Elephant Management and Poaching in African Countries

[Richprins]

la crescita degli investimenti

That's the bottom line, Lis!

I don't know if the president or Herr Thome spoke about Mombasa, but that is a very optimistic comparison, IMO!

[Lisbeth]

Over 80 tusks confiscated at Dar es Salaam port

BY PROF. DR. WOLFGANG H. THOME, ETN AFRICA CORRESPONDENT | JAN 04, 2014

Information already referred to yesterday about a seizure of blood ivory at the port of Dar es Salaam was confirmed overnight. Sources in the Tanzanian port city gave the number of tusks confiscated as 81, indicative of the slaughter of at least another 41 elephant, perhaps even more. Questions are being asked and investigations have been launched already how the two suspects who were arrested with the loot, managed to get into the harbor and suspicions have been voiced already that they had accomplices in position of power giving them access without being subjected to gate controls. This latest find of blood ivory comes hot on the heels of President Kikwete announcing in his New Year’s address to the nation that operation Tokomeza will resume soon again, but with different rules of engagement and a focus mainly on bringing the commercial style poaching gangs to justice while leaving pastoralists and herders largely alone.

In a related development it was also learned that the Tanzania Ports Authority will be introducing additional screening equipment during the course of 2014 to check the contents of containers before they are loaded on ships, though no one was able to confirm if TPA would in conjunction with TANAPA and other security organs deploy sniffer dogs – a measure which is hugely successful in Kenya where the dogs have found much concealed contraband, not just at the sea ports but also airports where transit baggage as well as checked in bags are now routinely checked out. For now, a good result of increased vigilance and intelligence gathering as reportedly a tip off led to the seizure and arrests.

http://www.eturbonews.com/41368/over-80 ... alaam-port

[Sprocky]

2014-01-29 05:30

Nairobi - A Kenyan court on Tuesday ordered a Chinese man to pay $230 000 in fines or be jailed seven years for ivory smuggling in the first of what will likely be many cases as authorities implement a stringent new law to deter illegal trading in wildlife products.

The 40-year-old man, Tang Yong Jian, had pleaded guilty to being in possession of raw ivory valued at $6 000 after being arrested at the international airport in the capital, Nairobi, on 18 January. He had been travelling from Mozambique to the Chinese city of Guangzhou.

In another courtroom Tuesday, a Kenyan man faced up to 5 years in jail if he failed to pay nearly $12 000 in fines for illegal possession of lovebirds. Another Chinese man also was set to be charged on Tuesday over alleged ivory smuggling after being arrested on Monday night as he flew in from Congo en route to China.

African countries face a monumental battle to save their endangered wildlife species, and Kenya has been among the hardest hit as poachers increasingly target elephant and rhino. Poaching deaths of elephant and rhino are increasing across Africa, animal experts say, because of increased demand in Asia for rhino horns and elephant ivory.

Police in the West African nation of Togo said on Tuesday they had seized 1 689kg of elephant tusks -twice the amount seized there last August -concealed in a container destined for Vietnam.

In Kenya, where big ivory seizures are frequently reported, the case of Tian had been closely followed by conservationists who hope a tough new law will reverse years of gradual loss of wildlife populations through rampant poaching and illegal smuggling, often with the help of corrupt local officials.

The decision on Tuesday would deter potential smugglers and poachers, said Paul Muya, a spokesperson for the Kenya Wildlife Service.

"We welcome this sentence. It's the first of its kind since the enactment of the new wildlife [law], and we are sure this will pass a deterrent out to would-be poachers to ensure we can now therefore save the endangered species in this country," he said.

Amid big seizures of illegal ivory over years, Kenyan lawmakers last year began working on a new wildlife law that came into effect earlier this month. Most of the ivory impounded in Kenya last year originated from across Africa, including countries such as South Africa and Cameroon, according to wildlife officials.

China

Much of the demand for ivory is in Asia, especially China, luring poachers across Africa to slay the giants and cut out their tusks for rewards far beyond the daily wage.

In Hong Kong, government warehouses are holding more than 30 tons of ivory seized since 2008, one of the world's biggest stockpiles of elephant tusks. Ivory is known as "white gold" because of the rich prices it commands on the black market, and a 2011 report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare said buyers in China were paying up to $2 400/kg.

The illegal ivory trade has more than doubled since 2007, according to Cites, the international body that monitors endangered species.

About 70 years ago, up to 5 million elephants are estimated to have roamed sub-Saharan Africa. Today fewer than a million remain. Much of the harvested ivory ends up as small trinkets.

- AP

http://www.news24.com/Green/News/Kenya- ... r-20140128

[leachy]

Rebels in DRC may be shooting elephants
2014-05-14 19:47


Kinshasa - A sharp rise in elephant poaching in a remote park in Democratic Republic of Congo has conservation groups asking if the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is hunting the protected animals in its stronghold there.

Thirty-three elephants have been killed in Congo's Garamba National Park in the past five weeks, including 10 poached last Friday, according to African Parks, a conservation group that manages the park along with Congolese authorities.

Park rangers killed three poachers in a weekend gunbattle in Garamba, in Congo's northeastern corner near South Sudan.

"We have reason to believe that the major poaching thrust is emanating from the heavily forested Azande Domaine de Chasse [which] has been a traditional base for the LRA," African Parks CEO Peter Fearnhead wrote in a letter to conservation partners that Reuters obtained on Wednesday.

Warlord Joseph Kony, the LRA leader indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, waged a brutal guerilla war against the Ugandan government in the north of the country for nearly two decades before fleeing with his fighters into the jungles of Central Africa around 2005.

A 2013 report from human rights group Enough Project said the LRA had begun systematically killing elephants and trading poached ivory for food, weapons, ammunition and other supplies.

Fearnhead wrote it was not yet clear "whether the current poaching onslaught emanates from the LRA, Sudanese poaching gangs, local Congolese poachers, or a combination of these."


Militarised

Garamba is home to around 1 800 elephants, according to African Parks, and has been targeted by poachers in the past.

Twenty-two elephants were killed and their tusks and genitals removed in a single 2012 attack suspected of being carried out by the LRA.

However, the rebels' involvement in the killings was never confirmed and some harbour doubts that the LRA is behind the latest wave of poaching.

"We hear the elephants were killed by professional poachers. That is not the LRA," said Rev Benoit Kinalegu, a Catholic priest who heads a network monitoring LRA attacks and movements from the town of Dungu on the edge of the Garamba park.

"This area is so militarised it is impossible to know who it was," he said.

A 5 000-strong African Union Regional Task Force, supported by 100 US Special Forces, is hunting for Kony and his commanders, who are accused of abducting thousands of children to use as fighters in a rebel army that has earned a reputation for mutilating its victims.

While Kony is believed to be hiding in a Sudanese-controlled area of a disputed enclave in South Sudan, according to the United Nations, his fighters continue to operate in an isolated zone straddling South Sudan, Congo and Central African Republic.

- Reuters

[Flutterby]

The world is going mad!!

[Richprins]

This is an African pandemic...but have to agree with the comment that "these seem to be pros, not necessarily rebels", or something to that effect!

[Mel]

Elephant, rhino poaching up in Namibia
2014-05-13 19:17


Windhoek - The rising tide of elephant and rhino poaching in Africa is spreading to the sparsely-populated vastness of Namibia, latest official figures show.

Between 2005 and 2011 just two elephant were killed, while 121 have been killed in the past two and a half years, according to figures presented by the environment ministry.

And while no rhino were poached between 2005 and 2010, a total of 11 have been killed since then - rising from one in 2011 to four already this year.

Deputy Environment Minister Pohamba Shifeta told AFP that the government is worried by the trend and is working with law enforcement agencies to tackle the problem.

"We don't want the numbers to escalate further," Shifeta said.

"There is a high probability that attention will shift to Namibia as we have recently experienced."

Across the border in South Africa, rhino poaching has reached crisis levels, with more than 290 killed already this year.

Most of the poaching in Namibia has taken place in protected areas, such as the Bwabwata National Park in the northeast, where 13 elephant were killed in 2012, the environment ministry report said.

"The immediate requirement is to control the emerging commercial ivory poaching in the northeast part of the country and to prevent the westwards spread of rhino and elephant poaching into the Etosha National Park and beyond," Shifeta told a meeting of police officers and rangers.

Namibia has 79 conservation areas covering more than 100 000km² and inhabited by some 300 000 people.

Several poachers have been arrested in recent years, with the latest suspects being two Asian men who were held in March this year allegedly in possession of rhino horn worth around $230 000.

Asia is a major market for rhino horn, where it is believed to have medicinal value, and for elephant ivory.

- AFP

[mposthumus]

The world is going mad!!

Indeed Flutts.

Whenever I get discouraged about what I read/see/hear wanting to throw my arms up in the air, shouting - it's hopeless I think back to the rhino protest a few years back. A Chinese father and his little boy of about 4 years stopped their car and joined us The father asked one of the ladies for a candle and wanted to know what contribution he and his family can make to help in the combat against the slaughtering of our rhino.

When I get discouraged, I think back to the incident and although it is only a drop in the ocean it gives me courage again

[nan]

money... money... money... money...

[Toko]

Kenya’s biggest elephant killed by poachers