This week on Helping Hand, we are offering a first ever two-part special with nonprofit Elephant Action League. HPR All Things Considered Host Dave Lawrence is joined by Executive Director and co-founder Andrea Crosta for a talk about how this unusual collective of primarily ex-intelligence officers with CIA, FBI and similar experience try to disrupt the illegal wildlife trade, and how China has emerged as a rapidly growing extinction-level threat to some of the world's most beloved animals (and many you've never heard of).
Yesterday in part one, we heard how the Elephant Action League ensnare transnational wildlife crime syndicates by setting them up with undercover agents who secretly generate incriminating evidence, then funnel it to law enforcement to help neutralize them. In particular, he detailed Operation: Fake Gold, their undercover mission off the coast of Mexico, where poachers are wiping out the critically endangered totoaba fish due to Chinese demand for that fish's swim bladder, and in the process catching and wiping outanother critically endangered creature, the vaquita porpoise.
Today, in part two, hear about the preeminent role China and their citizens play in today's illegal wildlife trade, which is happening due totheir rapidly growing middle class and it's lust for elephant ivory, rhino horn, pangolin scales, tiger bones and body parts from other critically endangered wildlife. We learn about how several other Asia Pacific countries factor into the smuggling from Africa into China, serving as what are called 'transit countries' for these smuggled illegal shipments. Additionally, we hear about the numerous ways animal lovers and people concerned about the toll this consumption is taking can fight back, from reposting their social media material, to helping them translate online marketplaces, to funding missions to put their teams undercover and in the field.
Contact Elephant Action League:
Website: elephantleague.org
Email: info@elephantleague.org
Find them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Find all the previous Helping Hand segments.
