Vendor
	Fletcher Agency Melissa Chinchillo
Original language
English
Weblink
www.laga-enforcement.org

THE LAST GREAT APE

My African Journey from adventurer to Activist

THE LAST GREAT APE is a story of the fight against extinction and the tragedy of endangered worlds, not just of animals but of people struggling to hold onto their culture. This book reveals the intense beauty and strife that exist side by side in Africa, and Ofir makes the case that activism and dedication to a cause are still relevant in a cynical modern world. This dangerous and dramatic story is one of courage and hope and, most importantly, a search for meaning.

Staging heart-pounding, espionage-style raids, Ofir Drori and his organization, The Last Great Ape (LAGA), have put countless poachers and traffickers of endangered species behind bars, and they have fought back against a Kafkaesque culture of corruption. Before Ofir arrived in Cameroon, no one had ever even tried.

THE LAST GREAT APE follows a young Ofir on fantastical adventures as he crosses remote African lands by camel, on a horse, and in dug-out canoes, while living with exotic tribes and struggling against nature at its rawest: charging elephants and hyenas, flash floods, and the need to eat river algae and snails to stay alive. The story moves from places of extreme beauty to those of the darkest horror: the war zones of Sierra Leone and Liberia. Ofir begins to work as a photojournalist in order to expose his shocking encounter with war victims and child soldiers. His experiences forge in him a resolution to become an activist and to fight for justice.

The search for a cause eventually leads him to Cameroon. When Ofir discovers that no one is fighting to disprove Jane Goodall's dark prophesy that apes in the wild will be extinct in twenty years, he decides that he is the man to step in; because he knows he can make a difference, he sees it as his responsibility. And LAGA is born.

Ofir Drori is an Israeli activist based in Central Africa. A former army officer, educator, journalist, photographer and adventurer, he has spent the past decade in two dozen different African countries. He founded LAGA in 2003 and leads various efforts against corruption for conservation and democracy. Ofir’s work has been funded by the U.S. State Department, the United Nations Environment Programme, and the World Bank. He represented Cameroon before United Nations conferences, and his work has been covered by BBC, CNN, Discovery Channel, Israeli TV, Animal Planet, Voice of America, 60 minutes, as well as newspapers in Israel, the UK, France, Japan, Russia and Germany. More information about Drori and LAGA can be found at www.laga-enforcement.org. David McDannald is an American writer, who lives on a ranch in the West Texas mountains. He splits his time between caring for the cattle herd and traveling in Africa and South America. He has published fiction and nonfiction in various magazines and journals. He and Ofir met in Kenya in 2000 and became best friends.