Sending in the army was only the start. Bongo, who has substantial oil revenues at his disposal, has increased White’s budget from $1 million in 2009 to $18 million last year, and his staff to 600. He is creating an elite, 240-strong ‘jungle brigade’ that is receiving training from the US Marines and will be under White’s command – in Minkébé its members may be allowed to shoot armed poachers on sight. The ANPN is planning to purchase two more helicopters from the US military, and last February acquired two British sniffer dogs to check the luggage of passengers leaving Libreville’s airport. Between them they find ivory trinkets, sharks fins and other illegal wildlife products two or three times a week, often covered in perfume, palm oil or foodstuffs to mask the smell. Four fifths of the offenders are Chinese, thousands of whom work for logging, mining or road construction projects in Gabon. None has been prosecuted because the mechanisms for doing so have yet to be worked out in this land of bureaucratic torpor. None has even missed his flight.