Ofir Drori: The Protector of Wildlife
Paris Match, a renowned French newspaper, dedicated several pages of its April 2 edition to Ofir Drori the founding Director of the EAGLE Network with an article and interview. The feature that appears on the ‘Heroes of the Planet’ section of the newspaper, narrates his fight against wildlife trafficking and corruption, his early beginnings, his love for nature and Africa. In an article by Anne-Cecile Beaudoin, we learn about his military experience, his voyages to Africa – Kenya, the Congo with the pygmies, the desert and the war zones of Liberia and Sierra Leone. And eventually his arrival in Cameroon, the birth place of LAGA. The journalist recounts Ofir’s meeting with Future the chimpanzee he saved and which forever changed his life and conservation in sub Saharan Africa.
The article highlights the activities of the EAGLE Network, its operational methods, infiltrating trafficking networks and the successes recorded in over 20 years of activity – over 3000 traffickers arrested and prosecuted in several countries. He says what made the difference was “Determination and refusal to do nothing in the face of injustice”. Ofir talks of one of his most important operations which happened in 2013 in Gabon with the busting of an ivory trafficking Chinese network with 600kg of elephant tusks and a strong fight against political pressures and corruption.
The coverage is made graphic with several photos from operations and a full page photo of Ofir clad in his trade mark black t-shirt and black jeans with an elephant in a pool of water providing a matching background. He pushes his chest out like a proud silver back gorilla and expresses his pride, “Young Cameroonians, Congolese and Gabonese no longer accept corruption as inevitable, and are fighting to preserve their heritage. This is perhaps my greatest source of pride”. He is nicknamed “the Protector of Wildlife” by the Paris Match.
