Baraza

Category: Ivory, elephants | Date: Nov 06 2008 | By: baraza

Mainstream media like Reuters are reporting good news that Cameroon court has just sentenced a poacher to five years in jail and fined him equivalent of several years of wages for killing eight elephants Local villagers informed the government officials and park guards who caught a young man, Job Akah, 33, with nine elephant tusks and eight tails, fire arms and ammunition in a remote village near the Korup National Park on Cameroons eastern border with Nigeria.

A heavy sentence was passed to deter others. Akah pleaded guilty and will serve his sentence, but something is nagging me. Has justice really been served or are we brushing something really important under the carpet here because it’s easy to do so?

My question is this.. Is Akah’s sentence really justice? Is he really the bad guy? Why would a 33 year old be risking five years of his life and all that money….there’s a slim chance that he’ll survive that ordeal. Even if he does, will he be reformed?

I have been so sad reading all the blog reactions to the story calling this poacher a scumbag, hoping he will rot in jail and that he should even be killed on Care2 website here.

It’s hard to see things from the outside for many people, but having met poachers, I can’t help feeling mad that things are so unfair when it comes to our justice system. Yes he is guilty of killing the elephants and he said so.  But think about it, there is almost no way that this guy was acting alone, the story does not give any other clues.

I for one need three simple answers.

1. Who really is driving the ivory trade in Cameroon? This poacher? Please!
2. Who gave him the guns and ammo? He’s a poor 33 year old….probably one of an army of poachers under someones employment.
3. Who ordered the ivory? Think about it, he is not going to make chopsticks and eat fried rice, he doesn’t need any trinkets, carvings or  ivory jewelry….who is ordering this stuff?

We should be asking who should really be on the docks, in shackles, paying fines, doing time,….not this guy, he’s seeking out a living in a poverty stricken country. Yes he’s wrong, but someone else will continue because we are not addressing the real issue here.

Ofir Drori, director of the Last Great Apes Organisation Cameroon (LAGA) is aware that the trade ivory has flourished in Cameroon in recent years due to the corruption and complicity of some local government officials. This article shows that the corruption is up to the level of the guy who dispenses justice, the police chief!

So, on a personal level I’m not celebrating Akah’s arrest and conviction, I’m weeping for him, because I suspect that those who were involved in arrested him and laying down his sentence, may know better who really should be paying the price for this crime. This system of justice works well for those in the end markets, dealers, traders… especially those from foreign countries.

The recent CITES decision to allow ivory trade auctions has as Richard Leakey says in his latest blog post, “done conservation a great disservice”. Once again ivory prices are rising, and consequently elephants in countries where enforcement is weak like Congo, Cameroon, Kenya and Zimbabwe are up for grabs.

I understand every ones anger every time an elephant dies but maybe I’m getting soft, but I don’t for a second believe that locking up Akah is not going to save a single elephant. I’d appreciate hearing other more balanced views on western blogs especially.

Well, those are my early morning angry thoughts on an issue that really touches a nerve with me..- what do you think about this conviction, has justice been served in this case?

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Tags: Cameroon, CITES, Convictions, elephant killing, ivory trade, richard leakey

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Category: Gorillas | Date: Aug 12 2008 | By: baraza

Remember the story about the Taiping 4 gorillas, traded to Malaysia and then returned to Cameroon on the Limbe blog? Here’s a heartwarming story in their latest report which I read on the PASA newsletter

A female gorilla that spent the last six years at the center of an international controversy regarding illegal trade has found happiness by adopting an infant gorilla at a sanctuary in Cameroon.

Abbey, who was one of the infamous Taiping Four gorillas that were illegally shipped from Africa to Asia in 2002, recently became the surrogate mother to Bolo, a one-year old orphan, at the Limbe Wildlife Center in Cameroon.

Bolo arrived after being confiscated from poachers in December, and it was feared she might be too young to ever integrate safely into Limbe’s 14-member gorilla social group. But another adult female, Brighter, showed interest and seemed willing to take on the role of caring for Bolo.

Abbey had other ideas, however.

“Very surprisingly, Abbey, who is not a dominant female, went up to Brighter and gently took Bolo off her and placed her on her chest,” said Felix Lankester, manager of the Limbe Wildlife Center. “What was surprising was that Brighter didn’t try to take Bolo back. It was obvious to everyone that Abbey was much more protective than Brighter ever was, and that was the kind of protection we were looking for.”

The Limbe staff had spent months patiently developing the relationship between Brighter and Bolo, and even separated the pair temporarily from the other gorillas in order to foster the bonds of care. But Abbey’s willingness to take responsibility for Bolo proved irresistible.

Although the gorillas at Limbe are placed on contraceptives in order to restrict breeding, the introduction of Bolo (pictured above with Abbey and another of the Taiping Four, Tinu) has spurred the group to begin behaving more as they would in the wild. The males have assumed roles of dominance and leadership, while the female serve as surrogate aunts, and play with Bolo whenever they get the chance.

“This gives Abbey and the other females a chance to experience aspects of motherhood, which is a really important thing for gorillas,” Lankester said. “When they haven’t got that, they get bored and might display unnatural behavior. Having Bolo in the group is a very calming influence.”

The Taiping Four gorillas were captured illegally from the wild in 2001 and shipped to the Taiping Zoo in Malaysia under forged travel permits. After the deal was uncovered, the Malaysian government sent the gorillas to the Pretoria Zoo in South Africa in 2004, but it took another three years of intense international pressure before they were returned to their native Cameroon.

The Taiping Four gorillas reached Limbe on November 30, 2007.

Limbe is a charter member of PASA, which was formed in 2000 to unite the sanctuaries that care for chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, drills and literally thousands of other endangered primates across Africa. For more information, please visit www.pasaprimates.org or contact PASAapes@aol.com.

Pan African Sanctuary Alliance 20

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Tags: Cameroon, Limbe Wildlife Sanctuary, Taiping 4

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 14 2008 | By: admin

A few weeks ago we reported that an internet site was selling a baby gorilla in Cameroon. We reported this to LAGA the Last Great Ape organization. This Cameroon Tribune in Yaounde reports that an arrest has been made of an internet scammer selling endangered species with the help of LAGA. This is the full story:

The Control Brigade of the South West Delegation of Forestry and Wildlife has arrested another Internet scammer engaged in selling endangered and totally protected or class A wildlife species through the Internet. The arrested Internet scammer is accused of carrying out, with an accomplice based in China, international fraud schemes involving falsification of government documents.

The South West Forestry and Wildlife Delegation was assisted in the arrest of the Internet scammer by the Forces of Law and Order, the Judiciary and The Last Great Ape Organisation (LAGA). Internet wildlife trafficking in totally protected wildlife species is punishable under Cameroon’s laws. Sections 101 and 158 of the 1994 wildlife law provides for 1 to 3 years imprisonment term and 3 to 10 million CFA francs while section 203 of the penal code gives a maximum of 20 year-sentence to anyone found guilty of using falsified government documents.

The Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife is now in a renewed alert mode to track down and sanction all those who do not respect the wildlife law. “Our Country Cameroon can and will in no way afford to encourage direct or distant illegal trade in its wildlife heritage”, states Professor Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, Minister of Forestry and Wildlife.

The recent arrest of the Internet scammer in wildlife trade came after a call on governments during the last Conference of Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to increase efforts in combating illegal Internet wildlife trade and fraud, bearing in mind the fact that trafficking in wildlife trade has taken a new dimension through Internet, a method the South West Delegate of Forestry and Wildlife, Mbah Grace describes as being remote. “This method is remote because it is not something which is tangible, you can’t see it, so the traffickers do it through the Internet and you need high techniques to be able to track this type of dangerous illegal wildlife traders”, said Mbah Grace.

Describing the extent to which wildlife crime through the Internet has gone, the Director of The Last Great Ape Organisation (LAGA), Ofir Drori states, “We now realize that Internet wildlife fraud scheme is far organized than we had thought. Internet fraud is now a fast growing criminal activity in Cameroon”, adding “We will continue to concentrate on more investigations in collaboration with authorities around the world with complaints of Internet wildlife trade and fraud in Cameroon”.

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Tags: Cameroon, illegal wildlife trade, internet scam, LAGA, wildlifedirect

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