Preventing poaching: British Army in Africa
“No one in the world needs an elephant tusk but an elephant”
Yet poachers in Africa still kill these magnificent mammals for their ivory. In Africa, there are more than 20,000 Elephants killed every year. Unless this stops, they are heading towards extinction.
The British Army has been deployed in Africa to train park rangers as combat tracking instructors, which will help neutralise the threat of poaching, bring those responsible to justice and ultimately put an end to wildlife crime.
The illegal wildlife trade is worth up to billions a year globally. It is a highly organised criminal industry that is responsible for pushing species, such as elephants, rhinos, tigers and pangolins, towards extinction.
Since 2007, illegal ivory trade activity has more than doubled worldwide.
While in Africa, the British Army troops are helping to train new park rangers with medical skills, how to track and patrol while in the field, bushcraft and survival skills. This is vital knowledge needed to ensure that the park rangers can respond quickly and appropriately to the threat of poaching.
The training provided gives the rangers confidence in their ability to operate further from their base areas, allowing them to sustain work in more isolated locations where poachers are more active.
Poachers use some of the most unspeakable methods to capture and kill wildlife. Some of these methods include gin traps, wire snares, pitfall traps, guns, and arrows.
On a broader scale, the poachers in Africa are a formidable enemy. The trade is well funded, and poachers can get up to $40,000 for just one rhino horn. Being extremely well trained and with professional backing, they work in big teams of 40 or more, using thermal imagery and night sights.
They continue to track elephants and are wiping out herds of animals on an industrial scale.
The UK Armed Forces continue to support park rangers and local communities in Africa to take action and stop the poaching and illegal wildlife trade that is still responsible for the loss of countless species.
Find out where else the UK Armed Forces are deployed here:
