Elephant Action League

Elephant Action League is an innovative hybrid nonprofit organization that merges the worlds of intelligence, investigations and conservation in service of wildlife and the people who protect it. They protect nature by investigating wildlife crime, exposing the criminals, traffickers, and corrupt individuals behind it, and helping law enforcement gather information and evidence  Elephant Action League (EAL) works to merge the worlds of intelligence, investigation, and conservation in the service of wildlife, forests, oceans, and the people who protect them. At its core, EAL uniquely applies professional intelligence expertise to disrupt the proliferation of wildlife crime around the world. Intelligence is the knowledge – ideally the foreknowledge – that EAL, its partners, and governmental authorities can employ to safeguard wildlife and people, and respond to very concrete threats to the environment. EAL supplies its extensive skills and combined experience, both intelligence and law enforcement professionals, to a variety of crime-related environmental emergencies. This intelligence-led approach encompasses information-gathering, intelligence production (collection, corroboration, and analysis) and dissemination, and professional investigations targeting many operational scenarios. It is this expertise and flexibility that allows EAL to operate in situations and locations where other NGOs or governmental agencies are unable or unwilling to operate. Their mission, to fight wildlife crime and wildlife criminals, is very complex. Individuals and organizations behind serious wildlife crimes are often very powerful and connected, they enjoy the protection and sometimes the complicity of the political elite, and they can bribe virtually everyone around them. This evil cannot be hoped away; these crimes and criminals will not be eradicated only by awareness. Wildlife criminals devastate not only the wildlife and forests they target, they also threaten the lives of innocent people caught in the middle. These tragedies are easy for many to ignore, but wildlife crime has a global impact: it effects the planet’s ecosystems, local and global economies, development, and international security. With governments and large NGOs often unwilling to wade into politically turbulent waters, the burden to stop wildlife criminals rests on the shoulders of independent organizations and committed people. Though still outnumbered by criminal organizations and corrupt government officials, people are rising up against these criminals. Brave men and women are in the middle of the conflict, often risking their lives to defend the powerless. Other trained operatives are fighting through intelligence gathering, sting operations, and political back-channels. Not all of these soldiers fight with guns – though some do – but they are soldiers in the most real sense. Elephant Action League is in the middle of this war, fighting criminals, protecting the innocent and empowering others to bring an end to wildlife crime and its human toll. They Fight Back. Mission Pillars: -EAL Collects, Analyzes, and appropriately Disseminates actionable intelligence [and other information] to combat wildlife crime. -EAL Fights as the tip of the spear in the war on wildlife crime: it funds, organizes and supports operations that disrupt the activities of the criminals perpetrating wildlife crime. -EAL Defends against attacks by criminals, poachers and traffickers by supporting, funding and launching investigative and intelligence activities. -EAL Protects the innocent, wildlife and people, by making it more difficult for wildlife crimes to be committed in the future.