VOA标准英语2012--Former Military Officer Fights African Poachers

（单词翻译）

Former Military Officer Fights African Poachers

Ofir Drori traveled to Kenya between high school and the start of his military service. He's been fascinated ever since.

"I chased giraffes, zebras. I saw all these interesting things. I was just zigzagging¹ through all these beautiful things, all this beautiful world," said Drori.

On his first day there, he wandered around and got lost. A Maasai family found and eventually adopted him.

He says his fascination² with the continent turned him into an activist³ for endangered species.

In the past four months, he says, Cameroon alone has lost 400 elephants to poaching and gorillas⁵ are faring even worse.

"Illegal wildlife trading is a professional, very well organized illegal trading. It's a mafia. This Mafia drives chimpanzees, gorillas, lions to extinction," Drori explained.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Washington says elephants and gorillas are being poached for their meat and elephants for their ivory. The result is extinctions in some areas of central Africa. But WWF also says some progress is being made in the southeastern part of Cameroon.

With his network of spies and informants, who pose as buyers or traffickers, Drori gathers video evidence of poaching.

Ten years ago, he founded LAGA(the Last Great Ape), which is also the title of his new book, co-authored with his best friend David McDannald whom he met in Kenya.

He says his team has been able to oversee⁷ 50 prosecutions⁸ for ivory trafficking and 25 for gorilla⁴ poaching in Cameroon since 2004. But he says catching⁹ poachers is not his biggest challenge.

"The major problem in fighting wildlife crime is corruption¹⁰," said Drori. "These are big people, they have a lot of money, they are trying to bribe¹¹ their way in different places and that's what we do. We fight corruption."

It's dangerous work, but whether his hair is being pulled by a chimp⁶ or he's preparing a snack for another one in his kitchen, he says making a difference is what counts.

"Every time you have some kind of injustice¹², you realize that I can make a difference so responsibility is how I arrive to this," Drori added.

Drori's program has been replicated¹³ in six countries: Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Chad, Nigeria, and Guinea.