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EXCLUSIVE: The global conservation charity WWF funds paramilitary anti-poaching forces that have tortured and killed indigenous people in nature parks around the world
buzzfeednews.com/article/tomwar…
buzzfeednews.com/article/tomwar…
WWF has long disavowed any brutality by its partners. But our investigation found the charity has for years provided paramilitary forces with salaries, training, and supplies – including knives, night vision binoculars, and riot gear – and funded raids on villages
WWF has launched an “independent review” into our reporting‚ which unearthed evidence that villagers have been attacked with machetes, and beaten unconscious with bamboo sticks by forest rangers funded by the charity
The charity has organized missions with notoriously vicious shock troops, continued backing forest rangers after they admitted to torture, and signed off on a policy to kill trespassers at a park in India
WWF has operated like a global spymaster, financing and running secretive networks of informants motivated by “fear” and “revenge” to provide park officials with intelligence — all while publicly denying ever working with informants
“We see it as our urgent responsibility to get to the bottom of the allegations Buzzfeed has made, and we recognize the importance of such scrutiny,” the charity said in a statement
"With this in mind, and while many of BuzzFeed’s assertions do not match our understanding of events, we have commissioned an independent review into the matters raised,” it added
The threat poachers pose to these parks, and rangers, is very real: By one estimate, poachers killed nearly 50 rangers around the world in 2017.
It’s a threat the WWF describes in the hardened terms of war: “boots on the ground,” “Jungle Brigade,” “conservation drones”
It’s a threat the WWF describes in the hardened terms of war: “boots on the ground,” “Jungle Brigade,” “conservation drones”
WWF’s vital mission has galvanized millions, including famous patrons from Leonardo DiCaprio to Sir David Attenborough.
But the charity’s war on poaching has casualties, and it is often indigenous groups are the ones who suffer at the hands of the rangers
But the charity’s war on poaching has casualties, and it is often indigenous groups are the ones who suffer at the hands of the rangers
We’ve been following this story for more than a year, and we’ll have more revelations about the WWF’s secret war soon. Support our reporting by becoming a BuzzFeed News member today
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