Meet the “Green” Berets

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Potential funders began to get cold feet, increasingly concerned by the legalities of being linked to a U.S.-funded paramilitary outfit operating with no accountability in a relatively lawless country. Supporters from within the environmental movement also began to backtrack.

There were still vivid memories of a similar venture undertaken in the Central African Republic in the 1980s by Frenchman Jean Laboureur.

Heavily armed, Laboureur and his team attacked and reportedly killed more than 30 ivory poachers in their early operations, burning down dozens of poachers’ camps and recovering massive stockpiles of ivory. Poaching diminished and elephants began to return to the region. Following the shooting death of an innocent game warden mistaken for a poacher, however, Laboureur was arrested and jailed for murder. Although he was eventually released, the incident led to a diplomatic falling out between France and the African nation.

Despite the failure of both projects, they captured the attention of the environmental movement, sparked a clutch of similar, smaller-scale operations elsewhere, and put the concept of proactive military action firmly on the map.

Karl Ammann, a veteran Swiss conservationist turned journalist and undercover investigator, has been instrumental in carrying out several wildlife-protection and enforcement initiatives. “You’re in countries where [poachers] are coming in, heavily armed, there’s no jails, no effective administration, and they’re massacring the country’s wildlife, which should be a resource for the people of that country,” Ammann says. “In these circumstances I agree absolutely with the use of force.”

Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, recently in the news for confronting the Japanese whaling fleet, says the development of an armed, highly mobile, fully international military unit that can strike quickly is an urgent need.

“We want to see an Interpol-style eco-police force that can operate anywhere in the world, and that’s aggressive, proactive, and equipped to hunt down [perpetrators], arrest them, and bring them to trial,” he says.

Sea Shepherd is engaged with the Ecuadoran authorities in a long-term program to train and equip a dedicated environmental task force to protect the Galapagos Islands and their unique flora and fauna. The group is also providing arms to park authorities on Cocos Island, a world heritage site off the coast of Costa Rica.

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