Central Africa is fighting for the survival of the African forest elephant. Gabon, home to more than half of Africa's forest elephants, is at the center of the counter-poaching fight, after countries such as Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo lost virtually all of their elephant populations.
But the Gabonese government isn’t working alone. The international community has poured in financial support, and even the U.S. military has answered the call for help. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb embedded with a small U.S. military team training Gabonese park rangers to get an inside look into the fight to save Gabon’s forest elephants. Filmed a few months before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, it was one of the last counter-poaching efforts by the U.S. military in Africa before the pandemic put these programs on hold.
CREDITS:
DIRECTOR/REPORTER/NARRATOR/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Carla Babb
CAMERA: Ricci Shryock, Tatiana Mossot
PRODUCER/VIDEO EDITOR: Betty Ayoub
EDITOR: Elizabeth Arrott
GRAPHICS: Laurence Gomez