The Militarization of Africa's Animal Poachers

[Penga Ndlovu]

www.theatlantic.com - Today, 2:53 PM

The Militarization of Africa's Animal Poachers

The Militarization of Africa's Animal Poachers | Wildlife Trafficking: Who Does it? Allows it? | Scoop.it

Criminals have long hunted African wildlife, but now they may be linking up with warlords or worse.


Because of the seriousness and importance of this article it is included in its entirety.



Despite some progress on improving security in Central Africa, the continuing smuggling of weapons and the movement of refugees and internally displaced persons continue to threaten the integrity of countries across the region. Less noted, but no less important, is the role that wildlife poaching plays in this perilous circumstance.



Driven by growing demand from China and Asia, the illegal trade in ivory, rhino horn, tiger bone and other endangered species is skyrocketing. In Asia, seizures of tiger parts have quadrupled over the past decade - a figure that reflects increasing trade as much or more than it does improved law enforcement. Richard Carroll, vice president of Africa programs at World Wildlife Federation in the United States (WWF-US) notes "last year was the worst year for rhino poaching in more than a quarter of a century. And this year looks like it may shatter that dismal record."



With an estimated global value of at least $8 billion annually, the trade in endangered species has long been linked to organized, transnational crime. However, as demand escalates and prices rise, the poaching that supplies the trade has become militarized in ways that pose a serious security threat to weak governments, particularly in Central Africa. This was dramatically illustrated earlier this year when one hundred Sudanese raiders stormed across the border from neighboring Chad and methodically slaughtered as many as three hundred elephants for their ivory in Cameroon's Bouda N'Djida national park. The Sudanese raiders were believed to be Janjaweed militiamen who, armed with automatic weapons and grenade launchers, were more than a match for unarmed park guards.



Increasingly, militias, insurgents and even terrorist groups are using the easy money from wildlife crime to buy arms and fund insurgencies that claim lives, hurt economies, and sow instability in states that lack the military capacity to respond. According to a CRS report to Congress in 2008, elephant and rhino poachers in Somalia have been indirectly linked to terrorism through a local warlord who is believed to have given sanctuary to the al-Qaeda operatives responsible for the bombing of a Kenya hotel in 2002 and an earlier attack on the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1998.



Richard Carroll cogently points out that "poaching is not just a conservation crisis any more. Long linked to drugs and arms smuggling around the world, it now also now poses a growing threat to the stability of governments in Africa--one that requires a both regional and international response."



This article originally appeared at CFR.org, an Atlantic partner site.

http://www.theatlantic.com/internationa ... rs/260534/ ;

[Lisbeth]

BY DANIEL STILES, INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR THE CONSERVATION OF NATURE | NOV 18, 2013

Elephant and rhino poaching in Africa have been rising; the Western black rhino has just been declared extinct. Demand in Asia, particularly China, for these animals' tusks and horns has been identified as the main cause of the rise in poaching. Many organisations are moving towards a militarised anti-poacher approach, but there is scant evidence this approach is working.

The media, guided by certain non-governmental organisations, have reported claims that terrorist groups such as Al-Shabaab and the Janjaweed are funded by elephant poaching. The shocking Westgate Mall incident in Nairobi in September was perpetrated by Al-Shabaab. One writer ventured that the attack could have been financed with only five elephant tusks.

Increasingly, elephant poaching is being linked to organised crime and terrorism, elevating the issue to one of national security. Protecting national security inevitably leads to calls for “sophisticated counter-guerilla warfare”.

The call for militarized anti-poaching measures

Are we to see the emergence of anti-poaching Blackwaters to take on the criminals that are massacring precious elephants? Anti-poaching consultant Nir Kalron - who has a military background - says “If ranger units are not sufficient to stop the poaching gangs … military sweeps may be necessary… [A]n aggressive ‘shock’ campaign is in order; to achieve such results, the use of large infantry and Special Forces units is needed.”

He continues, writing that hi-tech surveillance should be used: drones, night-vision goggles, GPS trackers, etc. and that “the creation of focused task forces with ‘carte blanche’ – supported financially and professionally by NGOs and security professionals – will offer a possible recipe for success.”

The highest levels in the US and the UN, supported by conservation and animal welfare NGOs, seem to be buying this message. For example, the recently launched Clinton Global Initiative has pledged a US$80 million effort to fight the illegal ivory trade, with a further US$70 million to be raised specifically for anti-poaching.

Making wildlife a security issue

In 2012, Hillary Clinton (US Secretary of State at the time) publicly called an unprecedented amount of attention to the illegal wildlife trade. She noted how poachers now have helicopters and automatic weapons, which pose a threat to human life as well as wildlife. Clinton called the illegal wildlife trade a national security issue. Following this, in late 2012, Kenya’s ambassador to the United States urged Clinton to send US Marines to help counteract the increasingly “vicious boldness of the poaching gangs” that are decimating Kenya’s wildlife.

Realising many African countries would be calling for similar assistance, Garry Reid, US principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations, warned, it is “not as simple as providing a piece of kit and waving goodbye.” The host nation must have the will and training to curtail it, with “a steady presence of Special Operations Forces personnel in remote parts of the world.”

Michael Fay, technical adviser to Gabon’s national parks service, told a US congressional committee that, without the aid of military and intelligence services, African governments would lose control of regions destabilised by poachers.

More recently US President Barack Obama launched a new, US$10 million plan to combat illegal wildlife trade and related organised crime and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature is convening a high-level summit involving Heads of State in December dedicated to stopping elephant poaching. It is not known what measures they will seek to enact, but it is clear momentum is building towards militarisation of anti-poaching efforts.

Will it work?

Militarised moves against poaching can have unintended consequences. The military approach has not succeeded in Kruger National Park in South Africa, reputed to be one of the best managed in Africa and which has by far the largest rhino population in the world, totalling over 10,000.

Sam Ferreira, a rhino specialist with South African Parks, made a presentation on rhino conservation and poaching at the CITES Conference of the Parties in March. He demonstrated graphically that as ranger manpower (including bringing in the South African army), funding for anti-poaching and arrests all increased, rhino poaching skyrocketed.

What? Read that again. Militarisation failed spectacularly. Ferreira concluded that the potential gains for poachers were simply too high for the increased risks to deter them.

There is an alternative

Everyone seems to agree that the ultimate cause lies with Chinese and other, mostly Asian, consumers buying the ivory and other wildlife products. Why not start there and get them to stop buying illegal products?

The problem is, there are no legal ivory or rhino horn supplies for them to buy because of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) trade bans. Demand is satisfied through poaching.

Let’s look elsewhere to search for a solution. Anybody ever hear of the vicuña? The wild camel relative lives in South America and vicuña wool is one of the most highly priced animal fibres in the world. It was hunted down to about 6,000 animals in 1974, when it was declared endangered, and trade in its wool was banned by CITES in 1975.

Things did not improve until the Vicuña Convention put a plan in place. Conservation programmes focused on local communities and encouraged them to manage vicuñas for their own benefit through selling the wool from controlled hunting and domestication. There are about 350,000 animals today and the population is growing.

The vicuña case shows that allowing trade can benefit a species. I wonder how many would be left if the trade ban had been kept in place and militarised anti-poaching had taken over?

The vicuña approach should be considered with those who live with elephants in Africa and who buy and work raw ivory in China. But will governments and NGOs prefer killing poachers to dealing with the real cause?

The authorDaniel Stiles is affiliated with the IUCN/SCC African Elephant Specialist Group.

http://www.eturbonews.com/39771/militar ... rity-issue

[Richprins]

The vicuña case shows that allowing trade can benefit a species. I wonder how many would be left if the trade ban had been kept in place and militarised anti-poaching had taken over?

Good point there!

Difficult to allign it with rhino and elephant, but the message is there!

[Toko]

Born Free USA and C4ADS released “Ivory’s Curse: The Militarization and Professionalization of Poaching in Africa,” one of the most shocking, rigorous and in-depth analyses of elephant poaching and the ivory trade to date. The report examines links to violent militias, organized crime, government corruption, and ivory trade to Asia. It further exposes the widespread transnational illicit participants deeply interwoven into the system that moves ivory.


Download PDF



Ivory's Curse: The Militarization and Professionalization of Poaching in Africa

Executive Summary:

Elephant ivory poaching is no longer solely a conservation issue. As poaching reaches levels that threaten to render African elephants near-totally extinct within the next ten years, it also funds a wide range of destabilizing actors across Africa, with significant implications for human conflict. A single elephant yields 10kg of ivory worth approximately $30,000; a conservative estimate is that 23,000 elephants were killed in 2013. With the true figure likely much higher, the ivory trade could be worth as much as a billion dollars annually, and will likely increase with the escalating retail price of ivory. This report provides detailed case studies of how these profits empower a wide range of African conflict actors:

• From Sudan, government-allied militias complicit in the Darfur genocide fund their operations by poaching elephants hundreds of miles outside North Sudan’s borders.

• In the DRC, state security forces patronize the very rebels they are supposed to fight, providing them with weapons and support in exchange for ivory.

• Zimbabwean political elites, including those under international sanction, are seizing wildlife spaces that either are, or likely will soon be, used as covers for poaching operations.

• In East Africa, al-Shabaab and Somali criminal networks are profiting off Kenyan elephants killed by poachers using weapons leaked from local security forces.

• Mozambican organized crime has militarized and consolidated to the extent it is willing to battle the South African army and well-trained ranger forces for rhino horn.

• In Gabon and the Republic of Congo, ill-regulated forest exploitation is bringing East Asian migrant laborers, and East Asian organized crime, into contact with Central Africa’s last elephants.

• In Tanzania, political elites have aided the industrial-scale depletion of East Africa’s largest elephant population.


In short, ivory poaching has significant human impact. At the most macro level, the ivory trade is essentially a large-scale illicit resource transfer from Africa to Asia; on the ground, however, ivory is bush currency for militants, militias, and terrorists, and one of the most valuable pieces of illicit contraband for organized criminals and corrupt elites.

The modern ivory trade was built on war, and elephant poaching remains highly militarized, empowering a wide range of conflict actors and transforming the nature of wildlife conservation in Africa. Park managers and conservation NGOs have already been forced into roles as de facto soldiers and policemen, and the pace and professionalization of poaching show no signs of abating. Finally, as elephant populations disappear in Central Africa, and the price of ivory continues to rise, poaching will continue to displace into Eastern Africa, and will likely soon appear in still-secure ranges in Southern Africa.

This study was based on extensive C4ADS interviews and correspondence; public records research; local, international, and native language reporting; social media; analysis of available datasets from governments, NGOs, and other sources; and other forms of open-source research. The mention of any individual, company, organization, or other entity in this report does not imply the violation of any law or international agreement, and should not be construed as such.


Table of Contents
• Introduction
Poaching Trends: Crisis Levels & Displacing
The First Wave: Born in War
The Modern Wave: A Global Criminal Enterprise
Enabling Factors Across the Continent
• The Value Chain
Organization
Incentives
Costs
Following Ivory & Measuring Disruption
The Arua-Ariwara Case Study
• Sudan: Failed States & Ungoverned Ratlines
Poaching into Extinction
Sudan’s Military & the Janjaweed
The South Sudanese Armed Forces
The CAR Crisis, Seleka & the Anti-Balaka
• DRC: Conflict-Crime Nexus & Wildlife Wars
Low-Intensity Wildlife Wars
The FARDC
Mai Mai Militias: Morgan, Thoms, and Simba
The Lord’s Resistance Army
Foreign Armies: The UPDF
• Zimbabwe: Bilateral Shadow Trade & Sanctions Evasion
A State of Impunity
A Sample of Officials with Wildlife Assets
The Chinese Factor
• Kenya: Small Arms & Pastoralist Violence
Small Arms Availability
Violence on Elephant Peripheries
Rural Poverty & Pastoralism
The Somalis & al-Shabaab
A Professionalized Trade
• Mozambique: The Power of Price & Porous Borders
Poverty, Price & Organized Crime
Cross-border Poaching into South Africa
Cross-border Poaching & Tanzania
The Mozambican Border Guard & Police Networks
Resurgent Insurgents: RENAMO
• TRIDOM: Forestry Resource Exploitation & the Chinese in Africa
Logging, Bushmeat, Mining & Refugees
The Chinese in Gabon/ROC
• Tanzania: Elite Capture of Wildlife
Weak Oversight & Regulation
• Recommendations
Regulate or Restrict
Preempt Emerging Hotspots
Strategy-Based Tactics
Move Up the Value Chain

[Richprins]

Thanks, Toko!

A lengthy report!


Not sure if all facts are correct, but a good summary so far...still ploughing through it.

This is an interesting quote:



South African Military Intelligence used ivory and horn on a vast scale to covertly fund proxy wars in Angola, Mozambique, and former Rhodesia. Rhodesian military units such as the Selous Scouts gravitated into poaching as they collected and delivered ivory found on elephants killed by landmines to their contacts in South African Military Intelligence. Eventually, however, the demands grew institutionalized, and the “provision of ivory and other goods appears to have been required by the
South Africans as part-payment for their support of the Selous Scouts.”

Similar arrangements were reported with UNITA in Angola, a story that first broke with the testimony
by Col. Jan Breytenbach, founder of South Africa’s infamous 32 Battalion. He accused the
highest levels of UNITA, along with senior South African intelligence and defense officials,
of a “massive extermination campaign” against Angola’s elephants that turned the country
into a “sterile, lifeless desert.”

Breytenbach and others named a Portugese company, Frama Inter-Trading, as having facilitated and directed the trade, accusations that were later
confirmed by the Kumblen Commission Report, authorized by the Mandela administration. Released in January 1996, it confirmed that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) had been involved with Frama from “the womb to the tomb” and that the SANDF “officially, but covertly, participated in the illicit possession and transportation of ivory and rhino horn” with export lines through Johannesburg.

Anyway, perhaps this is more relevant today:




In Zimbabwe, sanctioned Mugabe cronies in the government, military,and intelligence agencies loot protected areas while bilaterally making natural resource deals with Chinese investors. Hunting and safari areas are being seized, with a high risk that they will, or are, being used as covers for ivory and horn poaching operations,
while environmentally sensitive areas in close proximity to elephant populations are being auctioned off for Chinese exploitation with little transparency.



There has always been civil war in Sub-Saharan Africa....so why the sudden increase in ellie poaching? Chinese influence eaxactly matches this latest timeline in most of the countries mentioned. Only a matter of time before the wave hits SA and Namibia...

[100ponder]

The below strengthens my view that wildlife education for most African governments is crucial for the continued existence of African elephants as well as for general game :-

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... f2931107=1

[Flutterby]

Too right 100P!

[Mel]

The below strengthens my view that wildlife education for most African governments is crucial for the continued existence of African elephants as well as for general game :-

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... f2931107=1

The trouble with National Geographic seems to be that if try you access the document / article more than once,
they ask you to register...