Tracking Illegal Traders

It was one amongst those audacious ideas that had slightly of the crazy: Hunt the

elephant hunters.

First build a pretend tusk, one that looked therefore smart it may fool the experts—

in this case, poachers. Then hide a GPS device within it. Finally track that

signal by satellite, and map the path of the unhealthy guys. Best-case results:

Expose the workings of the hot ivory trade, that from 2009 to 2012

led to the slaughter of one hundred,000 African elephants. This barbarous racket conjointly

exacts a devastating human toll, from plundered

villages and kidnaped youngsters to raped

women and dead park rangers.

That’s what galvanized the National Geographic

investigation according during this issue,

the first in an exceedingly series we’ll feature within the

magazine and at nationalgeographic.com.

The stories return from our new Special

Investigations Unit, that is that the product

of Bryan Christy, National Geographic’s

2014 adventurer of the Year and a zealous

warrior against life crime.

“To defend life and stop criminals,

people initial got to recognize the stories,”

Christy says. “I don’t wish anyone to be

able to say, ‘There’s nothing I may have

done,’ or ‘I didn’t recognize.’

”

Start by knowing this: The thriving, global

illegal life trade—including sales of species and merchandise

made from them—is price billions of greenbacks annually. The trade not solely

kills elephants, turtles, crocodiles, and different animals. It conjointly brings huge

bucks to smugglers, crime syndicates, and terrorists. in an exceedingly 2013 govt order

aimed at combating life crime, President Barack Obama known as the

surge in cookery ANd trafficking an “international crisis” that's “fueling

instability and undermining security.”

On this subject, Christy’s zeal—and that of lensman goose Stirton,

whose moving work is highlighted here—is shared across the National

Geographic Society. protective life could be a high priority for this organization.

I like however Christy puts it: “I hate AN unfair fight,” he says. “And the battle

to protect species from business exploitation is that the unfairest

fight i do know.”