trafficking in Cameroon while DSWF submitted a paper on ivory trade in Zambia; both presentations demonstrated links with Chinese traders. Drori went on to visit LATF headquarters in Nairobi where he exchanged expertise with Task Force officers on use of a Tactical Data Base System developed by LAGA and ivory detectors supplied by DSWF. One of the detectors is now on loan to LAGA to assist operations in Cameroon.

In the days following his rescue, Drori fought for Motek's life. Slowly the baby chimp regained strength and was transferred to the Limbe Wildlife Centre, a sanctuary in Cameroon, where the vet found he was suffering from a spinal cord injury. It will take at least two years of specialized treatment to rehabilitate Motek in the hope that he will one day walk again. Even then he will need lifetime care at the Centre, which will cost a great deal of money and resources. Enforcement successes in the last three years have meant more chimps for the Centre to house and look after, stretching their resources to the limit. LAGA has therefore undertaken to raise funds for the lifetime care of orphans like Motek rescued from trade.

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