When we think of poachers, the image is often of criminal gangs and their shady kingpins. But in northern Uganda, we’ve met some of the ordinary people on the bottom rungs of the global poaching economy, who live in the impoverished villages huddled up against the boundaries of Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park. Here, AP photojournalist Hélène Franchineau and Zimbabwean science reporter Sally Nyakanyanga interview a young father and farmer whose crops are regularly destroyed by marauding elephants from the park, and who has reluctantly participated in the illicit wildlife trade to help make ends meet for his family.
Ryan Lenora Brown, IWMF Connect Fellow