Baraza

Category: Africa, elephants, wildlifedirect | Date: May 04 2009 | By: admin

Dear Friends,

We have just heard sad news of the demise of Echo from Cynthia Moss of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants. Echo died on the 2nd of May from old age and the drought. I personally met Echo and others in the her family many times in Amboseli - she was easy to identify by her crossed tusks. She was a fierce protector of her family, builting it up from 7 individuals to 40 over the years. She and her family starred of the documentary Echo of the Elephants. If you haven’t seen it then you simply must. It is unforgettable.

Light a candle for Echo.

I can’t believe she is gone. Amboseli will never be the same.

RIP Echo.

Paula
Read more about this on AERP blog and Cynthia Moss blog at http://elephanttrust.org

Article at the following link:

http://elephanttrust.org/node/551

Tags: Amboseli, Amboseli Trust for Elephants, conservation, Cynthia Moss, E family, Echo, elephants, Ivory, Kenya

7 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: National Parks and protected areas | Date: May 29 2008 | By: baraza

For some reason this hasn’t hit the mainstream press, but according to the East African newspaper,  the KWS have given up Amboseli National Park.This story goes back to  2005 when the president in his wisdom gave away the reserve to the local Maasai in what many believe was an attempt to buy support  for constitutional referendum. They accepted the land which overlooks Mt Kilimanjaro, and voted against him anyway.

Local NGO’s Nature Kenyaand Eastern African Environmental Network took the government to court to squash the ministers decision to actually gazette the presidents declaration. The case is still in court. Despite this KWS have apparently given up and the newspaper claim that they have a copy of an agreement to that effect. It seems that the agreement puts KWS in a contracted position to manage the park on behalf of the council who can boot them out if they are not happy.

Why does this matter?

Amboseli is iconic of Kenyas’ wildlife protection and conservation success. It is one of the most important protected areas in Kenya  - and the combined attraction of mountain and elephants generates more revenues than most of the others combined! It is where the elephants and lions have recently been speared. The local council is unlikely to have relevant competence to manage the site and Kenya may lose one of its greatest and most famous wildlife refuges.

It’s not surprising that the locals want the land, KWS has been raking in millions for years, with little to show for its contribution to the local communities. Nevertheless, this decision is likely to see the invasion of the park by pastoralists, the killing of elephant and lions and tourism is unlikely to recover.

I suspect that this is the beginning of something interesting, KWS releasing a stranglehold on parks and reserves especially where communities are ferocious (they are very averse to aggression). They will let go  back down and take on managerial roles only - like the private sector. Can KWS survive this way? I’m curious - it is quite a bloated organization.

I wonder what would happen if we engaged more private sector interest in conservation directly (not just hotels) in Kenya that way Kenyans could invest in wildlife and nature protection and earn dividends.

……perhaps I”m dreaming again.

Tags: Amboseli, Kenya, Kenya Wildlife Service, KWS

15 responses so far