Ofir Drori is a man with a calling: to save the gorillas and chimpanzees of Cameroon from extinction. Ever since the Israeli arrived in Cameroon in 2002, he and a team of volunteers have been making impressive strides in helping to stamp out the illegal trade in endangered wildlife. When he arrived in Cameroon, not a single person had ever been prosecuted for the crime. Now, a major dealer is prosecuted and imprisoned every week.
Mr Drori used to be a journalist covering human rights issues around in the world, in particular in West Africa. He initially went to Cameroon for a holiday, but when he heard stories about the capture and killing of great apes he decided to look into the illegal trade.
Trapped like a rat
One of the first cases he heard about was in a village about four hours' drive from the capital, Yaoundé. Poachers there had captured two baby apes. One of them had already died, but the poachers still had the other one and they wanted to sell him. Mr Drori went to meet them and posed as a potential buyer. Mr Drori says:
"The baby ape was tied up in a corner of the kitchen and there were people standing around abusing him. He was acting like a rat."
 Ofir Drori |
Deception
Unable to sleep that night, Mr Drori wrote a plan about how to rescue the ape and stop the illegal trade in primates. It proved to be the basis for the group he would later set up: The Last Great Ape Organisation (LAGA). The following day, Mr Drori returned to speak to the poachers. He told them that he was a member of an organisation whose objective was to make sure that Cameroonian law was applied. He conned them into believing that a car was on its war from the capital to take them to court. They panicked. Instead of having them arrested, Mr Drori convinced them to work as informers for his organisation.
Future
Mr Drori then released the baby ape. He recalls:
"I was untying him from his ropes, and I was hugging him. In a second he went from being a rat to a baby. He had this enormous need of attention and love. From that second, he would bite anyone who even came near him because he was just clinging to my body. It was amazing." Ofir named the ape Future. He took care of him for four months and then found a shelter for him. Future is now being prepared to be re-introduced into the wild.
Illegal trade
Ever since then, Mr Drori and his fellow volunteers have been relentlessly tracking down poachers and going after the dealers. It is an enormous business: the illegal trade in endangered special is the third largest illegal trade in the world, surpassed only by the trade in drugs and weapons. It's worth billions of euros annually, and experts estimate that 40,000 primates are trafficked around the world every year.
Corruption
According to Mr Drori, LAGA's work has led to a decrease in the illegal trade in endangered species not only in Cameroon but also in the entire region. He also believes that LAGA is helping to tackle one of the most serious problems facing Africa: corruption.
"I wanted to do something significant on a specific symptom of corruption. LAGA is an example of how you can do things in a drastically different way. We work with volunteers and have no vehicles. We're showing people that you don't need more money to bring about change. If anything, less money is needed."
Tags: apes, Cameroon, endangered wildlife, gorillas, illegal trade, LAGA, Last Great Ape Organisation, Ofir Drori, poachers, Yaoundé