"When the buying stops, the killing can too" reads the popular slogan that WildAid uses in its anti-ivory campaign to raise awareness in China. WildAid, along with most Western environmentalists, contend that curbing demand in China for ivory is the key factor to help save the African elephant from extinction.
Damien Mander disagrees. Mander is the founder of the International Anti-Poaching Foundation and a leader in a new movement that is militarizing the fight against illegal wildlife poaching in southern Africa. Mander is a former Australia special forces soldier who also served multiple tours in Iraq as a private military contractor. Today, he trains wildlife protection teams throughout southern Africa where he says the fight to save these animals will not be won by curbing demand in Asia but by combating the organized crime syndicates that run the illegal ivory trade.
Damien Mander joins Eric & Cobus -- in the podcast above -- to discuss what he thinks needs to be done to save Africa's rapidly shrinking elephant population.
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