 The Operation Wendy is an enforcement operation which is taking place in 10 countries of Francophone Africa. The aim is to dismantle the ivory markets. In discussion with Interpol we thought that it would be great to build capacity in those countries where the illicit ivory trade is important, where elephant poaching is important. Working at the source of that ivory trade chain is working in remote areas where the elephants are. We have to be underground, present with the enforcement authorities. We have to be there to see what they need and to meet their expectations with the real needs, not some needs we guess it will help. Hueso is something between a disaster and a catastrophe in terms of being a hub for wildlife trade. Hueso is a center for ivory trafficking and beyond ivory there's a lot of illegal bushmeat trade as well. And there are stories that go back decades for how bad the situation is. The first day in Hueso we have been invited to meet with the two poachers who have been arrested recently. But it was interesting because we also saw the tools they were using. Usually they have a military weapon or a hunting weapon, but they also have a saw to remove the tusk. And they also sometimes have a balance to weigh the tusk. So they already know that the more the tusk is heavy, the more they will make profit of it. And now they are asked to answer some questions why they bought that weapon, what they were expecting to do with. So they are explaining that they had planned to kill elephants but they didn't know anything. The day after the interrogation as part of the operation Wendy we went to the prison where all the poachers and traffickers were staying. So around 30 poachers have been arrested in Hueso and around. And some of them were carrying ivory tusks when they had been arrested. And we can see that those tusks weighed between three and a half kilos and here this one is seven kilos. So we saw seven elephant tusks in the interrogation room representing at least four forest elephants killed. We followed those interrogations, we heard what they had to say, how they explained why they went to hunt for elephants. It was very interesting to hear that some of them had received the ammunition and the weapon from authorities. And mainly enforcement authorities such as the army, such as the young family. So that's why there is a very important work to do to fight corruption. In Congo fighting wildlife trade corruption is our biggest obstacle. We cannot close our eyes on that problem which needs to be tackled. When I say corruption is integral to ivory traffic I really mean it all the way up to very high levels. So those very high levels we haven't gotten prosecutions and this is our failure. So we really need to be working harder ourselves and I think that all NGOs need to be recognizing this as the main central problem with ivory traffic for instance. Being on the ground high fall have seen and have heard how soldiers, how high ranked people either provide the weapons to poach or give the funds or give the ammunition to get elephant tusks. And at this point Congo and its other neighbor Gabon are big forests with a lot of biodiversity still sitting in those forests. And those are kind of like the last stand. Those forests are kind of the last stand for some of the bigger iconic species like forest elephants. The pressure has kind of come all around and now this block of forest you know millions and millions of hectares of good forest, good habitat. But the wildlife trafficking situation is just totally out of hand. In recent years we've just seen just such a spike in the ivory trade with the economic changes happening in Asia. Development also it's helping a lot of areas become less enclaved and now the development is happening at a speed that's sometimes faster than the speed of the development of justice. As I joined Interpol for repressive action I also decided to launch an awareness campaign to inform the population in Hueso as well as in other cities that it is forbidden to hunt elephants. And as you can see we can read on that campaign that the elephants of Congo are not for sale. And the objective is to inform people that first the ivory trade is illicit and that the ivory trade kills elephants. We launched that campaign in three different languages because in Congo the French language is widely spoken. But we wanted also to use the dialect, the lingala, which is the national Congolese language. But also there is more and more Asian communities living in the country or working in the country and mainly Chinese nationals. So we thought that it would be a good idea to target them by spreading the message in their own language, so in Chinese. The approach of AIFO is a global one because we work in the source countries so we support the fight against poaching. We also work to support the fight against traffickers. But we also need to change the trend in Asian countries and inform consumers of the impact of their choice. So we work at every level of that ivory trade chain and that makes AIFO different. What gives me hope is that it's possible to change everything that we see that's hurting biodiversity. It's totally possible. It's just a question of political will. We just need to see the right players come together and make it happen. Change is possible. So basically when you have something that's that beautiful it's definitely worth fighting for. When we are on the ground and we see all the challenges we could feel very discouraged to continue because the road is still very long and we know we don't have the time. However, you will always find people really motivated, really determined to work for their own country, for their own wildlife. And our role is to support them, to encourage them because they are on the right way. And as an NGO, even international, we will never be successful without those people on the ground at the source who share our view, our ideas about protecting wildlife.