There is a project called Photographers Against Wildlife Crime that is made up of an international group of award-winning photographers. Armed with their cameras, these people are taking powerful images to end illegal wildlife trades and make people aware of the horrible conditions.
Illegal wildlife trades are leading criminal acts ranked with drugs, human trafficking, and arms. These international photographers are sending a very important message out to all, giving people valuable information about issues they might not be aware of. Most people really don’t even know what’s going on with their own planet but they can have a huge impact on turning things around.
The project has 3 main goals. First – the photographer will put together a book that will be launched in 2018. Secondly – it will be released in Mandarin for distribution in China. China can make a valuable contribution to creating a dialogue with consumers. Thirdly – they hope to raise money from their books for charities who want to put an end to illegal wildlife trading in our lifetime.
More info: kickstarter.com | photographersagainstwildlifecrime.com
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This woman is a member of the All Women Anti-Poaching Unit which is located in Zimbabwe. These women face some of the harshest realities of these horrible practices every day.
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This volunteer is with the NGO, Care for Wild Africa, comforting a badly injured baby rhino who is being treated for injuries caused by hyenas. The baby rhino was orphaned after her mother was killed by poachers! Somehow she was luckier than most babies who often are killed by the poachers after the mothers have been slaughtered. These poachers use machetes to break their spines so they cannot flee. Just Evil!
3.
This volunteer is with the NGO, Care for Wild Africa, comforting a badly injured baby rhino who is being treated for injuries caused by hyenas. The baby rhino was orphaned after her mother was killed by poachers! Somehow she was luckier than most babies who often are killed by the poachers after the mothers have been slaughtered. These poachers use machetes to break their spines so they cannot flee. Just Evil!
4.
This is a photo of an ivory burning that took place in April 2016. It is the largest fire, to date, where rangers burned 105 tons of Nairobi National Park to prevent poachers from selling them.
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Loxodonta, an African elephant was photographed at Abu Camp in Botswana. The people raise orphans to maturity and then release them as a part of their long-term study of rehabilitation.
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This orphaned baby gorilla was put up for sale at the Cameroon bushmeat market. The photographer traded for her with a worthless ring and was then taken to a sanctuary at the other end of the country. Sadly, the baby died a few months later.
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This lovely white female rhino, Thandi, lost her horn to poachers and has become a symbol of survival in the fight against poaching rhinos.
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Conservationist Tony Fitzjohn and George Adamson are seen with Jipe. They raised this lion from an orphan cub to an adult and released back into the wild. Jipe bred three cubs in Tsavo Kenya but was murdered by poachers shortly after this photo was taken.
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Fennec foxes are captured and illegally traded as pets. This 3-month old pup was put up for sale in southern Tunisia.
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The smoldering remains of an area of Amazon rainforest cleared for cattle ranching in Acre, Brazil.
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A captive-bred Philippine eagle hand-fed at The Philippine Eagle Center. Loss of habitat due to deforestation means these eagles are critically endangered. Some captive-bred birds have been released back into the wild.
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A pair of young Bengal tigers in India’s Ranthambhore National Park. Less than 4,000 tigers are left in the wild, a consequence of poaching to supply consumer demand for their body parts, mostly in China and Southeast Asia.
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A large bull elephant in Nepal’s Chitwan National Park sits with its leg chained. The 50 year old beast is restrained as it has killed five mahouts (handlers) in its lifetime.
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It isn’t just melting sea ice caused by climate change that threatens the future of the polar bear. This iconic species is threatened also by hunting. Every year hundreds of polar bear skins are shipped, both legally and illegally, out of Canada, most of them to the growing market in China. Earlier this month a court in Quebec found a local company guilty of illegally exporting three polar bear skins to China.
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An aerial view of indigenous land in the region of Altamira in the Brazilian Amazon cleared for illegal logging.
