Baraza

Category: Africa, South Africa, furadan, wildlife trade | Date: Nov 01 2009 | By: paula

Someone asked me if we go ‘trick or treating’ in Africa to celebrate Halloween. Apart from expatriates, we generally do not. In fact many Africans may be surprised at the idea of celebrating scary superstitions.

Sadly superstitions abound in Africa and often to the detriment of wildlife. In South Africa it is believed that consuming the eyes of vultures will give you good eyesight.

According to Kobus du Toit

“The vulture is used because of its good eye sight and local people believe if they use certain parts of the bird (head) that it will help them to see in the future”

He recommends the banning of carbofuran because “Companies develop toxic products to be used in first world countries in a responsible way. When third world countries used these products it is not usually for the primary cause what the product was developed. When a product is misused as in the case of Furadan a company can be responsible to the extinction of a species (e.g. Cape vulture in South Africa). The monetary value that a company can earn in a third world country will never match the negative publicity when a species is exterminated from the earth”

Owls are feared around the world and in Africa are  viewed as the dreaded bearers of bad fortune and are killed indiscriminately in many parts of Africa, nests are often raided and eggs smashed or chicks killed.

Fortunately its not all bad news as some brave people are trying to change cultural traditions to save owls. Darcy Ogada and Paul Murithi have been monitoring the rare and beautiful Mackinders owls in an agricultural area of Kenya where such cultural taboos abound .

From a study of 16 pairs of owls, Darcy and Paul noted that some farming practices threaten this population, particularly the poisoning of owl prey with pesticides. They found that 28% of farmers said they controlled vertebrate pests using pesticides, but they believe the figure to be much higher and note  “we also noticed that carbofuran (tradename Furadan) was often misused to kill vertebrate pests”.

To change perceptions about owls and therefore save them, Paul and Darcy are promoting owl tourism, these beautiful owls are a draw for bird tourists and the income generated from this supports individual farmers and community projects. Farmers who benefit from owl tourism are likely to know about owl diet and habits.  Paul is hoping that this will be key to saving them.

This work has not gone unnoticed as  Tony Warburton of the World Owl Trust has noted

“In his village of Kiawara near Mount Kenya, Paul has defied his community’s traditional fears by using owls as a tourist attraction. For the past five years he has been feeding and protecting owls in their natural habitat in the forest near his home. This has resulted in some 26 birds becoming habituated to human presence, some of which perch calmly in the branches of nearby trees, while others roost by day in caves scattered across the forest. He has erected roadside signs to attract foreign tourists who pay Paul to guide them to view these elusive birds. Thus, he has demonstrated to his fellow villagers that wildlife – even owls – can provide them with a source of income if only they and their habitat are protected. To reinforce this message, Paul encourages them to appreciate the enormous value of the birds by providing the same services to local people, free of charge. Truly a ‘Champion of Owls’ if ever I heard of one”.

Tony has nominated Paul for an award for his brave dedication to changing taboos about owls, and to encourage him to continue. We congratulate Paul and wish everyone a very happy Halloween.

Tags: Africa, conservation, halloween, Kenya, Owls, wildlife, witches

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Category: Africa, Kenya, chimpanzee, conservation, wildlife trade | Date: Oct 08 2009 | By: Maina

We received a release from the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance announcing that - finally - a chimp that has been spending it’s days tethered to a tree in Southern Sudan has been rescued and airlifted to the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary near Mount Kenya. This is both a sad and happy story. While it is sad that a chimp should be treated with such cruelty, it is also uplifting that those who care were brave and persistent enough to rescue the poor primate despite the ‘long bureaucratic tug-of-war’ that lasted the better part of 10 months. Accolades are in order for the rescue team.

October 7, 2009

Sudan Chimpanzee Airlifted to Safety at Sweetwaters

A chimpanzee that spent its days tethered to a tree in Southern Sudan throughout a long bureaucratic tug-of-war was finally airlifted to safety this week and will reside permanently at the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Kenya.

The male chimpanzee, nicknamed “Roy,” is believed to be less than three years old. He is thought to have been brought into Southern Sudan in 2008 from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and was subsequently presented to a government official as a gift.

The gift was later withdrawn, and Roy (pictured above) was cared for by local wildlife supporters in Southern Sudan until his transfer to Sweetwaters was approved – a process that took almost 10 months to confirm. Roy will join a community of 43 orphaned chimpanzees at Sweetwaters, which is a charter member of the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA).

“It is a huge relief to finally see this transfer completed,” said Doug Cress, executive director of PASA. “It is a testament to the dogged determination of the Sweetwaters staff and our friends in Southern Sudan that Roy now has a permanent home. There were many delays and numerous obstacles in this operation, but neither side ever gave up.”

The process took so long that a Kenyan CITES import permit issued for Roy last February eventually expired and had to be re-submitted.

Roy was collected in Southern Sudan by Sweetwaters director Martin Mulama, and the chimpanzee will spend his quarantine period at the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) facility in Nairobi before moving out to the 250-acre sanctuary near Mount Kenya.

Roy was cared for in Southern Sudan by Sue and Rusty Knight, who have rescued 14 orphaned chimpanzees at their Rumbek home since 2006. Twelve of those chimpanzees were earlier transferred to another PASA member sanctuary, JGI-Chimpanzee Eden in South Africa.

Although some experts believe chimpanzees might naturally occur in the forested regions of Southern Sudan, the high number of orphans brought through the region by illegal traders indicates the chimpanzees are probably captured in DR Congo and smuggled across the border into Sudan. Chimpanzees currently arrive at PASA sanctuaries at an average of 57 per year, indicating serious levels of bushmeat activity and poaching still exist.

Roy’s rescue was supported by Aircraft Leasing Service (ALS), the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), and the Wildlife Conservation Authority of Sudan, along with logistical help from wildlife supporters in Southern Sudan.

PASA was formed in 2000 to unite the sanctuaries that care for thousands of rescued chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, drills and other endangered primates across Africa. For more information, please visit the PASA website  or contact info@pasaprimates.org.

Tags: Africa, chimpanzee, Kenya, PASA, rescue, South Sudan, Sweetwaters

2 responses so far

Category: Africa, Ivory, Kenya, Trade, elephants, poaching, wildlife trade | Date: Oct 05 2009 | By: Maina

We could be headed back to the ‘dark ages’ of African elephant poaching going by the recent spate of ivory seizures in the continent. Wildlife enthusiasts will remember the horrible days back in the 1980s when the Kenyan elephant population was brought down to its knees by the large scale poaching that was also affecting most of the range states for the African Elephant (Loxodonta africana). Those days may well be back.

A few days ago, the Kenya Wildlife Service seized a large cache of illegal ivory at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Capital FM of Nairobi report in their website that “Police and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) personnel on Wednesday seized 61 tusks of raw ivory weighing 532 Kilograms (1,172 pounds) at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).”The large haul is believed to have been headed to Bangkok, Thailand, through Addis Abab, Ethiopia. KWS Director Julius Kipng’etich reports that:

“The unaccompanied luggage was to be air-freighted to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on the way to Bangkok, Thailand,” he said adding that the ivory had been falsely declared as “POLISHING BENCH” in the Airway Bill and was packed in four boxes.

As luck would have it, the KWS also received reports from Ethiopian Airlines that another larger consignment - 637 kg (1,404 pounds) - of similarly disguised ivory had been intercepted in the capital Addis Ababa two days earlier. “This consignment had also originated from JKIA destined to Bangkok via Addis Ababa by the same consignee,” said Kipng’etich.

The total of 1,169 kg (2,577 pounds) of ivory seized is suspected to be from Kenyan elephants, which would then prove that there is indeed a rise in elephant poaching. According to KWS data, this year, 145 elephants have been killed illegally. This compared to the 47 reported illegally killed elephants in the last two years, is indeed a cause for panic. The rise in number of illegally killed elephants is alarming!

The story of the tough times for elephants doesn’t end at the horn of Africa. On October 1, the same day that the KWS seized ivory in Nairobi, five suspects are reported to have been arraigned in a Harare, Zimbabwe court charged with possession of 30,8 kilograms of ivory worth more than $4 500 (American dollars, not Zimbabwean).

These outlaws had, withing their residence, a high caliber rifle used to kill elephants - .303! The Harare court remanded them out of custody, so they’ll be staying in their residence, probably shoot a few more elephants with another .303 rifle then go back to court on the appointed date for the hearing of the current case.

In Central Africa Republic, the French news agency, AFP, reports that “Police detained two major ivory traffickers in the Central African Republic as a part of a joint operation with animal rights activists”. So the cancer is spreading. According to the AFP, this is the first arrest of this kind in this central African state since they instituted a law against wildlife trade in some 30 years ago. This lot of thugs are said to have their own large stash of illegal ivory.

One of the suspects had 157 ivory objects weighing more than 200 kilogrammes (440 pounds). Unfortunately, these crooks will only get 1-year jail terms each should they be found guilty, which is a ridiculously soft punishment for someone who is probably responsible for the death of tens of elephants, if not hundreds.

Experts say some 38,000 African elephants are killed each year for their tusks. Most believe that the upsurge in poaching in recent months is due to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) decision to allow the southern African states of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe(!) to sell their ivory stockpile to the highest bidder in China and Japan. It is believed this prompted a spike in the illegal market for ivory, which, needless to say, is responsible for the upsurge in poaching.

I personally blame CITES for the mess that is ivory poaching. It is difficult and expensive to trace the origin of ivory, especially after it has been worked. What logic did they use to agree to the one-off auction of ivory?

Unless the illegal trade in ivory is completely stumped out, nobody should sell an ounce (or a milligram) of this item. In my opinion, there should not be any ivory trade at all, whether it is properly controlled or not.

Besides, what do humans need ivory for? If humans truly needed ivory, then God (or evolution) would have equipped them with a fine long pair each.

Tags: Africa, China, CITES, elephant, Ivory, KWS, poaching, wildlife

2 responses so far

Category: Africa, Gorillas, bushmeat, wildlife trade | Date: Aug 10 2009 | By: admin

Dear Friends,

We have exciting news from the  Fernan-Vaz Gorilla Project Foundation in Gabon about a successful transfer to the wild of orphaned baby gorillas. This is their press release.

GABONESE ORPHAN GORILLAS SET FREE ON AN ISLAND

Text by Sarah Monaghan, images by SCD B.V.

Gabon, August 2009 - SIX YOUNG GORILLAS, rescued from the illegal bush meat trade, have begun new independent lives on a lagoon island just outside Loango National Park in Gabon.

Staff at the Société de Conservation et Développement (SCD) are celebrating after announcing the successful transfer of the six juvenile western lowland gorillas (a species deemed critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List (IUCN)) onto the safe island in the Fernan-Vaz Lagoon.

This is the first step in a reintroduction project that is hoped will allow them to return entirely to the wild and follows a three-year-long ‘rehab programme’ to prepare them for release.

One step closer to freedom

Halfway through the Year of the Gorilla, the transfer marks the beginning of the gorillas’ independence. They have exchanged their human-built shelters for the palm-fringed forested islet where they can now live in relative safety from threats from poachers or other predators. The transfer was supervised by the Fernan-Vaz Gorilla Project (FGVP) director Nick Bachand and his team of Gabonese keepers.

“We all felt a hint of sadness as the gorillas left the place where their journey started,” said Nick Bachand, a veterinarian. “But this was instantly replaced with a mountain of pride when we observed some of the gorillas starting to build their own nests to sleep outside overnight.”

Building self-made nests is an important indication, among others, of the young gorillas’ progress during this second phase of their rehabilitation.

Tragic pasts

Each of the six gorillas (three females, three males) varying in ages from two to seven, were orphaned by the illegal bush meat trade.

The oldest male, Gimenu, 7, was rescued in an emaciated state from a Gabonese zoo where he had spent three years in complete isolation.  He is accompanied by Sindila, 4, an abandoned male found by tourists on a river excursion, and Ivindo, also 4, flown in from the Ivindo National Park in 2005.  The youngest female, Wanga, 2, was left on the doorstep of a conservationist’s home in the southern half of Loango National Park while the other two Cessé and Eliwa, 3 and 2, were donated by another great-ape rescue centre in Gabon.

Gorilla orphanage

The gorillas have spent the past two and a half years undergoing daily forest rehabilitation accompanied by their keepers on Evengue Island, located north of Loango National Park.

A small team of local keepers will continue to monitor their progress from a base camp in the central zone of Orique island, where their new home is.

The Fernan-Vaz Gorilla Project comprises a Sanctuary and Rehabilitation Programme. All its resident gorillas were rescued after the parents were killed illegally by hunters for bush meat. The purpose of the Sanctuary is to provide a safe home for gorillas that can never return to the wild as they lack the critical survival skills usually taught by their parents in the first six to eight years of their lives.

The younger gorillas are part of its Rehabilitation Programme, however, and have undergone its quarantine and socialisation stages. They now have the potential to be reintroduced into the wild although many challenges and uncertainties remain.

‘Gorilla rehab’ plays strategic role in survival of great apes

The IUCN has identified the use of reintroduction projects as part of a global strategy for the survival of the world’s endangered great apes. The Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) works closely with the Fernan-Vaz Gorilla Project and focuses wherever possible on reintroduction programmes.

“We have to find ways to restore value to Africa’s forests, and reintroduction places focus on the African wildlife in the African forests,” said Doug Cress, executive director of PASA.

He added: “It’s no good for any of us to aspire to having the world’s largest captive population of chimpanzees or gorillas – even if we are saving lives. That is not conservation and it is not sending messages that can be translated into environmental action.”

Return to the wild

Thanks to a team of devoted veterinarians, dedicated keepers and the support of the international community, these gorillas’ return to the wild in the Gabonese equatorial forest is expected within two to three years.

In the meantime, the project is working hard to raise local and global awareness on issues facing the gorillas, to encourage research that emphasises the needs of the local people, and to integrate responsible tourism, as part of a national and international effort to save the gorilla from extinction in the wild.

The Fernan-Vaz Gorilla Project in Gabon is a project of Société de Conservation et Développement (SCD) in affiliation with its main eco-tourism partner, Africa’s Eden. SCD has partnerships with the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Max Planck Institute, the Gabonese Ministry of Forestry, and the Gabonese National Parks Agency (ANPN).

www.gorillasgabon.com

www.africas-eden.com

For more information

Ms. Tienke Vermeiden

E: tienke.vermeiden@scd-conservation.com

T: +31 26 370 5567

Other interesting links:                                     www.africas-eden.com

www.yog2009.org

www.iucnredlist.org

http://pasaprimates.org/

Tags: bushmeat trade, Gabon, lowland gorillas, orphaned gorillas, release, Sarah Monaghan, SCD, wildlife rehabilitation

3 responses so far

Category: Africa, Emergency appeals, Ivory, bushmeat, chimpanzee, drought, elephants, poaching, wildlife trade, wildlifedirect | Date: Aug 05 2009 | By: Maina

In the past week or so, our bloggers have been reporting some tough situations in their areas of work. From death of elephants to financial crises and other ravages of drought and the global economic crisis.

CERCOPAN of Nigeria were last week tittering on the edge of a financial cliff as they needed to raise US$ 3,333 in order to keep their premises and continue rescuing primates caught up in the deep rooted west African bushmeat trade. They launched an appeal for funds and WildlifeDirect has been helping them spread the word. As of today, they had raised US$1395 which is quite impressive. They however need some US$1,938 before the end of August to secure the 120 primates’ only place of sanctuary from the bushmeat insanity.

The Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE) on Kenya is also facing a crisis with some of the most known African Elephants in the world starting to die because of the severe drought that is bringing Kenya and other east African states to their knees. They have lost valuable matriachs - and old friends - such as Echo, Grace, Isis, Leticia, Lucia, Odile, Ulla and Xenia in the last 1 year.  Echo, Isis, Leticia and Ulla have been matriarchs of their families since the 1970s. But the human hand is also dealing a blow to elephant conservation.

Poaching is taking out the large bulls. In the last 10 days three more big males have been killed. One, Ebenezer, had his tusks cut out with a power saw. That should send a warning alarm to wildlife authorities in Africa - today’s poachers are more advanced in their brutality.

To fight these poachers, ATE has supported two ranger bases in Amboseli area. Now they need a third and need to raise US$ 10,000 to fund building the base and to keep it running. Please help them.

The bushmeat trade in western Africa is really messy and two young victims of this grim trade have arrived at Tacugama in Sierra Leone. This is in addition to the three that arrived recently and all together Tacugama has in their care 96 orphaned chimps. They are, quite literally, bursting at their seems with chimp orphans. That makes it all the more needy for funds to rehabilitate these little ones until they are ready to get back into the forest and fend for themselves. You would help them wouldn’t you?

While all this is going on, we at WildlifeDirect want to keep this channel open so that you and your friends can respond to these emergencies and day to day needs of the wildlife of Africa, Asia and South America.  We also need your direct support so that we can pay Internet bills, electricity, rent and staff who keep these blogs working. We want you to continue enjoying the happy moments with our bloggers. To laugh with them, and to cry with them when times are hard. After all, you don’t want to wake up one morning and find that there is no WildlifeDirect. I believe you would be worried about all the poor defenseless wildlife that have been benefiting from the existence of WildlifeDirect. Please don’t let this happen.

Tags: Africa, bushmeat, chimp, DRC, drought, elephants, Kenya, Nigeria, poaching, wildlife trade, wildlifedirect

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Category: Africa, China, Ivory, Kenya, Rhinoceros, elephants, poaching, wildlife trade | Date: Jul 20 2009 | By: Maina

On Tuesday last week, Kenyan authorities seized a 300kg haul of elephant tusks and rhino horn hidden in coffins at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). This large haul, valued at approximately $ 1-million, is thought to have either come from Tanzania or South Africa and was headed for Laos. Officials of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) however speculate that the load’s final destination was indeed China, but through Laos, the de-facto ‘gateway to China’.

A previous haul of illegal ivory as reported on Baraza in April 2009

The KWS has been complaining about increasing ivory poaching since the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) allowed a one-off sale of ivory from southern Africa to China and Japan.  The entry of China into the world trade in ivory was in itself a cause for alarm amongst many conservationists on account of what is viewed as China’s laissez-faire attitude towards wildlife - except the giant panda.  There have been reports from the KWS and other organizations in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa indicating that there is definitely a rise in poaching for ivory and rhino horn.

According to the KWS, the rise in ivory poaching is partly caused by the CITES declaration to allow minimal trade from southern Africa. They say that this declaration created the illusion that it was OK to trade in ivory. If the number of seizures of ivory being witnessed today is anything to go by, then the KWS are right: the CITES declaration is indeed responsible for this mess.

It’s not just elephant poaching that is a problem. Just the previous week, a report was made public that indicates that rhino poaching has reached a 15 year high. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, IUCN, and the global conservation organization WWF, and their affiliated wildlife trade monitoring network, TRAFFIC, told a CITES committee in a recent meeting that poachers in Africa and Asia are killing as many as two to three animals a week in some areas to meet a growing demand for the horns. What is more worrying is that this poaching is no longer a subsistence activity but it has now evolved into organized crime similar to cocaine and small arms rackets.

Elephants and rhinos are in a very dire situation as this new wave of wanton decimation of the majestic creatures picks up pace. We are witnessing the inevitable extinction of - in the case of the rhino - an evolutionary relic that generations upon generations of humans have marveled at; and the total loss of - in the case of the elephant - the gentle intelligent giant that has been the centre of almost all mythology.

Sentimental values aside, these are ‘keystone’ species that shape the environment that they occur in. Keeping a balance in the ecology of their habitat, and therefore determining the biological diversity of these habitats. The looming departure of these two could permanently alter ecosystems - in the most part - for the worst.

Poaching can do that, and this is going to happen in our lifetime.

A solution has to be found. We first have to stop lying to ourselves that there can be any sustainable trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn. We have seen this with our own eyes. It’s never going to happen. Having realized that, governments should tighten the noose on illegal traffic routes, cut down the poachers on sight, and increase punishment for poaching offenders. China and it’s Asian friends will need to be re-educated.

Dr Richard Leakey, while he was the head of KWS, led an elephant anti-poaching campaign back in the mid-1980s which brought down a large number of poaching rings. It has been 20 years since the symbolic burning of  12 tonnes of ivory - then worth about $3 million and from approximately 2000 dead elephants - at the height of the campaign. Today, elephant population that had dropped from 167, 000 in 1973 to a paltry 16,000 in 1989, now stand at 32,ooo. These numbers could easily start falling if nothing is done about the recent upsurge in poaching. Current wildlife officials could learn from this and step up the fight against poachers on the local level, while all conservationists push for the total ban on trade in ivory and rhino horn.

The symbolic ivory burning in 1989

Again, China and the Asian world that still believes that rhino horn has medicinal value, and carvings from elephant ivory  are ‘cute’, needs re-education.

Tags: Africa, Asia, burning ivory, China, CITES, elephant, Ivory, KWS, poaching, rhino, rhino horn, richard leakey, wildlife trade

8 responses so far

Category: Ivory, elephants, poaching, wildlife trade | Date: Apr 29 2009 | By: admin

Two men were arrested on the 25th April for carrying 703 kg (1,550 lb) of elephant ivory in southern Kenya. They were traveling by vehicle in Tanzania when they were ambushed by wildlife scouts from the Amboseli-Tsavo Game Scouts Association. They fled across the Kenyan border, and were caught and arrested by authorities tipped off by the scouts.

This is biggest seizure in recent times in Kenya and the ivory is valued at around 59-60 million Kenyan shillings ($750,000). The men, whose identities have not been released, appeared in a Kajiado court on Monday morning where they plead guilty. The men  face up to a year in jail.

The haul of 33 whole tusks and 57 pieces, weighing over 700kg, is believed to represent over 50 individual elephants.

The Amboseli elephants are not anonymous animals, after more than 40 years of research each elephant is individually known. The field team now fear that “some of the tusks could belong to the splendid bull Ganesh or Echo’s son, Ely, or the impressive long-tusked Theodora from the TD family that has been spending more time in Kimana than Amboseli over the last decade”.

Who killed them and how? One person claims that these elephants could be the victims of Furadan poisoning. This is one of several indicators that ivory trade is on the rise as is elephant poaching in Kenya, Asia and Congo. Cynthia Moss of the Amboseli Trust for Elephant have been reporting alarming increases in poaching in the Amboseli ecosystem. We believe that this is all in response to the lifting of the ban on trade in ivory, and the one off sale that took place in Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia in November last year.

Harvey Croze of ATE writes that “it appears that our concerns have been vindicated when Cynthia reported in February on increased poaching for ivory in Amboseli. Perhaps now authorities will take seriously the twin threat to Africa’s elephants: the one-off sale of ivory from southern African stockpiles to China, combined with the presence of Chinese roadgangs in the ecosystem”.

It is depressing that these two men face only a year in jail for one of the biggest seizures of ivory in Kenya. Their sentence will hardly dampen the demand or reduce the incentives for many who are greedy for ivory. We have it on good authority (from someone who wishes to remain anonymous), that the ivory was being transported in a vehicle owned by a powerful person. Until these bigger people are brought to justice, the poachers, and small time dealers will continue. The challenge is how to catch and prosecute these powerful, and politically connected big shots.

Four questions for you to think about

Kenya currently holds over 35 tons of ivory in her strong rooms - for some this represents fantastic commercial value, to us they represent death and destruction.

Q1. Do you think it is time we revive the ban on trade in ivory?

Q2. Do you think we should aggressively resume pursuing the perpetrators of this cruel trade?

Q3. Will you help us to raise awareness and demand for better protection for all elephants?

Q4. What should Kenya do with the 35 tons of stockpiled ivory?

Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Tags: Amboseli, Cynthia Moss, elephant poaching, Ivory, ivory trade, Kenya, KWS, poaching, Tanzania

17 responses so far

Category: Africa, Ivory, Trade, elephants, enforcement, wildlife trade | Date: Mar 26 2009 | By: admin

Hello friends,

It’s Paula here. Things seem to be getting worse and worse on the ivory and elephant killing front. One ton of ivory has been seized in Bangkok, it’ is said to have come from Uganda. Of course this, like the 6 tons of ivory from Tanzania seized in Vietnam, is unlikely to be of Ugandan (or Tanzanian) origin.

We suspect that this ivory comes from DR Congo where the elephant population has crashed from 100,000 individuals 50 yeas ago to fewer than 20,000 today. That’s death rate of 1,600 elephants per year. Amazing that none of the usual organizations, WWF, AWF, CITES and IUCN seem to be concerned.

The original article is below but is so full of errors that I’ve highlighted them in bold

Ugandan ivory seized in Thailand

New Vision

24th March, 2009

A TONNE of Ugandan ivory has been impounded in Bangkok, Thailand, the

biggest seizure of illegal animal products from the country in recent times.

The Police questioned two Ugandan Entebbe-based clearing officials over

the contraband valued at $300,000 (sh609m). The suspected exporter, Lois

Smith, believed to be a Congolese, is on the run, reports Gerald Tenywa.

Officially ivory is worth between $100 - $150 / kg. On the blackmarket surprisingly it is ten times this value in Vietnam.

Samuel Mukiibi of Palm Agencies, a clearing and forwarding company and

Ronald Sabwe of Entebbe Handling Services (ENHAS) allegedly cleared the

cargo on January 13.

Catherine Kusemererwa, the head of the Entebbe Airport Police, said the

cargo was handled by ENHAS. But the company’s chief, Georges Tytens,

refused to comment.

The last time such a huge consignment of ivory was seized was in 2002 in

China. It was from the DR Congo transited through Uganda and Kenya. In

June 2001, 213kg of ivory was impounded at Entebbe. Nobody was arrested

and the destination of the contraband was not known.

Asked about the Thai contraband, the Civil Aviation Authority denied

responsibility for clearing the shipment. Spokesperson Ignie Igundura

said it was the duty of the Uganda Revenue Authority.

The tax body’s spokesperson Paul Kyeyune expressed ignorance about the

issue. “Do you have any information?” he asked.

Kusemererwa said the case had been under investigation for two months

and that the key suspects were still at large.

Moses Mapesa, the head of the Uganda Wildlife Authority, condemned the

trade in ivory. “We want the Police to address the menace and the

culprits apprehended,” he said.

Amazing how everyone is passing the buck !!!

He said over 10 elephants could have been killed to get the tonne of

ivory, which he suspected came from the DR Congo.

Mapesa is wrong here - the average ivory per elephant is 10 - 20 kg. Therefore, one ton of ivory represents 50 - 100 elephants - we need to know the number of pieces of ivory. Uganda has very few elephants remaining.

He said it was impossible to kill such numbers of elephants in Uganda’s

protected areas without being detected.

Elephants are an endangered species that will become extinct if nothing

is done to control trade in trophies from their bodies.

The trade was banned under the Convention on International Trade in

Endangered Species after poachers reduced elephant population in Africa

from 1.3 million in 1980 to just 600,000 in 1989.

However, the ban was undermined when the convention allowed South Africa

and Zimbabwe to export ivory, citing an elephant population explosion in

the region. Elephants tusks are sold to the wealthy as ornaments.

A kilogramme goes for $300 (sh609,000) in China and the Far East, the

biggest destinations. It goes for $1,800 in Vietnam

Most illegal ivory in Uganda is said to come from Congo and the Sudan,

although the trade is spreading into Uganda.

Regional wildlife agencies and the International Police last November

launched an operation in Central, West and East African countries.

They seized 30kg of ivory in Ishasha, Kampala and Anaka. The Ishasha

ivory is believed to have come from the Congolese Vicuña National Park.

Congo Vicuña National Park???? I think they mean Virunga!

Article at the following link:

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/675746

Tags: Bangkok, CITES, illegal trade, INTERPOL, Ivory, LATF, Thailand, Uganda, Virunga, wildlifedirect

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Category: Africa, Ivory, Trade, elephants, wildlife trade | Date: Mar 26 2009 | By: admin

We reported on this seizure and the surprising lack of concern by Tanzania that Vietnam was about to auction seized ivory that was smuggled from Tanzania. Now Tanzania seems to have woken up …lets hope we find out what is really going on here

Saga of the elephant tusks smuggled from Tanzania to Vietnam: Govt finally takes action

ThisDay

March 25 2009

TANZANIA has set the ball rolling for a formal investigation into the

recently reported episode whereby just over six tonnes of elephant tusks

said to have been smuggled out of the country, have now been seized by

Vietnamese customs officials and set up for auction in that country.

According to the Director of Wildlife at the Ministry of Tourism and

Natural Resources, Erasmus Tarimo, official feelers have been extended

to determine whether an international poaching network may have been

behind the alleged smuggling of the jumbo tusks.

The international police network (Interpol), Convention on International

Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and the anti-poaching Lusaka

Agreement Task Force (LATF) office in Nairobi, Kenya have all been

contacted and requested to help, Tarimo said.

This represents a U-turn from the government’s initial stated position

of ’complete unawareness’ about the whole situation, even as authorities

in Vietnam announced their own plans to put the tusks, valued at $29.41m

(approx.40bn/-), up for auction.

If the Vietnamese government should actually go ahead and implement such

a plan at this stage of the saga, Tanzania as a nation would surely

stand to lose billions of shillings.

Customs officials at Vietnam’s Hai Phong Port were earlier this month

reported to have discovered a total of 6,232 kilogrammes of elephant

tusks originating from Tanzania, hidden in hundreds of boxes of plastic

waste inside a container which had been transported from Tanzania

through Malaysia.

There were more than 200 pairs of tusks in the haul, the reports said.

Vietnamese officials are said to have received information about the

consignment when it was initially loaded aboard a ship in Dar es Salaam

in January this year, and had been waiting for the consignee to turn up

at the Hai Phong Port.

The consignee of the shipment was identified through the ship’s waybill

as a local (Vietnamese) company called Phuc Thien Ngan. Hai Phong police

have since been looking for the company’s director Vu Ngoc Tuan, but

reportedly to no avail.

Vietnamese officials described the shipment as ’’the biggest ivory haul

ever in Vietnam,’’ and the Hai Phong customs bureau gave a cash reward

equivalent to $572 to the inspectors who made the discovery.

Early investigations indicated that the container appeared to have been

loaded onto a ship in Dar es Salaam and transported to a port in

Malaysia, before arriving at Hai Phong aboard a Malaysian-flagged vessel.

Vietnamese authorities believe the tusks would have then been

transported to China, either by sea or road.

In a telephone interview with THISDAY yesterday, Tarimo said the

Tanzania chapter of Interpol had since contacted their colleagues in

Vietnam in the wake of the reports.

He said although the Vietnamese Interpol has yet to respond, some

information has started trickling in from CITES, whose representatives

in Vietnam are understood to have seen the container and reported its

markings to indicate that its original point of shipment was indeed the

port of Dar es Salaam.

Tarimo did not disclose the exact date of shipment from Dar es Salaam,

but said further details would be provided in the coming days.

LATF in Nairobi is described as a law enforcement institution which is

also secretariat of the Lusaka Agreement on Cooperative Enforcement

Operations Directed at Illegal Trade in Wild Fauna and Flora. The

parties to the agreement are Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Lesotho,

and the Republic of Congo, while Ethiopia, Eritrea, Swaziland and the

Republic of South Africa are also about to become signatories.

International agreements like the Lusaka Agreement and CITES aim at

protecting animal species from being poached illegally and traded

without following prescribed procedures.

Tarimo said any local officials found to have been involved in the

shipment of the jumbo tusks to Vietnam would bear the full brunt of the

nation’s laws, regardless of what happens to the foreign collaborators

’’We will not spare any official involved, whether they are from the

wildlife department right here in the ministry, the Tanzania Revenue

Authority (TRA), or any such institutions,’’ he asserted.

According to international wildlife laws, seized animal trophies have to

be destroyed wherever they are seized, in order to discourage the

smugglers involved.

According to Tarimo, the same international wildlife laws also say that

if such animal trophies are captured having been transported illegally,

they become of ’zero value’. Meaning that this consignment seized in

Vietnam valued at approximately 40bn/-, may now be of little or no value

at all.

’’I am deeply concerned about the elephants that were killed in order

for the tusks to be poached. However, as for the consignment in Vietnam,

it has lost its value from the moment it was seized,’’ he remarked.

Article at the following link:

http://www.thisday.co.tz/News/5505.html

Tags: CITES, illegal trade, INTERPOL, Ivory, ivory seisure, KWS, LATF, Tanzania, vietnam, wildlifedirect

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Category: chimpanzee, enforcement, poaching, wildlife trade | Date: Mar 20 2009 | By: admin

Friends,

I just received this email with good news from Congo Brazzaville that I wanted to share with you.  There are times when we get very depressed about the situation facing wildlife in Africa but then there are times when we realise that there is good reason for hope.

Paula

Deal all,

The Brazzaville court has passed the first sentence against a wildlife
dealer. The dealer (a chimp dealer arrested in December 2008) has to
stay one year in prison (plus three months since December) and pay
1,100,000 Fcfa.

We hope this first case against a wildlife dealer in Republic of Congo
will help us for the several next ones (nine cases since September
plus one in May 2009).

We have to thank the LAGA NGO (and especially its Director Ofir Drori
and one of his assistant Josias Sipehouo) for their help, the great
work they did and the motivation they gave. The PALF (Projet d’Appui à
l’Application de la Loi sur la Faune Sauvage), managed by The Aspinall
Foundation and WCS, have received a support (15,000 US Dollars) from
UNEP and now from USFWS (almost 50,000 US Dollars). The PALF has also
received an official support from the Ministry of Forest Economy and
the partnership is working.

We will progressively have to develop its activities in the whole
Republic of Congo.

Sincerely,
–
Luc Mathot
Coordonnateur

Fondation Aspinall
www.totallywild.net
Projet Protection des Gorilles - Congo
www.ppg-congo.org
13977 Brazzaville

Tags: bushmeat, chimpanzee, Great apes, LAGA, Ofir, poaching, Republic of Congo, wildlife trade, wildlifedirect

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