The spoils of war

Michael Oryem holds tusks from a consignment of ivory he has led the Ugandan army to. Michael was abducted by an armed group aged nine, and told to poach ivory in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to trade with the Sudanese Army for supplies and weapons. Seventeen years later, he defected and led the Uganda People’s Defence Force to this hoard. His testimony is evidence of the role of poaching in financing armed groups in Uganda.
Survivors

From 2002, the elephant population in Chad’s Zakouma National Park plummeted due to severe poaching, with just 450 elephants remaining in 2011. Faced with a crisis, the park was transformed. Following a change of management, bringing greater incentives and support for conservation, not a single elephant has been poached in nearly three years, and the elephants are breeding again.
In the firing line

Rodrigue Katembo leads a patrol of Congolese rangers and soldiers in Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo, in search of elephant poachers who have killed two elephants. Twenty minutes after crossing the river, they came under fire from rebels. Virunga remains one of the most dangerous places to practice conservation.
The price they pay

Kambale Bemu, a ranger in Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo, was shot at point blank range two hours before this picture was taken. While delivering supplies to a sub-station, he is thought to have disturbed a member of an armed group that finance their campaigns by poaching. Two years later, Kambale’s friend and colleague Masimengo Kanguru (left) resigned, fearing for his life. Atamato Tsa (right), stayed on but was murdered in 2015.
Ivory widows

Bernadette Kahindo and her family are victims of the ivory trade. In 2012, her husband, a ranger who worked to stop illegal actions in Virunga, was murdered in his vehicle. His decapitated body was left as a warning. Bernadette has seven children to support on her widow’s allowance, including her daughter’s baby (left), the result of a rape when she was 14.
Ivory haul

Police officers guard one of four confiscated shipping containers of elephant tusks in Lomé, the capital of Togo. DNA evidence linked some of this ivory to a massacre in 2013, when an anti-government armed group from the Central African Republic, called Séléka, shot 26 elephants at the famous Dzanga Bai viewing site in Dzanga-Ndoki National Park.

Photograph Details

Winner 2015

The Wildlife Photojournalist Award: story

Brent Stirton, South Africa

Ivory wars: from the frontline

Elephant poaching is one of the most lucrative black markets in the world. Each year up to 154 tonnes of ivory are trafficked out of east Africa, and around 25,000 to 35,000 elephants killed. Illegal ivory presents an opportune source of funding for armed criminal groups who come into regular conflict with conservation officials in the central and east African regions. Brent set out to focus international attention on the people who are profiting most and those at the sharp end of the ivory war, the rangers who risk their lives to stop the killing.

Technical specification

Image 1: Canon EOS-1D X + 24–70mm f2.8 lens; 1/250 sec at f16; ISO 200.
Image 2: Canon EOS-1D X + 24–70mm f2.8 lens; 1/640 sec at f8; ISO 400.
Image 3: Canon EOS-1D X + 24–70mm f2.8 lens; 1/160 sec at f6.3; ISO 400.
Image 4: Canon EOS-1D X + 24–70mm f2.8 lens; 1/80 sec at f1.8; ISO 400.
Image 5: Canon EOS-1D X + 24–70mm f2.8 lens; 1/100 sec at f9; ISO 400.
Image 6: Canon EOS-1D X + 24–70mm f2.8 lens; 1/125 sec at f14; ISO 200.

Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo

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Brent Stirton, South Africa

Brent is a photojournalist who spends half of the year on environmental issues and the other half on more conventional photojournalistic themes. He is represented by Verbatim by Getty Images and most of his work is shot for National Geographic magazine.