Elephant Management and Poaching in African Countries

[Richprins]

They're coming to SA!

[Mel]

Oh, yes, they will.

[Toko]

WWF: Urgent international action needed following elephant poaching statistics in Mozambique

Posted on 19 June 2014 |
Maputo: Up to 900 elephants died in northern Mozambique over a three year period according to the latest results from an aerial survey. The survey, commissioned by WWF-Mozambique shows that between 480 and 900 elephants died in the area between 2011 and 2013.

The landscape survey of the Quirimbas National Park conducted in late 2013 found that almost half the elephants sighted from the air were carcasses.

“The elephant deaths are probably due to illegal hunting and the losses are likely to be devastating to the population,” said Anabela Rodriguez, Country Director of WWF-Mozambique.

This week, conservation NGOs, wildlife experts and government officials have been meeting in Maputo, Mozambique, to find ways to counter this renewed onslaught on the elephant and rhino populations of southern Africa. The workshop has been funded by WWF-South Africa and the German government (BMZ).

“Mozambique has emerged as one of the main places of the slaughter of elephants and ivory transit in Africa and as a profitable warehouse for transit and export of rhino horn for the Asian markets. We need to see urgent action and ongoing commitment to combat these illegal activities,” said WWF International’s Policy Expert on Wildlife Trade, Colman O’Criodain.

The meeting comes in the wake of increasingly alarming statistics coming out of northern Mozambique and neighbouring South Africa. Although Mozambique no longer has a natural rhino population, except for a few animals that stray across the border from the Kruger National Park, it is heavily implicated in poaching in South Africa. Figures released at the end of May showed a total of 442 rhinos have already been poached in 2014.

According to South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs, 293 of these rhinos were poached in the Kruger National Park. In addition, authorities in the Kruger National Park recently reported the first documented case of elephant poaching in the park in 10 years.

“Well-organised and structured criminal networks facilitated by corruption are luring unemployed youths in the region to engage in criminal activities,” said Dr Jo Shaw, Manager of the Rhino Programme for WWF-South Africa. “In order to cope with this crisis, we need interventions that involve a variety of stakeholders from government, through to the private sector and civil society to change attitudes towards wildlife.”

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is due to meet in July to assess progress from countries most implicated in the illegal ivory trade. Elephant ivory is primarily trafficked to Asian markets, in particular Thailand and China where it is used for ornamental purposes.

“The CITES Secretariat has reached out to Mozambique to help it in tackling the problem but has received little by way of response. Governments meet in Geneva next month to discuss the issue of illegal ivory but there appears to be little sense of urgency about the problem. In particular, the international community needs to send a strong message to Thailand, which has done little to address the issue of its huge, unregulated domestic ivory market,” said O’Criodain.

At a local level in Mozambique the Maputo workshop is looking at the causes of wildlife crime such as weak enforcement, vulnerable borders, corruption, a lack of institutional co-ordination, the existing legal frameworks, human/elephant conflict, human activity within conservation areas and a lack of appreciation for wildlife by the general populace.

Three key areas were identified as vital in the fight against poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking including strengthened law enforcement and increased awareness across all sectors of society about illegal wildlife trade and its impacts in Mozambique. Efforts to reduce the costs of living with wildlife such as crop destructions and increased benefits through tourism were also identified.

[nan]

... what a lot of combats... everywhere

[Toko]

Rising threat to Africa’s tuskers

June 24 2014 at 09:15am
By Tony Carnie

Durban - Another year of relentless elephant poaching in several parts of Africa has heightened concerns that organised crime networks will soon set their sights on southern Africa’s rich stocks of ivory.

Last week, one of Africa’s largest remaining wilderness areas, the Selous game reserve in Tanzania, was placed on the official “danger list” by the World Heritage Committee, following decades of rampant ivory poaching.

The committee was told at its annual meeting in Doha that 90 percent of the total elephant population in the Selous reserve had been wiped out since 1982.

The latest census also showed that the Selous elephant population had dropped from 70 000 animals in 2005 to just 13 000 last year.

Describing this dramatic population reduction as “unprecedented”, the committee called for an emergency anti-poaching plan supported by the international donor community.

A separate report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) suggests that nearly 900 elephants have been poached in northern Mozambique over the past three years.

It said an aerial survey of the Quirimbas national park in Mozambique late last year found that almost half the elephants sighted from the air were carcasses.

Throughout the continent, more than 20 000 elephants are thought to have been poached for their tusks last year, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

The Cites report, to be discussed at a convention meeting in Geneva next month, said total elephant deaths were slightly lower than in 2011 and 2102, but remained “alarmingly high” and well above natural reproduction rates. John Scanlon, the Cites secretary-general, warned that poaching trends were likely to shift dramatically and quickly whenever transnational organised crime networks were involved.

Footprints

Last month, SA National Parks discovered the carcass of a butchered elephant in Kruger, the first confirmed case of ivory poaching in the country’s largest national park in more than 10 years.

Rangers also found the footprints of four poachers leading across the border into Mozambique.

SANParks acting chief executive Abe Sibiya said: “Given the situation in the rest of the continent, we have known that it was a matter of time before South Africa was targeted as well. Though our focus has been largely on curbing rhino poaching, we have also been preparing ourselves to fight the poaching of elephants as well.”

In KwaZulu-Natal, the magnificent ivory of southern Africa’s largest tusker is thought to have disappeared across the Mozambique border about three months ago.

These tusks, each measuring nearly 3m, belonged to Isilo, a 58-year-old bull from the Tembe Elephant Reserve.

Park officials said although Isilo was thought to have died of old age sometime in January, his carcass was only discovered in May, by which time his tusks had been stolen by suspected rhino poachers from Mozambique.

A few weeks later, Satao, Africa’s largest remaining tusker, was slaughtered for his ivory in Kenya’s Tsavo national park.

At continental level, Cites reports that southern Africa holds 55 percent of Africa’s remaining elephants, with east Africa home to about 28 percent and central Africa about 16 percent.

Botswana has by far the biggest elephant population, though South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe also have large herds.

Cites says Tanzania is heavily involved with the illegal ivory trade, while the Kenyan port of Mombasa is thought to be the largest conduit for exports to China and other parts of the Far East.

Interpol reported earlier this year that Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia was also a major smuggling exit point. It reported that 85 percent of transit passengers caught with illegal ivory at this airport were Chinese nationals. - The Mercury

[Richprins]

One must remember that China's main objective in "colonising" Africa is raw materials, not ivory. That is an added bonus, no less horrendous.

[Richprins]

Chinese bribe in Dar, admits China envoy


China’s ambassador to Tanzania, Mr Lu Youqing, who has admitted that some Chinese nationals and companies are engaged in corruption and illegal ivory trade in the country.
By Florence Mugarula ,The Citizen Reporter

Posted Tuesday, July 15 2014 at 09:07



In an exclusive interview with The Citizen recently, Mr Lu defended the record of Chinese companies, saying they had helped the Tanzanian government to save about $2.5 billion in road construction.


The ambassador said he had received complaints from officials and police about Chinese nationals who hide ivory under car bonnets and even under bras.

The South China Morning Post could not get a reaction from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing yesterday. Adams Bodomo, a professor of African studies at the University of Vienna, who was also interviewed by the paper, shared the envoy’s concerns.

“There are widespread business malpractices by some Chinese in Africa, including illegal mining in Ghana, poaching of endangered species in South Africa and bribing officials to deliver shoddy construction throughout the continent,” Prof Bodomo said.

But the vast majority of Chinese were “doing a good job and are building and delivering infrastructure projects faster, cheaper and far better than some Western companies in Africa”.

“Governments of Africa must put in place regulatory systems. No businessman will always do the right thing if you don’t regulate them effectively,” Prof Bodomo said.

In 2012, China invested more than $40 billion in African countries and promised $20 billion in aid during the upcoming three years.

That same year, total trade between China and Africa was $128 billion, while Africa’s trade with the US was $100 billion. But some projects undertaken by Chinese firms in Tanzania are said to be of dubious quality due to massive corruption.

Tanzania is among China’s preferred partners, according to data released recently by China on aid, loans and trade on the continent.



http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/News/Chines ... index.html

Check the comments!

[Lisbeth]

Conservation organizations such as WWF are working with governments in seeking solutions to the current poaching menace by acquiring anti-poaching equipment and technology, engaging communities and private sector in anti-poaching campaigns, carrying out elephant censuses, working with communities to reduce human wildlife conflict, securing elephant range outside protected areas, monitoring threats and developing national and sub-regional databases for use in managing elephant and rhino populations.



Massive loss of elephants in the Mara Serengeti ecosystem concerns conservationists

Arusha, Tanzania: A recent aerial report has revealed a worrying number of elephant carcasses in the world famous Mara-Serengeti ecosystem in east Africa.

A total of 192 elephant carcasses were counted, of which 117 were in Kenya and 75 in Tanzania. More shocking is that of all the carcasses found in Kenya, 84 per cent were outside of the Masai Mara National Reserve, and each had its tusks missing.

These statistics have alarmed the conservation fraternity in Kenya and Tanzania who are calling upon the two governments to strengthen their elephant management strategies as well as deploy technology in the fight against poaching. Furthermore, the conservationists are calling for better management of elephants outside protected areas through strengthened community conservancies.

The two governments are keen to work with conservationists to find lasting solutions to the challenges facing endangered species that include not only the elephant but also the rhino.

Conservation organizations such as WWF are working with governments in seeking solutions to the current poaching menace by acquiring anti-poaching equipment and technology, engaging communities and private sector in anti-poaching campaigns, carrying out elephant censuses, working with communities to reduce human wildlife conflict, securing elephant range outside protected areas, monitoring threats and developing national and sub-regional databases for use in managing elephant and rhino populations.

WWF has identified Mau-Mara-Serengeti landscape as a priority landscape and has focused its funding to the conservation of this landscape.

The Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism – Tanzania, released the wet season Serengeti-Mara aerial census report yesterday. During the release, the Minister called for close collaboration between the two countries in combating poaching and illegal wildlife trade in the region.

This Aerial Report indicated that a total of 7,535 elephants and 61,896 buffaloes were counted in the survey area. The general results for this census show an increasing trend of elephants and buffaloes in the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem where the number of elephants counted shows an increasing trend from 2,058 in 1986 to 7,535 individuals in 2014. There was also an increase in buffalo population in the area, from 54,979 (in 1986) to 61,896 individuals (in 2014).

This therefore shows that despite the threat of poaching the population of elephants is increasing and this can be attributed to the efforts of wildlife authorities in recent years.

http://wwf.panda.org/?227810/Massive-Lo ... -291870081

[nan]

I saw that

[Richprins]

Thanks, Lis!

It would be a great study for a scientist as to how sudden abundances of carcasses affects the predator/scavenger dynamic in these areas...for example, predators are important regarding picking off diseased/old animals naturally, which presumably won't happen enough if the apex ones, lion and hyena, lie around eating elephant all day?