Counter Poaching: African Elephants

[Mel]

Born Free: On patrol with tusk force keeping elephant poachers at bay
Trapped, shot, its ivory cruelly cut off while it’s still alive. Now your money is helping keep the elephant poachers at bay...
By Susie Boniface 23 Jun 2013 00:00

Deep in the heart of the West African ­national park, there is a glade filled with butterflies of every colour. It is a tranquil spot surrounded by trees and silence.
Elephants come here to dig for water, supposedly a long way from the problems of man. Yet a few feet away is the carcass of a bull elephant who had the front of his face cut off with a chainsaw... while he was still alive.

Poachers lay in wait for him at the quiet waterhole, then opened fire. He fled a short distance before collapsing in pain as the band of killers closed in.
They sliced into the old bull’s head to extract every last inch of his precious ivory – worth up to £90,000 per tusk to buyers in China.

After a few weeks in the heat his skin has dried and shrivelled. Little is left of him but his spine, one ear, and an eyelid closed as if in sleep. Butterflies flutter in and out of his exposed ribs. Around the body are tracks and signs his corpse has been visited by his family. Elephants mourn, like humans do, but after grieving they fled into the bush.

“They shoot them with guns or ­poisoned arrows,” says Shelley Waterland of the Born Free Foundation. “It has been known that poachers even lay a bed of nails in the bush so the elephants injure their feet and cannot walk. "They follow them until they collapse, and then come in to take the tusks.”

The Sunday Mirror travelled to ­Burkina Faso to work with Born Free, which is overseeing a drive to cut poaching using money donated by readers during our campaign to free Anne, Britain’s last circus elephant, who was abused by her handlers. As we study the corpse, a gunshot rings out. Poachers are nearby and they want us to leave. Our terrified – and unarmed – guides urge us to move.

This is the kind of killing which happens every day in Burkina Faso, one of the last refuges for elephants in West Africa.
While the animals are protected and growing in number in the south of the continent, here they are on the brink of extinction.

Sierra Leone officially has no ­elephants. Nigeria has fewer than 10, and Senegal is thought to have just one left. Burkina and its neighbours are not only poor, with an average wage of less than £1.60 a day, but they are increasingly trading with China, where a ­growing middle class demands status symbols and ivory is highly valued.

It is easy – and lucrative – to smuggle tusks on the thousands of container ships that carry minerals and wood from local seaports to customers in Asia.
The traders who benefit from this business are some of the world’s worst criminals. Ivory smuggling funds drug gangs, gun runners and Islamic terrorism.

In 1979 there were 1.3 million elephants in Africa and ivory trading was legal. By 1989, when it was banned, there were just 600,000 left. Today it’s around 400,000, and it’s thought nearly a tenth of them have been killed in the past year.

At the headquarters of the drastically underfunded wildlife service in the capital Ouagadougou, there is a stockpile of 10 tusks gathered by the authorities.
The smallest came from an animal just five years old, with a brown ring halfway along them showing that only a few inches of tusk were showing outside the infant’s head when it was killed. Another pair belonged to a female poached in Benin, but after fleeing across the river died in Burkina where the tusks were found by fishermen. The largest were found next to the corpse of a 60-year-old bull. They are 5ft long and weigh more than 100lb each.

They could command a price of up to £94,000 apiece on the black market... but they were too heavy for the poachers to carry, so the tusks were abandoned next to the corpse. Both were found a few days later by park rangers; it is rare officials confiscate ivory from poachers, because catching them is almost impossible.

Shelley said: “Elephants here ­naturally have smaller tusks than in other parts of Africa. "But there is also evidence they are trying to evolve around poaching. Increasingly we are finding elephants with very small or no tusks. You might think that would solve the problem, but it doesn’t. Elephants need their tusks to strip bark and dig for minerals. "In times of famine, they will be more likely to starve. An elephant without tusks is not really an elephant at all.”

Even the threat of elephants dying out is not enough to stop the poachers. Extinction would exponentially increase the value of existing ivory – so what little is left is sought as a commodity that can be banked.

Dr Lambert ­Ouedraogo, general secretary of the Ministry of Environment, said: “Burkina has about 5,000 elephants but there have been 106 killed in the past year alone. "There is legal and illegal hunting, and while we do give big fines and prison sentences to poachers when we catch them it is very hard to arrest anyone.
“The poachers come from Niger and Benin, or are protected by their communities. We have some anti-poaching patrols but they are not well-equipped, and many are killed. We need help.”

In the first crime-busting project of its kind, the Sunday Mirror has teamed up with Born Free and the government of Burkina Faso to help protect the elephants.
Using more than £23,000 raised by our readers during a campaign to free Anne, who was rescued last year and now lives safely at Longleat ­Safari Park in Wiltshire, we are funding new anti-poaching initiatives. The cash will pay for wages and running costs for three teams of park rangers. It will buy GPS equipment and digital cameras to record evidence of poaching. The rangers will get new boots and uniforms and there will be community committees set up to share intelligence and teach locals the importance of preserving the animals. And – even more importantly – the money will provide medical kits to help rangers shot, bitten or poisoned while on patrol.

Director of Wildlife Pierre Kafondo, receiving the cheque from Born Free and the Sunday Mirror, said: “This will make an enormous difference and from the bottom of our hearts we thank the readers. There is still much to do.”

Tomorrow the Daily Mirror will report on a two-day anti-poaching patrol with Anne’s Army, and reveal how your money is being spent.
Perhaps one day the elephants will be able to return to the quiet glade where the old bull died...

You can still pledge cash

There is still a pressing need for further donations to help properly equip the team of rangers struggling to protect elephants in this park. They need CB radios to communicate with one another and call for help. They need motorbikes to help them patrol more areas of the bush and do it more effectively, as well as to help them get medical help when needed. They also need solar power for pumps at waterholes so that elephants can drink even when the rains are late, and help to pay for educational projects with local communities.

To donate to Anne's Army call Born Free on 01403 240170 or go to bornfree.org.uk

For more information on the ivory trade go to bloodyivory.org

[Mel]

“The poachers come from Niger and Benin, or are protected by their communities. We have some anti-poaching patrols but they are not well-equipped, and many are killed. We need help.”

Doesn't it sound all too familiar...

[Mel]

Poaching war forces pastoralists out of Kenya's ranches, national parks
Updated Saturday, June 22nd 2013 at 22:39 GMT +3

By GEOFFREY MOSOKU

NAIROBI, KENYA: Last year, the Cabinet, chaired by former President Kibaki, passed a resolution directing all herders who had entered the national parks to be evicted.

Among the areas targeted was Tsavo National Park, where pastoralists from the Maasai and Somali communities were grazing their cattle following drought in parts of the country.

The directive came at a time the country was gearing towards the General Election and was consequently halted due to fears of a political backlash from voters.

But this month, the Government, through the National Security Council, ordered the eviction of pastoralists from parks citing rising incidents of poaching.

Fearing that they would fall victim, a group of pastoralists who occupy private ranches in Maungu area of Taita Taveta County, which is adjacent to Tsavo, moved to the High Court in Mombasa seeking orders to stop security agencies from evicting them.

They were granted the orders, but last week officers drawn from a combined force of Kenya Wildlife Service and GSU evicted the pastoralists, a move that has affected about 500,000 cattle and camel. A Non-Governmental Organisation based in North Eastern, Kulun Foundation, visited the area last week and said police had ignored the court order and abused the Cabinet directive to forcefully remove herders who were operating outside the park.

Last weekend we went to Maungu in Taveta to assess the situation after eviction of herders.

“People with valid leases, who have been keeping livestock in ranches, are being evicted by officers despite the court order. What we couldn’t understand is how a Government can disobey the orders of its own courts,” Halima Ali of Kulun Foundation protested.

Halima says all Kenyans are entitled to live and do business anywhere in the country and vowed that the organisation would pursue all available legitimate channels to fight this injustice.

Discrimination

While terming the exercise as open discrimination, Halima, who contested the Wajir Women Rep seat, said security forces had targeted herders from the Somali community, while other ranches such as Sagala and Jajaba, owned by non-Somalis, had not been affected.

Chairman of the Foundation Khalif Abdinasir says more than 500,000 head of cattle and camel and about 5,000 families have been affected by ongoing evictions in Maungu area.

Yesterday, MPs Mohamed Diriye (Wajir South), Mohamed Elmi (Tarbaj) and Senator Yusuf Hajji (Garissa) joined the Kulun Foundation in protesting the evictions, saying it was not being done in a humane manner.

Mr Diriye claimed that State officers were acting in contravention of the law in the pretext of fighting poaching.

“These are people who have legally leased ranches from probate land owners and inasmuch as we appreciate that poaching is a big problem, there is no justification to target pastoralists who have not occupied the area of a national park,” he added.

Mr Hajji and Mr Elmi, who are former Cabinet Secretaries, denied that the Cabinet had sanctioned eviction of pastoralists who occupy private ranches.

“The Cabinet directive was to evict people who were grazing livestock in National Parks and not private ranches, in a bid to check the upsurge of elephant poaching,” Elmi said.

Hajji added: “There was absolutely no Cabinet decision to remove people forcefully from private ranches they legally occupy.”

The leaders have termed the operation a major economic blow as the affected headers have been forced to search for alternative areas to hold their livestock.

However, Taita Taveta Women Rep Joyce Lay said the eviction of herders was noble as it would help control movement of livestock in the counties.

“Some of these herders lease a ranch and say they are bringing one thousand cattle yet they end up bringing over 10,000 cattle that exert more pressure on the environment,” she said.

Ms Lay said some herders occupy communal land, which was being used for selfish gains by a group of people and the evictions would help restore the land to the owners.

[Mel]

In Fight Against Elephant Poaching, Philippines Crushes 5 Tons of Ivory
By Holly Kellum | June 24, 2013

As Africa struggles to prevent its elephant population from being pushed to the brink of extinction, some 7,000 miles away, Philippine authorities destroyed approximately 5 tons of smuggled ivory worth $10 million—the largest amount of ivory destroyed outside of Africa so far.

The Philippines, along with Malaysia, Vietnam, and Hong Kong, is a major transit route and destination for ivory. While its demand for ivory is dwarfed in comparison to countries like China and Thailand, it ranks as one of the top nine countries propelling the illegal ivory trade.

Philippine authorities said that the destruction of the stockpile Friday, gathered from seizures since 2009, demonstrates its commitment to fighting the illegal ivory trade. It also eliminates any opportunity for corrupt officials to resell the ivory, as was the case in 2006 when the largest single shipment of 4.08 tons vanished from the inventory, according to an international network that tracks the illegal trade.

“Ivory is known to have disappeared from a number of government-held stockpiles worldwide, so it is vital that proper protocols are established,” said Dr. Colman O’Criodain from the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Steven Galster, director of Bangkok-based anti-wildlife-trafficking Freeland Foundation said, “This not only sends a message to wildlife traffickers that the Philippine government is taking firm action against the illegal ivory trade, but also takes a stand against corruption by burning their ivory stockpile so it cannot be stolen then sold into the black market.”

Major sources of illegal trade are Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Ivory can fetch up to $2,000 per kilogram ($910 per pound) on the black market and more than $50,000 for an entire tusk.

International ivory trading has not always been illegal and it wasn’t until 1989, shortly after Kenya torched its first batch of elephant tusks, that CITES decided to outlaw the international ivory trade. At that time, elephant hunting was rampant, and in less than 10 years, Kenya’s elephant population plummeted from around 65,000 in 1979 to 17,000 in 1989.

While it’s not known exactly how many elephants were killed in 2012, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) estimates that “more than 25,000 elephants are killed illegally for their ivory every year.” The World Wildlife Fund estimates that there are about 470,000 to 690,000 African and 25,600 to 32,750 Asian elephants alive today.

If this rate of killing continues, even with the highest estimate of elephant populations, elephants would be wiped out in less than 30 years.

But when Kenya destroyed its first stockpile of elephant tusks in 1989, it was about more than just the threat to the region’s biodiversity that losing the elephant would mean. Kenya’s economy relies heavily on tourism, as do many other African nations. The country’s then-President Daniel arap Moi saw how devastating the loss of elephants could be for the local and national economies.

Country leaders, however, have another reason to be concerned.

“The illegal ivory trade is also fueling terrorist activities in various parts of the world, increasing insecurity, and undermining national economies,” writes AWF in a statement on the Philippines destruction of its ivory.

Along with the drug trade, ivory has also been used as a fundraiser for terrorist organizations that have both the technology and the undercover networks to carry out such illicit operations.

Leaders at the G-8 summit in Northern Ireland last week signaled their understanding in a released statement saying “We encourage the UNODC (with GCTF and ECOWAS supporting) to convene a high-level meeting to bring together the countries of the region, donors and those with relevant expertise to look at the particular challenges facing North and West Africa, including cooperation in tackling, by a variety of means, terrorist groups that move across borders. We will also take action to tackle the illegal trafficking of protected or endangered wildlife species.”

To stamp it out completely, world leaders would have to unite in this fight as smuggling networks can span many borders and can involve not only organized crime, but also normal citizens who are lured in by the promise of quick and easy money.

But possibly the greatest foe in this fight is corruption and the lack of resources to fight it.

Many conservation groups applauded the Philippines’ action because destroying the ivory ensures that corrupt government officials do not steal it for sale on the black market.

CITES observed in its 2007 report “Monitoring of Illegal Trade in Ivory and Other Elephant Specimens,” “While the CPI variable is in an acceptable mid-range position, the perception of corruption would actually be much lower if not for the negative influence of the Philippines. In fact, it is probably worth noting that the largest ivory seizure ever made in the Philippines, possibly as much as 3.7 tones of raw ivory in 2006, subsequently disappeared from the custody of Manila Customs under corrupt circumstances.”

Other countries implicated in the ivory trade also struggle with such corruption.

While the Philippines has taken a significant first step in this fight against illegal ivory, O’Criodain, a Wildlife Trade Policy Analyst for WWF warns, it still has a long way to go.

“Everyone should be clear that the pulverization of seized ivory in no way removes the Philippines’ obligation under CITES to submit ivory action plans, which in the interests of transparency should have their non-sensitive details made public.”

Under the Philippines Clean Air Act, the crushed ivory is being incinerated at a government crematorium in the course of about 10 days. Some tusks will be used for a memorial to elephants.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Mel]

Kenya's First Lady backs initiatives to save elephants
Xinhua | 2013-6-25 21:35:41
By Agencies

Kenya's First Lady Margaret Kenyatta on Tuesday backed efforts by the country's conservationists to save elephants, urging people across Africa to stop ivory trade to save the wildlife.

Kenyatta also joined other wildlife conservationists in the ivory walk aimed at sensitizing Kenyans and the world to save elephants and other endangered species from extinction.

Speaking at Mount Kenya Academy in Nyeri before embarking on the walk, the First Lady blamed the continued poaching of elephants in Kenya and Africa on countries of the world and individuals who provide ready markets for Ivory.

"I want to appeal to buyers of ivory to consider ending the trade on tusks in order to discourage poaching and save elephants from distinction," Kenyatta said in central Kenya.

Wildlife conservationists said rising demand for ivory and rhino horn in Asia has caused a poaching crisis in recent years across Kenya in particular and Africa as a whole with over 1,000 rhinos having been killed on the continent in the last 18 months.

The poaching menace has brought renewed attention to a crisis that has persisted for decades -- the steady decline of Africa's wildlife due to growing human populations and poverty that has put agricultural communities at odds with wildlife for resources.

Conflict between land for wildlife and land for farmers and pastoralists in Kenya has also reached crisis level with rampant killing of lions and elephants among other types of important wildlife.

The First Lady who was accompanied by two members walked with conservationist Jim Nyamu who is the Director at Elephants Neighbor Center in a race to save elephants for four kilometers from Mount Kenya Academy to King'ong'o GK prison before flagging him off to complete his journey to Nairobi.

Nyamu is on the final phase of his two month walk from Maasai Mara to Nairobi to sensitize the Kenyan communities and the world on the need to save elephants from poachers.

She expressed pleasure at being part of the walk to conserve the Kenyan elephant and reminded the buyers that their continued trade on Ivory increased the demand for tusks and killing of elephants.

Kenyatta, who expressed her solidarity with elephant conservation initiatives, stressed the need for school children to join in the wildlife conservation campaign by composing songs, recitals and dances that discourage poaching in the country.

Kenya says it's at a point where it cannot allow further poaching of wildlife because the animal numbers have been reducing at an alarming rate.

Most recent statistics from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) indicate that the number of elephants for instance has reduced from a high of 160,000 in 1970s to below 30,000.

KWS said between the 1970s and 1980s Kenya lost over 80 per cent of her elephants, mainly due to intensive poaching of elephants for ivory.

The East African nation has also lost 21 rhinos and 117 elephants to poachers since the beginning of 2013. Out of these elephants, he said, 37 were killed in protected areas while 80 were outside protected areas.

Kenya lost 289 elephants to poaching in 2011 and another 384 elephants in 2012. Lion is also one of the most endangered animals not only in Kenya but across Africa.


Kenya has an estimated 1,800 lions, down from 2,800 in 2002. The country had 30,000 lions in the 1960s, KWS data reveals

Speaking during the occasion, KWS Director William Kibet Kiprono said the shrinking habitat, poaching and wildlife/human conflicts are the major challenges facing wildlife conservation in the country.

Kiprono pointed out that KWS was pushing for the passing of the new Wildlife Bill before parliament to provide for stiffer penalties for poachers.

[Mel]

Forensic Science Hunts Down Elephant Poachers
—By Zaineb Mohammed Tue Jul. 2, 2013 10:51 AM PDT

Ivory poachers may have finally met their match: forensic science. A study just published by PNAS describes a carbon-dating technique making it possible to determine the age of elephant tusks—and thus whether a particular piece of ivory has been acquired illegally.

The method involves measuring the radiocarbon—a radioactive isotope of carbon—at the base of a tusk to learn when the elephant died. Kevin Uno, the lead author on the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, broke down how it all works: "Plants absorb carbon dioxide and it gets locked into the leaf. Then some elephant walks by, eats that plant, and then builds its tissue, either tusk or hair, from the plant it ate."

As Uno explained, new tissue forms every day in the elephant's tusk as it eats, with the base containing the newest tissue. Because the carbon absorbed by plants contains radiocarbon from the atmosphere, researchers can match the radiocarbon level in the tissue. But the key to the technique is something that scientists call the "bomb curve," the period between 1952 to 1962 during which radiocarbon nearly doubled because of nuclear weapons testing. After the test ban treaty went into effect in 1963, the concentration of radiocarbon in the atmosphere has been diluted at a steady rate. Researchers used samples from primate hair, hippopotamus canines, elephant tusks, and an oryx horn to test their technique.

As the study explains, "Bomb-curve dating of confiscated animal tissues (e.g., ivory statues) can be used to determine whether trade of the item is legal, because many Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species restrictions are based on the age of the tissue." Because elephants are threatened by extinction, CITES declared a ban on the trade of tusks from African elephants in 1989 and those from Asian elephants in 1975.

CITES estimates that elephant poaching is at its highest level since 2002 (PDF). According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, only 423,000 African elephants remain—nearly 50,000 less than there were in 2007. In 2011, 86,000 pounds of illegal ivory were seized worldwide, with China being the largest importer and the US coming in second. Demand in China, where ivory is often used in both art and religious sculpture, has recently increased as a result of the country's economic boom. Tusks have become a lucrative "conflict resource" in battle zones in Africa, like Uganda, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Last year at a Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing, then committee chairman John Kerry described how poaching has become an organized crime. "The ivory trade stretches from the African savannah to the Asian market place, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime ranks it as a significant form of transnational organized crime. Multiple reports describe armed men coming across the border from Sudan into the Central African Republic or from Somalia into Kenya to kill elephants and smuggle out the ivory."

The loss of elephants is particularly problematic because they are a "keystone species in the ecosystem," says George Wittemyer, an assistant professor at Colorado State University and co-authored the study. "They are the driver of the balance between grass and woodland in the savannah, and they have impacts on water distribution for other species. What we've seen in some areas which have lost their elephants is a domination of woody vegetation and the elimination of all grazing species."

The researchers plan to use their method in tandem with a DNA tool developed in 2004 by the University of Washington's Center for Conservation Biology. Sam Wasser, the center's director, analyzed the DNA in elephant dung and created a map of African elephant populations based on his findings, which allows investigators to determine where ivory comes from.

By using the radiocarbon dating technique with the DNA tool, researchers could pinpoint "poaching hotspots" and notify countries to direct resources to those areas. In addition to being relatively inexpensive—carbon-dating a tusk costs approximately $500 and the DNA analysis costs about $100 plus labor—the process is fairly quick, taking one to two weeks.

Beyond the benefits this could have for tracking illegal ivory trade, the technique has more far-reaching scientific implications as well.

"Part of my research involves using teeth and tusks as a tape recording of the environment in which the animal lived," says Uno. "It's a useful tool for looking at ecosystem change or tracking climate change in a particular region. We found thirty years of life in an elephant tusk we looked at," he continues. "It doesn't get any better than that."

[Mel]

Kenya: Threat of sanctions on East African countries over illegal ivory trade
The East African (Kenya), by Jeff Otieno / Monday, 19 August 2013

Nairobi (Kenya) - Kenya Wildlife Service director William Kiprono and his deputy Patrick Omondi, who are the custodians of the country’s wildlife, have lately been spending sleepless nights. Poaching, especially of elephants, has exploded in the parks and reserves and, as they try to deal with the menace, Kenya and neighbours Uganda and Tanzania have been put on the “Gang of Eight” list by conservationists.

This is the global list of countries at the heart of the unprecedented rise in the killing of African elephants and the illegal ivory trade.The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) has cited eight countries that it says are responsible for the increase in elephant deaths and the thriving illegal ivory trade.

The eight are the source countries Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, transit countries Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines, and destination countries Thailand and China.

“Wherever we go, people are asking us why East Africans are killing the beautiful animal. It is really embarrassing,” said Mr Omondi, who is in charge of wildlife conservation.

Concerned about the increased killing of African elephants, Cites has warned the eight countries to stop the trade or face sanctions. They have up to March 2014 to prove that they have taken the necessary measures.

The three East African countries are required to submit specific action plans on how they intend to tackle the problem of poaching and the illegal ivory trade.

The mandate of Cites, which brings together 178 countries, is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. For a long time now, Cites has been lobbying the eight countries to help curb the illegal ivory trade.

And rather than dangle the carrot, this time round the body is considering using the stick of sanctions to ensure that the “gang” toes the line.

“The majority in the East African region are not poachers,” said Mr Kiprono. “It is only a few individuals who are spoiling it for everybody.”

But statistics on the African elephant are grim. The slaughter of the animals in the three East African countries has soared in the past decade, as poachers strive to meet the demands of an insatiable market in Asia.

According to conservationist John Hemingway, a recent survey by National Geographic in different cities in China of individuals earning $32,000 and above a year found that 8 per cent owned ivory products and 83 per cent of them intend to buy more.

Sixty-eight per cent of the owners admitted that they were aware the products were made from illegal ivory.

The major problem is that the multibillion-dollar business has been aided by a chaotic wildlife protection strategy in the East African region.

Tanzania, which has one of the largest elephant populations in the world, has recorded a nearly 42 per cent decline in the number of elephants in its two leading sanctuaries, Selous Game Reserve and Mikumi National Park.

A recent census by the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute revealed that elephant populations in the two sanctuaries had declined to 43,552 in 2009 from 74,900 in 2006.

Tanzania remains a leading source of ivory and the elephant population, which stands at around 70,000, is destined for further decimation.

It is closely followed by Kenya, in whose backyard poachers have outmanoeuvred security personnel in many instances.

KWS spokesman Paul Mbugua said the country has lost more than 1,000 elephants in the past three years.

“In 2010, we lost 289 elephants, in 2011, we lost 289, and in 2012 we lost 384. As at mid July, we had lost 172 elephants to poaching. Tsavo has recorded more elephant loss to poaching than any other area,” Mr Mbugua said.

In Uganda, a similar trend has been reported. The elephant population stands at about 5,000, down from 20,000 in the 1960s.

Environmentalists have accused powerful, well-connected individuals in the three countries of involvement in the illegal trade.

Early this year, conservationists accused the Uganda People’s Defence Forces of involvement in elephant poaching in the Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, an allegation the government vehemently denied.

In Tanzania, both conservationists and Members of Parliament from the opposition party Chadema have accused the government of aiding and protecting influential people involved in illegal ivory trade.

Recently, the Kenya government was embarrassed after ivory was discovered in State House Mombasa. Two security officials accused of colluding with outsiders to smuggle ivory worth millions of shillings were sacked.

Some of the stolen ivory was believed to have been part of a consignment seized at the Mombasa port. The security officials are yet to explain why ivory was being kept in a tightly guarded state lodge, and who took it there.

According Mr Kiprono, the illegal ivory trade is an elaborate network that involves poor herders at the bottom of the supply chain and rich individuals at the top.

“Herders who use poisoned arrows to kill elephants are paid peanuts — between Ksh200 and Ksh20,000 ($2.29-$229) for the ivory. The tusks then move to dealers who are paid by their financiers, who then organise exportation of the ivory,” he said.

But why should the three East African countries take the Cites warning seriously?

Tourism is a major foreign exchange earner in the region and elephants are a major attraction for African safari lovers.

In Uganda, tourism earnings rose to $805 million last year from $662 million in 2010, while Tanzania’s revenues increased to $1.56 billion, from $1.35 billion in 2011. Kenya earned $1.13 billion, down from $1.15 billion over the same period.

Foreign exchange earnings may decline sharply if Cites decides to impose sanctions. In fact, the three East African countries could be banned from all wildlife trade, including the lucrative exports of orchids and crocodile skin.

To redeem the image of East Africa and ensure the elephant population in the region has a brighter future, conservationists have now launched a campaign dubbed “Hands off our Elephants.”

The campaign, organised by the charitable organisation WildlifeDirect, founded by renowned conservationist Richard Leakey, plans to create awareness about the poaching menace in the eight countries.

The campaigners have already won the support of First Lady Margaret Kenyatta and Kenya Airways chief executive officer Titus Naikuni.

Paula Kahumbu, chief executive officer of WildlifeDirect, said the campaign is a partnership between the government and NGOs.

“We will not only educate the public on the importance of preserving our wildlife but also work with the judiciary. Magistrates are important partners in this fight and it is imperative that they are brought on board,” Dr Kahumbu said.

Apart from the campaign, the Kenya government is reviewing its wildlife laws to come up with stricter penalties, as weak laws have been the country’s Achilles heel in wildlife conservation in the region.

According to Environment Cabinet Secretary Judi Wakhungu, the new Wildlife Conservation and Management Bill, which proposes stricter punishment for wildlife-related crime, will soon be tabled in the National Assembly for debate.

We have been working hard to have this Bill out, and I am happy that it has finally been gazetted and will soon be debated in parliament,” she said.

The good news is that under the new Bill, wildlife-related crimes will be considered as economic crimes and will carry stiffer penalties of up to five years in jail, a million shillings plus fine, or both.

The Cabinet secretary said Kenya had established canine units at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and Moi International Airport, Mombasa, and further plans were under way to set up another one at the Eldoret International Airport to check trafficking in ivory.

Prof Wakhungu said since the establishment of the units, security officers had seized up to eight tonnes of ivory destined for foreign markets.
KWS has also promised to employ more personnel to beef up security in the protected areas.

The organisation’s spokesman said 500 rangers will be recruited from the National Youth Service by the end of this month.

“The second group of 500 will be recruited from among the members of the public, once the first group has been trained and equipped,” he said.

[Richprins]

Promising news, I think!? Thanks, Mello!

African countries are well aware of their reliance on international tourism!

And we may quite easily be next!

According to conservationist John Hemingway, a recent survey by National Geographic in different cities in China of individuals earning $32,000 and above a year found that 8 per cent owned ivory products and 83 per cent of them intend to buy more.

The normal...

[Sprocky]

2013-11-04 12:03

Dar es Salaam - A Tanzanian minister under fire for a controversial suspended anti-poaching operation has praised police for their seizure of a huge haul of 706 elephant tusks.

"It means 353 elephants were killed to get all those tusks," Natural Resources and Tourism Minister Khamis Kagasheki told AFP, calling the seizure a "quite a big amount".

In the past two months, police and wildlife officers have cracked down on suspected poachers amid a surge of killings of elephant and rhino in the east African nation, in a campaign dubbed "Operation Tokomeza" or "Operation Terminate" which reportedly had a shoot-to-kill policy and allowed sweeping arrests.

But parliament on Friday suspended the campaign to allow investigation of reported seizure of property, torture and killing of suspects.

Kagasheki however defended the campaign, saying the seizure of such large amounts of ivory was a sign of its success.

"I admit that there is an ugly side in the operation, but what is happening now in arresting culprits and impounding tusks is part of the success of the operation," he said, refusing to step down over the conduct of the campaign.

Boom in poaching

Shortly after the campaign's launch Kagasheki was widely quoted in Tanzanian media as saying that "rangers are allowed to shoot to kill poachers".

Speaker of Parliament Anne Makinda told AFP Saturday the campaign had been suspended "indefinitely" and that a probe into its conduct would be launched this week.

Kagasheki said the ivory was seized on Saturday in Dar es Salaam from the house of three Chinese traders, who reportedly imported garlic from China and exported marine products from Tanzania.

He named the traders as Xu Fujie, Chen Jinzha and Huang Quin.

Kagasheki also praised police officers who reportedly turned down an $18 750 bribe to let them go free.

Poaching has risen sharply in Africa in recent years. Besides targeting rhinos, whole herds of elephants have been massacred for their ivory.

Tourism is a key foreign currency earner for Tanzania, especially wildlife safaris to its world-famous parks that include the Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater.

The lucrative Asian black market for rhino horn has driven a boom in poaching across Africa.

Asian consumers falsely believe the horns, which have the same composition as fingernails, have powerful healing properties.


- AFP

[nan]

...... Asian consumers falsely believe the horns, which have the same composition as fingernails, have powerful healing properties......

alas... and need so long time to change mentalities