Rhino Poaching (outside SA) & Horn Trafficking

[Toko]

Intersting analysis of Nepal's success

And obviously not only in South Africa huge differences between offical rhino numbers and what other experts think

[vinkie]

Anti-smuggling focus on wildlife crime enhanced in China’s Guangxi Province


Guangxi, China, 3rd June 2013—Wildlife law enforcement agencies in Guangxi Province met last month to review their efforts to crack-down on smuggling of endangered wildlife in 2012, as well as to align their collaboration in 2013.

Supported by TRAFFIC, the meeting brought together all members of Guangxi Provincial Inter-agency CITES Enforcement Coordination Group (PICE-CG), which was established in June 2012.

Guangxi Province borders Viet Nam and from October to December 2012, a joint operation targeting cross-border smuggling and illegal trade in endangered species was carried by the Guangxi PICE-CG member agencies. The two-month action led to a total of 112 wildlife seizures and the arrest of 114 suspects.

Over 17,300 wild animals including pangolins, hawksbill turtles, monitor lizards and crocodiles were confiscated while wildlife products such as 2,242 items of ivory and rhino horns were also seized. More than 3,000 items of hunting equipment, including guns, were confiscated.

“The wild animal seized in the last two months of 2012 account for 52 per cent of the seizures in the whole year, which strongly indicates the success of the joint law enforcement between agencies,” said Dr Xianlin Meng, the Deputy Executive Director of China’s CITES Management Authority.

Representatives from key agencies, namely Forest Police, Border Police and Industry & Commerce Department shared their experience on enforcement at the meeting, and awards were presented to eight enforcement units and 20 individuals, who greatly contributed to the wildlife crime crack-down action in 2012.

China’s National Inter-agency CITES Enforcement Coordination Group (NICE-CG) sent a letter to the meeting to complement the joint enforcement actions led by the PICE-CG and Provincial Anti-smuggling Office in Guangxi in the past two years.

“The joint effort among agencies pioneered the practice of how a provincial level government can strengthen its law enforcement to comply with the requirements of an international Convention,” the letter stated, with reference to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

“The efforts in Guangxi are a positive indicator or China’s efforts to link its NICE-CG with neighbouring countries in South-East Asia,” said Dr Jianbin Shi, Head of TRAFFIC’s China programme.

“Last year’s meeting between China and the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network has established a national platform under which Guangxi’s PICE-CG is playing a key role in protecting China’s biodiversity as well as combating transboundary trade with South-East Asia.”

A large seizure of wildlife products in January 2013 included a Tiger skin, a Tiger skeleton, 14 rhino horns and 55 kg ivory © TRAFFIC Bordering Viet Nam, Guangxi Province is the focal point of the China-ASEAN economy activities and also the main passageway for smuggling wildlife from South-East Asian countries to China. In January 2013, the biggest rhino horn seizure in China since 1993 took place when three suspects, including a Vietnamese national, were caught smuggling 14 rhino horns, one tiger skin, a tiger skeleton and 55.53 kg of ivory.

The meeting concluded with some guidelines for the next steps of wildlife law enforcement work in Guangxi, prioritizing the crack-down on smuggling, keeping the best practice of inter-agency co-operation, strengthening public communication to reduce demand on illegal wildlife products and building capacity.

“Long-term efforts are needed to address wildlife smuggling in Guangxi effectively,” said Dr Shi.

“TRAFFIC has been proud to help strengthen such efforts to improve enforcement effectiveness and efficiency of relevant enforcement agencies in Guangxi.”

TRAFFIC held a side meeting with the full array of local enforcement forces to detail the following steps of collaboration and at the same time to facilitate the idea exchanges between the border police, Industry and Commerce Bureau, forest police, anti-smuggling office and CITES-MA Branch Office in Nanning.

Agencies all agree that closer co-operation is needed in all aspects, from anti-smuggling to market monitoring, from arrest to prosecution. Communication to the public asking them not to consume illegal wildlife products is also recognized by most agencies to be an essential component in their work moving forward. Some of the agencies came up with innovative ideas, for instance, the Guangxi border police force has strictly forbidden its policemen/women and their family members from buying any wildlife products, and the Industry and Commerce Bureau encourages the public to report illegal wildlife trade through its hotline 12315, which is normally used for reporting scams.

“The efforts in Guangxi to become a provincial leader in wildlife law enforcement are commendable and provide opportunities to replicate success in China and with its neighbours to combat wildlife crime,” said James Compton, TRAFFIC’s Senior Programme Director for Asia.

“Only through the targeted efforts at source, transit and consumption points can the illegal trade chain be broken.”

In the past three years, TRAFFIC has been supporting the inter-agency law enforcement efforts at national and provincial level, with a focus on Guangxi and Yunnan with the generous support of WWF Germany.

Source: http://www.traffic.org/home/2013/6/6/an ... as-gu.html

[vinkie]

Wildlife detector dog programme a first for China

Monday, June 10, 2013

Ruili, China, June 2013 —China is all set to begin using detector dogs to assist enforcement officers to locate wildlife contraband, the first time the technique has been used in the country.

Three Labradors are currently being trained at the Ruili Drug Detector Dog Base, Anti-smuggling Bureau of the General Customs in Yunnan province and are expected to make their enforcement debut later in 2013.

Ruili is the largest drug detector dog training base in China, supplying trained dogs to Customs departments across mainland China and Hong Kong. It also serves as the Detector Dog Training Centre in Asia for the World Customs Organization (WCO).

The wildlife detector dog programme in China was started following the International Symposium on Wildlife Detector Dogs, held by China General Customs and TRAFFIC in November 2011.

Training of the first dedicated wildlife detector dogs began this March, with TRAFFIC offering technical support to the programme, including on the selection of dogs and the training methodology.

Once fully trained, the animals will help Customs officers patrolling China’s southern border check passengers, their luggage and cargos for contraband wildlife products such as Tiger bone, ivory, rhino horn, pangolin scales and live reptiles.

Experience from the initial programme will be used to scale up the training of wildlife detector dogs for other enforcement agencies, such as China’s Forest Police and Border Police.

“Illegal wildlife trade is increasingly being recognized as a serious crime and enforcement agencies need to be equipped with the best, new and innovative techniques to help them counteract it,” said Xu Ling, Senior Programme Officer with TRAFFIC’s China programme.

TRAFFIC estimates one dog and its handler can carry out a relatively thorough search of passengers and their baggage for wildlife contraband in the same time it would take 36 Customs officers to perform a cursory examination.

“TRAFFIC is delighted to be at the forefront of introducing the use of wildlife detector dogs into China and is standing by to help the authorities extend the programme further,” said Xu.

TRAFFIC’s detector dog programme in China is generously supported by WWF Germany.

Source: http://www.traffic.org/home/2013/6/10/w ... china.html

[Toko]

Fighting the poachers on Africa's thin green line

Underpaid, ill-equipped and outnumbered, park rangers fight a one-sided war against vicious gangs of poachers. Hundreds have been murdered in the defence of endangered wildlife, and their deaths leave their own families in jeopardy. David Smith reports from Zambia

Esnart Paundi rarely smiled for the camera. One old photo shows her wearing her ranger's camouflage fatigues and a pensive expression as she crouches beside a mound of bushmeat and three despondent poachers, one handcuffed. In another she is in a black leather jacket at her sister's home, leaning against the TV with a baby under her arm and sad eyes.

Death stalked Esnart. When her mother died young, she stepped in to help raise her siblings and become the family breadwinner. One of her five brothers and two of her three sisters are dead. Twice married and twice widowed, she was a single mother of five children.

When death came to Esnart herself at the age of 38, it was sudden, brutal and senseless. She had caught two more poachers trying to smuggle butchered wildlife to Zambia's copper belt. One was hiding a machete and, though she tried to flee, he hunted her down and smashed her skull with it. Her orphaned children are now scattered among different homes. The state has done nothing to help them.

Esnart was one of the foot soldiers in what has been called the thin green line: park rangers faced with an unprecedented onslaught from vicious, well-armed criminal gangs in Africa and around the world. In the past decade at least 1,000 have paid with their lives for defending wild animals, according to the Thin Green Line Foundation, a charitable organisation which supports rangers in their work, and their families in the case of bereavement.

"Once you are deployed on patrol, you know for certain: I am going to war," says Liywali Akakulubelwa, 47, a senior intelligence and investigations officer at the Zambia Wildlife Authority. "You accept that is the nature of the job."

Respite is unlikely. Rangers are braced for an escalation in the "wildlife wars" – the increasing militarisation of the planet's most precious and fragile game reserves. The struggle is as ferocious as any in nature, but unlikely to be seen in a David Attenborough documentary.

In India, the foundation says, rangers have been buried alive in sawing pits by illegal timber poachers. In Colombia they are killed when dealing with drug cartels, land mines and militias. But Africa is probably the bloodiest battleground. Elephants and rhino are under siege as the black-market prices of ivory and horn rocket. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, tormented by rebel militias, 183 rangers have been killed in just one national park over the past decade. Last year alone Kenya lost six rangers, including a pregnant woman who was ambushed and shot in the face, while in Chad's Zakouma national park five rangers were mown down by automatic weapons during their morning prayers.

And this is no even contest. Some poachers are former army soldiers who do not hesitate to kill animals or humans, and they come with powerful backers. Rangers are often older and underpaid and lack the equipment, resources and training to defend themselves in firefights. When they make the ultimate sacrifice, there is often no government assistance for their families, who face a life of poverty and destitution.

Zambia, a landlocked country generally seen as democratic, inoffensive and rich in wildlife, has suffered much down the years. Its rhino population was annihilated and most of its elephants wiped out in 1970s and 80s. Efforts to reintroduce and conserve the animals now mean the "big five" – buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion and rhino – as they are a tourist drawcard.

In the early 1990s Esnart decided to become a park ranger to defend these crown jewels. Liywali, who trained with her for two years, recalls: "She wanted our animals to be protected so young ones could come and see elephants and buffalos. She wanted young people to see our natural resources in this country. She wanted to stop the trade in wildlife game meat. This is where death found her."

Esnart became a ranger in 1995, bringing a crucial income to an otherwise impoverished family. With her mother dead, Esnart helped her father with parenting. Her brother Mawto Paundi, 33, a taxi driver, recalls: "I remember she insisted that I go to school, but I refused. I now regret passing up the opportunity. She was ready to sponsor me."

Many former colleagues of Esnart claim she was aware of the risks of the job, but never dwelled on them. Mawto, however, says that she confided in him: "There was a time when she wanted to change career, get some money and do something else. She wanted to do something with computers so she could be in the civil service. It was because of the danger of going on patrol in the bush. She was concerned about the risks involved. It was around that time she died. Of course I was concerned as a brother, knowing the dangers of the job and what had happened to others who did it. A lot of other rangers have died. But I appreciated what she did for wildlife conservation."

By 2009 Esnart was working under William Soko, a senior ranger in Rufunsa district, about 80km from the capital, Lusaka, and earning about 1,350 kwacha (£160) per month. "She was very cheerful and obedient," Soko recalls from behind his desk in a modest office. "She was a fine lady, ever-smiling, everybody's darling."

Esnart was the only woman among Soko's 20 wildlife police officers, as rangers are formally called. "She was proud to be a pioneer. I gave her challenges, like patrolling through the escarpment. I thought she would say: 'No, I can't go' – I was shocked she went. It definitely changed my perception of women, because I know some males who are afraid to go there. I wouldn't hesitate to employ another female ranger. I still think about Esnart very much. She died a very sad death. She didn't deserve this type of death."

Esnart died on 14 September 2010 in Kabwe in Zambia's Central Province. She was on a route where poachers were known to transport bushmeat. A small, light truck approached her roadblock, executed a U-turn and sped away. Esnart, who was unarmed, and two other officers with rifles gave pursuit on foot into the bush. They found the vehicle abandoned and followed some tyre marks that led to a pile of bushmeat and two poachers, whom they arrested. One of the rangers then left to look for transport.

"One of the suspects had a panga [machete] hidden," Soko continues. "He moved like lightning. He struck the male officer on the head and knocked him unconscious. That officer has never been the same since – you can see he is not right any more."

Esnart ran but the poacher gave pursuit and rained blows on her head until she was dead. Soko was called to collect her body. "I cried," the 51-year-old admits. "It was a gruesome sight. I left with that grief in me and went to look for the suspects' house at 3am, and if I had found them, they would be have been mincemeat to bury."

But the suspects had gone and, more than two years later, are still on the run. It is thought one was Congolese and may have returned home. Soko adds: "If they are in Zambia, they will be caught. You can run for 10 or 20 years, but if you shed human blood you get caught. I can never forgive them. They have to pay."

Soko took Esnart's body back to her home village, where her father, himself a former park ranger, was "understanding". The funeral brought a big crowd of mourners and there were songs, Bible readings and preaching. As is traditional, Esnart's colleagues fired their guns in salute to a fellow ranger.

But since then Esnart's family have received no financial compensation from the authorities she served. Soko, who is also chairman of the Game Rangers Association of Zambia, complains: "The government should have done a lot more because of the misery the children are subjected to. Their life simply collapses when they lose the breadwinner. She was a single mother and when she died everything went.

"I don't know what the government is thinking. What I do know is that they are silent. The Thin Green Line is the only organisation in the world to come to the aid of the children."

Rangers in Zambia, Africa and the world should not be abandoned by their governments, Soko argues. "It is a very dangerous job. Every year we have a death. It's nonstop. For as long as there are poachers, there are going to be deaths. If my daughters wanted to become rangers, I wouldn't allow them."

A short walk from Soko's office is the rudimentary house where Esnart lived, built of a reddish mudbrick, with a flimsy wooden door and a corrugated roof weighed down by rocks. It is surrounded by bare earth and dust. The faceless, unnamed poacher whose machete struck down Esnart also splintered a family. Her five children now live far apart in three separate towns in the care of various relatives.

The eldest, Anna Phiri, 17, is not so different from many teenagers: she enjoys going out and her favourite TV shows are Hannah Montana and Shake It Up. Her best subject at school is English, and she wants to be a journalist one day. "I wouldn't be a ranger because there is not enough security," she says.

Anna's father, Gawa Phiri, also a game ranger, died from meningitis in 2006. She lives with his sister, Martha Phiri, a primary school teacher, her husband Maxwell, an accountant, and their four children in eastern Lusaka. The approach road is dusty, bumpy, unpaved and fringed with rubbish. Outside the grey concrete-block house is the stench of raw sewage. Anna's bedroom has two double beds shared by four children. Dolls and teddy bears are strewn around the room. A green curtain is strung up by the window and the walls are pockmarked under a corrugated roof and naked lightbulb. A shoebox is perched on top of a wardrobe.

Barefoot and wearing a turquoise dress with white leggings, Anna rummages in a suitcase and produced a homemade photo album. It includes a picture of her mother with short hair, a blue T-shirt, light trousers and an unsmiling, careworn look. "I feel very bad when I look at it." Among her most precious possessions is a red and white dress that belonged to her mother. "It means a lot to me. I will wear it one day."

Recalling the day of her mother's funeral, Anna is tearful yet composed. "I was told by my aunt. It was very disturbing and shocking. My mother was very brave. I'm proud of her. I think about her a lot. It's very difficult now because I don't get to see my brothers and sisters often. I don't know how they are doing."

Across the city Esnart's son, George, 14, lives with his uncle, Mathews Phiri. "Mum didn't tell me much about the job," George mumbles shyly. "But I knew it was dangerous."

The long flat ROAD to Mumbwa, 135km from Lusaka, passes through a broiling marketplace selling farm produce, knock-off furniture and Manchester City football mugs. A sign for a traditional healer from Malawi promises pe-nis enlargements and the magical return of runaway spouses. In Mumbwa is the simple house that Esnart bought but never occupied. It is now home to her siblings and three other children: the boys Annex, 12, and Chimunya, eight, and her adopted seven-year-old daughter Irene. Their father Annex, a polygamist who already had a wife when he met Esnart, died from an illness. Now the trio lives alongside her sister Abigail's two children.

There is electricity here and a digital TV and DVD player, but water must be fetched from an outside pump. Beyond a torn sheet in a doorway is the main bedroom, where foam oozes out of a split mattress, paint is cracked on the walls and a weathered mosquito net hangs limp. The family toilet is a dark pit in the ground in a ramshackle backyard shed.

Abigail, 31, is in charge of Esnart's estate and has kept her sister's ranger's uniform. "It reminds me of her because she used to wear it often," she says, sitting in a cramped, stuffy lounge with a fridge parked in the corner. "But I rarely look at it because it's painful."

She still feels bitterness towards the poachers whose actions that day continue to ripple through numerous lives. "I can't forgive them, because the impact of what they did is still being felt now. The main problem is that I'm the only sister looking after the kids, and I don't have a job. Sometimes I do piece work, but it might not suffice to look after the needs of the children. They miss their mother. I would like them all to be in one place, but I can't manage to keep all of them. They miss each other very much."

Another of Esnart's brothers, Muyeni Paundi, 22, a taxi driver, chips in: "The authorities should have done more. When the incident happened, she had no firearm and they had no handcuffs. They should also give financial support, especially for the kids. They were supposed to. Esnart's children need to be together for that brother and sister relationship."

A family friend wanders in, wearing the camouflage uniform of a wildlife police officer. Ellison Kanyembo, 47, had known Esnart since they were at training school in the 1990s. "We were tribal cousins," he recalls fondly. "She was good to me. We were like brother and sister, helping each other. She was courageous. She admired the job and was not frightened. She liked going in the field and seeing animals. She liked adventure in the wilderness. She liked cooking and she cooked fritters for me sometimes. I saw her three days before she died. It was as if she knew she was going to die. She said: 'Look after my children – this one, that one – I don't know if I'll come back.' It was like she was saying goodbye."

Kanyembo says that news of her death had a terrible impact on him: "It pained me spiritually, physically. There was that hurt in me."

Esnart's story chimes with those of many park rangers: gratitude for a job of any kind to feed and clothe numerous dependents, but low pay and the constant threat of a violent demise. In the absence of government support, her family was rescued by donations from the Thin Green Line Foundation.

What safety net, then, for other grieving spouses and children left to pick up the pieces? It is a question that corrodes the spirit of the Kalounga family back in Rufunsa where, down a bone-shaking dirt track, is a gate to the Lower Zambezi national park decorated with the skulls of buffalo, elephant and sable. Mathias Kalounga, 49, is among the rangers who patrols and camps there for unbroken stretches of 15 days. He has a wife and nine children aged from three to 22.

"I love keeping God's creation," he says. "I'm not afraid of anything. I have been shot at. We met some poachers and they started shooting and there was an exchange of fire. The poachers ran off and left their cooking equipment. I was not afraid at all."

But the danger weighs heavily upon his wife, Loyce. "It was close to the camp and we even heard the gunshots. I was worried that my husband might be killed and not make it home. He was outnumbered – three rangers against four poachers. I wish he did a different job, because this one is very dangerous. When I worry, I don't feel well."

If the worst happened to Mathias, Loyce, a housewife, would be left alone to fend for her children. "The authorities don't care about other people's lives," she muses. "We see what happens. Esnart was working for the government, but when she died the government did not look after the orphans. It's a big responsibility to feed my children and send them to school. When my husband dies, the government will do nothing to help me and my children. We will be in very big problems."

Even in life, the family endures deep hardship. Mathias and Loyce share the sole bed while their children sleep on the floor. There is no electricity or running water. Mathias earns just 1,700 kwacha (£201) per month. "It's very little, not enough to pay for the children to go to school. Some of them do and some don't."

When Zambia's vice-president, Guy Scott, was informed that Esnart's family had still not received any government support, he said that something had gone wrong and asked for her name so that it could be rectified.

One of the FIERCEST battlegrounds is also one of the world's most popular tourist destinations: South Africa, where on average a rhino is poached every 11 hours. Backed by international crime syndicates feeding a demand for horn in the Far East, poachers have been known to use helicopters, specialised silent tranquillisers, body armour, night-vision equipment and mercenaries experienced in rhino tracking.

Officials have vowed to "fight fire with fire" and deployed troops in the famed Kruger national park, where gun battles are increasingly common. Major-General Johan Jooste, who heads the joint military, police and game ranger operations, recently described the influx of poachers from Mozambique as an "insurgency" requiring a "counter- insurgency".

Wanda Mkutshulwa, managing executive of corporate services for South Africa national parks (SANParks), says: "Except for an accident between a ranger and a soldier who mistook each other for a suspected armed and aggressive poacher, there have been no fatalities of rangers in the Kruger national park related to suspected poaching in the past five years. This is something we live in fear of and, with the escalating incursions into the park and the increasing aggression of the suspects, it is only a matter of time before this happens.

"We are dealing with an enemy that has no rules and respects none, while the rangers are expected to first attempt arrest and can only shoot once they are shot at. The poachers are in control of time and place, because you never know where or when they will surface due to the size of the park – which is about half the size of Switzerland and bigger than Swaziland."

The rangers are the "forgotten victims" of the poaching war, according to Sean Willmore, an Australian-based conservationist, documentary maker and president of the International Ranger Federation. Willmore is the driving force behind the Thin Green Line Foundation, whose champions include Jane Goodall, the celebrated British primatologist. "Rangers are often outgunned, outnumbered and outresourced by illegal commercial poachers," Willmore says. "And, sadly, on a weekly basis, they are shot at, hacked to death and sometimes even tortured if they survive the bullets. I have many graphic and horrifying examples."

The foundation says it has given support to 80 widows and more than 550 orphans of rangers killed in action, but still has more than 900 widows waiting for help. Willmore adds: "With little or no compensation, many rangers' widows and children are often left destitute and below the poverty line. The children are often taken out of school with no source of income for the family. The poverty cycle for these families is set in motion. This is the thanks we give these rangers and their families for risking their lives for the animals we all care about."

For more information on the Thin Green Line Foundation, go to http://www.thingreenline.org.au/

[Richprins]

This story is both gladdening and depressing. The situaition is similar in many Thirld World countries across the globe, but the brutality is not.

[Lisbeth]

On the other hand 30 rangers in Kenya have been arrested as collaborators with the poachers.

[Mel]

Nepal jails 13 for rhino poaching

Published: 20 Jun 2013 at 20.49 Online news: Asia

Thirteen poachers of the endangered one-horn rhino have been sentenced to jail in Nepal, a government official said Thursday.

An official at the Chitwan National Park, home to most of Nepal's rhinos, said six poachers were arrested three years ago while the other seven were convicted in absentia.

"All thirteen were convicted of poaching a rhino in a community forest in Nawalparasi district in March 2009. Some went into the forest in a group. Others aided with weapons," Tikaram Paudel, an officer at the park told AFP.

Paudel said eight convicts were handed a 15-year prison sentence and a 100,000 rupee ($1050) fine for killing the animal. Rhino poaching in Nepal carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in jail.

"The rest have been sentenced 10 years in jail and fined 50,000 rupees," he added, explaining that they were found guilty of keeping watch while the others slaughtered the rhino.

He said that the court asked police to arrest the convicts who are still on the run.

The Chitwan National Park, which is under the government-run Department of Wildlife Conservation and National Parks, is vested with semi-judicial authority to act as a court by Nepal's National Parks Act.

Thousands of one-horned rhinos once roamed the plains of Nepal, but their numbers have plunged over the past century due to poaching and human encroachment of their habitat.

The animals are poached for their horns, which are wrongly prized for their supposed medicinal qualities in China and southeast Asia. Asian consumers falsely believe the horns, the same material as fingernails, have healing properties.

A single horn can sell for tens of thousands of dollars on the international black market, and impoverished Nepal's porous borders, weak law enforcement and proximity to China have made the country a hub for the illegal trade.

[Flutterby]

Smugglers ordered to compensate Mozambican company

(2013-08-03)

A court in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado has ordered a Chinese company to pay 3.5 million US dollars to its Mozambican partners, because of the damages they suffered due to the Chinese involvement in smuggling ivory, rhino horns, pangolin shells, artwork made from ivory, and even elephant excrement, according to a report in Friday’s issue of the independent weekly “Savana”.

The case dates back to January 2011, when the Chinese company, Mozambique Tienhe Trading Development Ltd, was found to have included wildlife products in a rented container that ought to have been full of nothing but timber.

The discovery was part of a swoop on containers carried by the Antigua registered ship “Kota Mawar” in the northern Mozambican port of Pemba. There were 121 20 foot containers on board, carrying timber owned by several Chinese companies.

89 of the containers were carrying goods belonging to the company Mofid, 30 to Tienhe, 20 to Pacif, 15 to Sinlian, and seven to Alphaben.

The “Kota Mawar” had received the go-ahead from customs and from the provincial agriculture services to depart for China when officials from the defence and security forces received a tip-off that some of the containers were carrying illicit goods.

So the containers were unloaded and checked. In a container belonging to the company Miti, 126 elephant tusks and one rhino horn were discovered, as well as unspecified amounts of elephant dung and pangolin shells. The pangolin’s protective armour consists of large scales which, like rhino horns, and human fingernails, are made of keratin.

The managing partner of Miti, Mohamed Faruk Jamal, declared that his company had nothing to do with the smuggling, and had been betrayed by its Chinese partner, Tienhe. Jamal said that Miti authorised Tienhe to use its containers to transport timber, and not forbidden wildlife products.

Miti demanded compensation of five million dollars from Tienhe because of the damage done to its good name. Jamal said that Miti had become associated with ivory smuggling, when in reality the prohibited goods were placed in the container without its knowledge.

He said that the suspicion that Miti was involved in smuggling had led several of its partners to cancel business deals, causing serious financial losses for Miti.

Judge Luis Khavinha, of the Cabo Delgado Provincial Court, found in favour of Miti, but scaled back the amount Tienhe must pay Miti from five to 3.5 million dollars. Tienhe must also pay all the legal costs of the case.

But it is not clear whether Miti will ever see any of this money. According to “Savana”, the Tienhe representative, Qiuhua Yan, has left the country, taking with him some of the company’s assets.

Meanwhile, the police in Nampula province announced on Thursday the arrest of a Congolese citizen who was in possession of six elephant tusks.

According to a report on Radio Mozambique the man was arrested on a minibus that was travelling from Montepuez, in Cabo Delgado, to Nampula city. The search of the vehicle was part of a joint operation between the police and the customs service.

According to the Nampula provincial police spokesperson, Miguel Bartolomeu, the Congolese is a man who has applied for political asylum, and is currently living in the Marratane Refugee Centre in Nampula. He has refused to provide any information about the origin or destination of the ivory.

Source: (AIM)

[Tshukudu]

Rhino shot dead in Kenyan park

2013-08-13 11:10

Nairobi – Gunmen have shot dead a white rhino in Nairobi's national park, a brazen raid in one of the best guarded sites in Kenya, wildlife officials said on Tuesday.

Amid a surge of rhino and elephant killings across the country, the shooting of the rhino in the heavily guarded Nairobi national park - the headquarters of the government's Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) - illustrates how easily poachers are decimating the country's large animals.

Poachers, who killed the rhino late on Friday, hacked out the horn from its head and escaped, said KWS spokesperson Paul Udoto.

"It is the first such poaching incident in the park in the last six years," Udoto said, adding it brings the total number of rhino killed this year to 35, already more than the 29 killed in Kenya in the whole of 2012.

Nairobi's national park, which lies just 7km from the tower blocks of the bustling centre, is described by KWS as "a unique ecosystem by being the only protected area in the world close to a capital city".

It is a major rhino sanctuary, and its previously believed secure environment - fenced in for much of its 117km² - was seen as ideal for breeding and restocking other parks.

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

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

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

A series of large shipments of ivory has been seized in recent months, including two separate containers in Kenya's port of Mombasa in July, one with three tons and another of almost 1.5 tons of elephant ivory.


- AFP

[Mel]

Lack of security endangers Manas rhinos
SIVASISH THAKUR
GUWAHATI, Aug 13

With rhinos falling to poachers in quick succession in Manas National Park which saw 18 rhinos translocated to the park as part of Indian Rhino Vision-2020, questions are being raised over the merit of the existing security set-up in the park.
Conservationists feel that security lapses, together with palpable signs of militancy returning to some areas of the park, constitute a stern challenge which, if left unaddressed, could spell doom for Manas.

Disturbingly, investigations following the recovery of a sub-adult rhino carcass with its horn and some other body parts missing – which is the third rhino killed this year and the fifth overall – have revealed involvement of local IRV volunteers in the poaching.

Another emerging concern has been the growing presence of armed militants along the western range (Panbari) of the park. Fourteen camera traps in the area were found missing recently – something attributed to militants who are increasingly using the cover of the jungle for their activities, including cross-border movement to Bhutan.

Admitting the developments to be replete with ominous implications for the rhino’s long-term well-being in Manas which is on a recovery path following large-scale devastations caused to its flora and fauna during a period of prolonged social unrest in the 1990s and beyond, a park official wishing anonymity told The Assam Tribune that loopholes were there in the existing security mechanism, especially in matters of intelligence gathering and frontline manpower.

“Involvement of IRV volunteer in the latest case of poaching has come as a big shock. Motivational assessment of the volunteers was not done, and we need to be careful on this count. Then we have a definite shortage of able frontline staff who can endure the rigours of harsh jungle life, including the challenge posed by poaching gangs. The much-needed intelligence, too, is not there,” the official said.

Regrettably, a number of crucial security assessment recommendations continue to gather dust in official files – something that puts a question mark over the Government’s sincerity in ensuring complete recovery for the World Heritage Site.

Sources also told The Assam Tribune that constraints of frontline staff apart, lack of acumen and professionalism on the part of those managing the three ranges of Manas was affecting its security. “Both foot patrolling and elephant patrolling have left a lot to be desired, while intelligence is as good as non-existent,” sources said.