The Yes on I-1401 campaign to Save Animals Facing Extinction campaign today continued its weeklong focus on the Extinction Economy by spotlighting the role of terrorist organizations like the Lord’s Resistance Army in the Extinction Economy. The Extinction Economy is made up of those who profit from and engage in poaching, killing of threatened species and trade in products made from endangered animals.
Terrorist groups have long been documented as key profiteers in the poaching industry and illicit trafficking of products made from threatened, endangered and critically endangered species. Profits from the Extinction Economy are used to fund operations and purchase weapons around the world. In Spring 2014, 22 elephants were killed and their tusks and genitals removed in a single 2012 attack speculated to have been carried out by the Lord’s Resistance Army, a notorious organization listed as a terrorist group by the United States and whose leader has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. In October 2011, President Obama authorized the deployment of combat-equipped U.S. forces to hunt down the leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
A 2013 report by the Enough! Project documented that “killing elephants in Congo is helping to support the LRA’s continuing atrocities across central Africa” and “threatening the survival of African elephants.”
Excerpt from Kony’s Ivory: How Elephant Poaching in Congo Helps Support the Lord’s Resistance Army
“In a visit to Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC, in January 2013, the Enough Project and the Satellite Sentinel Project documented evidence of LRA poaching operations through interviews with park rangers, LRA escapees, and recent senior defectors. This report demonstrates how killing elephants in Congo is helping to support the LRA’s continuing atrocities across central Africa. It links the group’s activities in Garamba to the growing regional and global ivory trade, which is threatening the survival of African elephants.”
Throughout the week, Yes on I-1401 will highlight examples of those who profit from the Extinction Economy on social media and other channels. Stay tuned this week for graphics, current and historical details on this global problem with a local presence. You can follow Yes on I-1401 and this week’s Extinction economy updates at:
Voting Yes On 1401 will help shut down the Extinction Economy by increasing penalties in Washington State for those who traffic in the products poached by terrorists, cutting into an important revenue source for those who kill both innocent animals and people.
Excerpt from Reuters story on LRA profiting from Extinction Economy
“‘We have reason to believe that the major poaching thrust is emanating from the heavily forested Azande Domaine de Chasse (which) has been a traditional base for the LRA,’ African Parks CEO Peter Fearnhead wrote in a letter to conservation partners…”
“Warlord Joseph Kony, the LRA leader indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, waged a brutal guerrilla war against the Ugandan government in the north of the country for nearly two decades before fleeing with his fighters into the jungles of Central Africa around 2005.”
“A 2013 report from human rights group Enough Project said the LRA had begun systematically killing elephants and trading poached ivory for food, weapons, ammunition and other supplies.”