This is to give you a better idea of the PALF project. They will start blogging themselves soon.

Following on from investigations co-ordinated by PALF in Brazzaville, a wildlife trafficker trading in panther pelts was identified in the capital’s main hotel. He was arrested on May 8th with the assistance of the local Department of Economic Forestry and police. There were two operations carried out on the 12th May, which led to the arrest of an ivory dealer and a wildlife trafficker selling chimpanzees (making this the second arrest of a chimpanzee trafficker since December 2008).

In November 2008, a young orphan gorilla was also seized from a police officer that was attempting to sell it. The gorilla infant, named Loketo, was taken into care by ‘Projet Protection des Gorilles’ (www.ppg-congo.org), the world’s only successful gorilla rehabilitation and reintroduction project. He has now joined a group of 5 other orphans who will be reintroduced into a protected reserve within the next few years. With the support of the three-year old male Kingoue, Loketo continues to develop well.

The other main focus of the project is to encourage high-profile media attention regarding any trafficking-related arrests, as well as the subsequent sentences delivered to the people involved. With regards to the latter, a trafficker dealing in chimpanzees was sentenced to a year in prison in March 2009, becoming the first individual to be prosecuted for wildlife trafficking in the Republic of Congo.

Thanks to intensive media publicity, the Congolese people are becoming more aware of wildlife protection laws and the risks associated with the trafficking of protected wildlife or derived products – such as live great apes, panther skins or ivory.