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Taking on Wildlife Traders - Indonesia

Uploaded by: journeymanpictures
Video Description:
April 2005
Dutch campaigner Willie Smits has dedicated his life to fighting Indonesia's illegal wildlife trade. But in doing so, he's taking on the army and has made many powerful enemies.
Wild orang-utans sell for tens of thousands of dollars on the black market. "The network is very big and the biggest player is the army," alleges Willie Smits. "They use their planes and ships to move animals all over Indonesia." He's developed a network of wildlife sanctuaries and undercover investigators to fight the trade. But his actions have attracted the wrath of the traffickers. "Cars have been sabotaged, houses set on fire. I've written my will and arranged my grave." All the odds appear stacked against him. The scale of the trade had been drastically underestimated and it's now feared that orangutans could soon be extinct in the wild. "We built a network that could cope with 50,000 but hundreds of thousands of animals are involved," Smit laments. However, thanks to him the problem is now being publicised.

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