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Tanzania: Heads Should Really Roll to Ward Off Poachers

12/31/2013

Source: AllAfrica.com

On Sunday, the government announced that at least 60 elephants were killed in less than two months, following the suspension of the controversial 'Operation Tokomeza' last month, after widespread claims of atrocities during its execution.

The claims included cases of murder, rape, torture, extortion and wanton shooting of livestock found grazing in national parks and game reserves.

It is said that hundreds of cattle were shot dead by officials who presided over the anti-poaching drive. The operation was intended to curb poaching of elephants, rhinos and other endangered wildlife species that were on the threat of extinction.

Poaching is reportedly being fuelled by increased demand for elephant and rhino ivory in Asia, where a kilogramme is more expensive than gold. Official records show that at independence in December 1961, the country had a population of 350,000 elephants, but hardly 20 years later the number had declined to 55,000.

The records further show that the number of elephants had by 2009 dropped to 10,000 - something that needed serious redress and 'Operation Tokomeza' was seen as the right solution. Addressing Parliament in Dodoma last month, President Jakaya Kikwete pointed out that poaching in the country was real and the nation cannot remain silent on the matter.

The Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Mr Lazaro Nyalandu, expressed his concern on Sunday, saying some poachers have taken advantage of the suspension of 'Operation Tokomeza' to continue with the killing spree.

Mr Nyalandu urged for continued observation of wildlife laws and regulations to safeguard elephants, rhinos and other endangered species for the interests of present and future generations. We are not alone. Elsewhere on the continent, the slaughter of elephants continued unabated, with mass killings reported in Cameroon and DRC.

The demand for rhino horns has also been growing in Vietnam, where a newly affluent class has been buying it to treat ailments ranging from hangovers to cancer. More....

South Africa Rhino Poaching Spikes in 2013

12/30/2013

Source: Voanews.com

By Peter Cox

The number of South African rhinos killed by poachers rose nearly 50 percent this year to almost 1,000.

As of December 19, poachers had killed 946 rhinos in South Africa this year. The South African department of environmental affairs says 668 were killed in 2012. A decade ago, in 2003, only 22 rhinos were poached.

Richard Emslie, a scientific officer in South Africa with the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said, "It's a real crisis… for poaching to continue to escalate as it has done year on year is not sustainable."

He said the numbers don't bode well for the animals, which are being killed for their horns.

"At the rate poaching has been escalating continentally since 2008, we will reach the tipping point where deaths start to exceed births as soon as 2014 up to 2016, depending on the underlying growth rate of rhinos," said Emslie.

South Africa is home to 83 percent of the continent's rhinos, 73 percent of the world's population.

Although South Africa arrested 330 poachers in 2013, environmental experts say that rising demand makes the fight against poaching harder. A single rhino horn can sell for thousands of dollars.

China and Southeast Asia are the biggest markets for rhino horn, which many people consider to be an aphrodisiac.

Changing that perception has become a major focus for anti-poaching organizations and governments. There have been ad campaigns in countries such as Vietnam to educate people on the effect of poaching, and to explain that the horns are made up largely of the same material as human finger- and toe-nails.

Some organizations also are trying to find other jobs for South Africans who might be recruited to poach. More....

Are We Losing the Rhino War?

12/29/2013

Source: Sundaymail.co.zw

By Tendai Chara

Driving towards Kezi from Bulawayo can be a rare spectacle filled with pleasure. After only a few kilometres from the country’s second biggest city, large herds of grazing livestock are usually seen munching grass as they seem unfazed by the noise emanating from the many vehicles from the busy highway.

Further down the road, the landscape becomes particularly spectacular with valleys that are surrounded by both huge and small granite outcrops. Balancing rocks hang precariously as if they might fall off any time.

It is in this vast conservation area that the Matopos National Park, a World Heritage site which is rich in both history and culture, is located.

Intertwined with this beautiful scenery is the abundant wildlife. From the squirrel to the giraffe to the endangered black rhino, the park is pregnant with a variety of reptiles, birds and several animal species.

The park is home to the zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, eland, reedbuck, impala and sable among other animals. Apart from the popular game drives, the historical tours and the rock paintings, visitors can also visit the grave of Cecil John Rhodes.

Shangani Memorial, which chronicles the often bloody historical conflicts between the white colonial settlers and the Ndebele people, is situated some few kilometres from the highway.

To the visitors, the area surrounding the Matopos National Park is a haven of tranquillity and beauty. However, it is in these serene environs and many other animal conservancies across the country that vicious “wars” to save the rhino from extinction are being fought.

Officers from the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management, villagers living in areas surrounding the park and tourism and conservation organisations are engaged in a bitter struggle to stop poaching activities and save the endangered rhino from extinction.

There are growing concerns that if the rhinos are not protected, they will, like the pre-historic dinosaurs, soon become extinct. During the past five years, there has been an alarming increase in rhino poaching which is threatening the existence of the animal species. More....

Abolish Trophy Markets to Eliminate Poaching

12/29/2013

Source: Ippmedia.com

Editorial

For decades now Tanzania has been fighting against poachers to protect its endangered animal species such as rhinos and elephants. Several such operations have been conducted before in attempt to flush out poachers from national parks and game reserves.

The operations, to some extent, recorded considerable success though the situation worsened the moment such campaigns ended.

It may be recalled that in the late 1980s, the government carried out a special campaign codenamed ‘Operesheni Uhai’ in which members of the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) under the late Major General John Walden were involved.

Operesheni Uhai was deliberately carried out after it was realized that the number of jumbos had tremendously decreased from 350,000 during independence to 55,000 in the 1980s.

The number of elephants in the country increased to 110,000 in 2009, thanks to the ban imposed on ivory trade in the world by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

However, government statistics released recently showed that between 2010 and September this year a total of 3,899 pieces of tusks, weighing 11,212 kilogrammes and another 22 pieces of processed elephant tusks, weighing 3,978 kilogrammes were impounded.

The same statistics showed a total of 4,692 pieces of trophies, weighing 17,797 kilogrammes that were seized abroad emanated from Tanzania. Still worse, data from researchers show Tanzania has been losing 30 elephants to poachers on daily basis.

Findings are yet to be made public on what could be the impact of the recent ‘Operesheni Tokomeza Ujangili’ (Eliminate Poaching) that ended up costing political lives of four ministers. Despite the determination to combat the problem more individuals are still being arrested in possession of the trophies.

While the war against poaching is being fought on all fronts, Tanzania in collaboration with other countries, must work hand in hand with world bodies such as CITES to convince Asian nations where ivory fetches good market to discourage the business.

In the Asian nations, according to reports, the reliable market for trophies is in China, Vietnam, Taiwan and Hong Kong. More....

The Global War Against Nature

12/28/2013

Source: Huffingtonpost.com

By Reese Halter

*This broadcast was given for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio 1, Science Unit as an Ockham's Razor talk. The text in its entirety is below.

I dedicate this broadcast to my late friend Dr Robert "Bobby" F. Steinberg - he loved the dolphins and our oceans, and unstintingly believed in my mission: Rest in Peace Dear Bobby!

There's a crisis of epic proportion occurring on our planet 24/7, 365: 'The War Against Nature' has become a prolonged looting spree -- plundering terrestrial and oceanic wildlife on a global tear never witnessed before. The fact that the Mafia, Syndicate, Cartel and Triad's are involved heavily in shark fining, slaughtering bluefin tuna, massacring rhinos, elephants and tigers -- as the demand for rhino horns, elephant ivory, fur and animals parts skyrockets -- means these incredible beasts and others have no chance whatsoever to continue to live on planet Earth.

What kind of a world are we leaving for our children?

The destruction of nature including illegal harvesting of forests for an unquenchable palm oil market and trafficking of animal parts is valued in excess of $300 billion, annually; it now rivals that of drugs, arms and human trafficking, combined. No wonder organized crime is running this lucrative life-ending business.

And even more infuriatingly Japan, Iceland and Norway continue to hunt whales despite a 1986 worldwide moratorium. Japan harpoons whales in the Great Southern Ocean within an international sanctuary where populations of great whales are no more than three percent of what they were a mere 200 years ago. Japan claims to hunts whales under the auspice of scientific research, which is simply not true.

Japan's 'scientific whale research' is overtly flawed. If, in fact, they were testing a hypothesis then their factory boat the Nisshin Maru's reaction to harassment by the Sea Shepherd ships during the 2012-13 whaling season would have ended the research sampling for that season. Instead, the Nisshin Maru fled, followed by one of its catcher boats, to the other side of the Antarctic continent, thousands of kilometers from its designated research area where it resumed killing minke whales. A real research program is based upon systematic, pre-planned sampling in a designated area within a designated time frame. Japan's 'lethal research' of whales in the Antarctic has nothing to do with 'scientific research.'

Poaching has reached a frenzied level elsewhere. The pictures of magnificent rhinos dehorned while still alive in Kruger National Park, South Africa, are enough to make a grown man cry. These atrocities are crimes against humanity. More....

Board Says Abolish Illegal Ivory Markets

12/28/2013

Source: Ippmedia.com

By Aisia Rweyemamu

Tanzania Tourism Board (TTB) has appealed to the international community to abolish the illegal ivory markets worldwide to ease the war against the extreme scaling up poaching crime.

TTB advised the stakeholders, saying: “To end the problem and save the decreased number of elephants in the world, there is a need for joint efforts” to abolish ivory markets that are generating high demand of the product.

TTB Managing Director Dr Aloyce Nzunki said: “There would be no illegal ivory trade only if the markets were closed worldwide.”

During a public lecture organized at the Institute of Diplomacy in Dar es Salaam recently, Dr Nzunki told participants that Tanzania loses 30 elephants every day as a result of poaching, and a shocking statistics of 10,000 every year.

A study conducted by Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) revealed that the number of elephants in two wildlife sanctuaries in Tanzania indicated a sharp fall by more than 40 per cent in just three years, as poachers increasingly killed the animals for their tusks.

The study conducted in the Selous Game Reserve and Mikumi National Park revealed that elephant numbers had plunged to 38,975 in 2009 from 70,406 in 2006 (TAWIRI 2010),given the estimated total elephant population in Tanzania as between 110,000 and 140,000.

It is feared that such a large drop in numbers over such a short period could lead to wiping out the country’s elephant population within seven years.

According to Monitoring Illegal Killing of Elephants(MIKE) and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the latest analysis of poaching data estimates that in 2012 some 15,000 elephants were illegally killed at 42 sites across 27 African countries.

“With an estimated 22,000 African elephants illegally killed in 2012, we continue to face a critical situation. Current elephant poaching in Africa remains far too high, and could soon lead to local extinctions if the present killing rates continue.

The situation is particularly acute in Central Africa, where the estimated poaching rate is twice the continental average,” said John E. Scanlon, CITES Secretary-General.

“From 2000 through 2013, the number of large-scale ivory movements has steadily grown in terms of the number of such shipments and the quantity of ivory illegally traded. More....

China's Gibbons 'More Endangered Than Pandas'

12/28/2013

Source: Chinapost.com.tw

The western black-crested gibbon (黑冠長臂猿) is more endangered than the giant panda, even though it is the country's most populous gibbon. With a global population of between 1,100 and 1,400, it was listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation's Red List.

The gibbon, Nomascus concolor, has a discontinuous distribution pattern across southwestern China, northwestern Laos and northern Vietnam. Yunnan province has the biggest population, with nearly 80 percent of the primate species living in moist evergreen broadleaf forests on the Ailao Mountains and Wuliang Mountains.

Fortunately, their habitats on the mountain ranges are by and large unspoiled.

“Placing 1,000-1,300 western black-crested gibbons and their habitats under protection has become the country's biggest hope to keep gibbons singing in the wild,” says Long Yongcheng, the chief scientist with The Nature Conservancy's China Office. He was speaking at the launch ceremony for a trekking event on the Ailao Mountains, held recently in Kunming.

Gibbons' singing was often described in ancient Chinese poems, the biologist said, as they could be found as far north as today's Gansu and Shanxi provinces. “But now, few people know the existence of gibbons in the country,” he says. “Fewer have the luck to listen to their duets in the wild.”

That is because the country's six gibbon species can only be found in Yunnan and Hainan provinces, and in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. The total population stands at about 1,500.

Of them, a small area between northern Vietnam and Guangxi is the only habitat in the world where the eastern black-crested gibbon is found. With 18 families of about 100 animals, they have been “wandering around the borders,” according to Fan Pengfei, one of the country's leading gibbon researchers.

The Hainan gibbon, found only in the island province, is also one of the world's most endangered primate species. The newest figure is two families of 23 mammals, Long says, all residing in Bawangling National Nature Reserve. In 2003, there were only two groups of 13 gibbons.

Northern white-cheeked gibbon, with a population of more than 2,000 in southern Yunnan in the 1960s and a population of about seven groups of 40 animals in 1989, has not been sighted for many years. More....

Prime Minister to Host Global Summit on Illegal Wildlife Trade

12/26/2013

Source: Sooperarticles.com

By Anshul Srivastava

David Cameroon, the Prime Minister of Britain, will host the global summit of the highest level pertaining to fighting the illegal wildlife trade in London. This summit is going to be held next February. 50 heads of state are invited in this summit. It aims to tackle the illegal trade worth $19 million per year of the endangered animals such as rhinos and elephants. There will be delivered an unprecedented political commitment along with an action plan and the enlistment of the resources. The Duke of Cambridge, the prince of Wales and his son, who have previously highlighted the well-built link between the wildlife poaching, threats to national security and international criminal syndicates and terrorism, is also going to attend this summit. Prince Charles stated in May that we face one of the most serious challenges to wildlife continually and we all must treat it as a combat as it is precisely that.

Rhino horn and elephant ivory have more value than gold or diamond traded illegally. The profits earned from this illegal trade have been used by the mutineer groups of the countries in the African continent, such as the Lords Resistance Army in Democratic Republic of Congo and Al- Shabaab in Somalia. Heads of the state from various African nations are likely to attend the summit and the nations where these illegal products are sold, including Vietnam and China, will be represented. However, the level of representation is not finalized yet. Environment Secretary Owen Peterson and Foreign Secretary William Hague will chair the summit. In September, Mr. William Hague said that this illegal trade is absolutely shocking and this problem has an effect on all the people. Mr. Owen Paterson went to Kenya this month and saw the elephants that were killed by the poachers. He along with Mr. Cameroon will go to China in the coming month.

In Asia, there is a lot of value given by the rapidly expanding middle classes to the rhino, elephant and tiger products as status symbols. This demand has increased the level of wildlife poaching in the recent years. In South Africa, there were 13 rhinos killed in the year 2007, but the tally is 860 in 2013. For the ivory seizures, 2012 was the worst year as the tusks of 30,000 elephants were confiscated. More....

Tanzania’s Anti-Poaching Shambles

12/24/2013

Source: WildlifephotographyAfrica.com

2013 has been a disastrous year for Africa’s rhinoceros and elephant populations.

South Africa has seen a record number of rhinos poached and in other countries Africa’s elephants are being killed at an unprecedented rate and Tanzania has been one of the countries worst affected.

Conservationists and campaigners have been in overdrive; raising public awareness through relentless media campaigns, lobbying and haranguing governments to put pressure on the Asian nations that account for the vast bulk of the demand that drives the trade in illegal ivory and rhino horn and desperately urging the everyone in the countries where this catastrophic poaching is taking place to do everything within their power to take the fight to the poachers.

It is a stark indicator of the scale of the problem that, despite all these efforts poachers seem to be operating with impunity in many countries and nothing that is being done seems to be able to put the brakes on the slaughter.

Tanzania’s anti-poaching shambles
But, though countries like Botswana, South Africa and Kenya can demonstrate vigorous efforts and a real will to take on the poachers, Tanzania’s efforts are in total disarray.

Wipe Out wiped out
The country’s flagship anti poaching operation ‘Operation Tokomeza (wipe out) has been suspended after serious and sustained human rights abuses by the forces tasked with implementing the policy and after recriminations have rumbled on for over a month, 4 government ministers have now been sacked for their part in the fiasco. The ministers are Mr Kagasheki (Natural Resources and Tourism), Dr Emmanuel Nchimbi (Home Affairs), Mr Shamsi Vuai Nahodha (Defence and National Service) and Mr Mathayo David Mathayo (Livestock Development and Fisheries).

President Kikwete trys to stop the rot Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete addressed the country’s parliament and pledged that the nationwide anti-poaching drive will resume after assessing and rectifying the weaknesses in the campaign implementation. He condemned dishonest officials whom he accused of tarnishing the well-intentioned drive, vowing to put to task all those responsible for the irregularities. More....

Only 6 Signatures – How Successful Was the Botswana Elephant Conference?

12/24/2013

Source: Wildlifenews.co.uk

By Clarissa Hughes

In the wake of the Elephant Summit held in Botswana in early December where urgent measures to halt the rampant illegal ivory trade were adopted one is left asking if it is enough?

Against a backdrop of ever increasing levels of poaching across Africa the Summit was called to tackle the onslaught that threatens this iconic species. Statistics released at the summit indicate that 22 000 elephants were poached in 2012, an improvement on the estimated figure of 25 000 elephants poached in 2011, however ivory seizures in 2013 signal that elephant deaths in 2013 may reach 40 000.

“We have gathered to secure demonstrable commitment to undertake those measures that have been deemed urgent across range, transit and consumer countries,” said H.E Lieutenant General Seretse Khama Ian Khama, President of the Republic of Botswana, at the official opening of the Summit.

Attended by high-level officials from African elephant range states, including Gabon, Kenya, Niger and Zambia, ivory transit states of Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia and ivory destination states, including China and Thailand the meeting has been hailed a success. However, it is reported that only six of the countries represented signed the agreement at the Summit, the other representatives requiring higher approval.

Of the fourteen urgent measures adopted by the meeting the most important one involves classifying wildlife trafficking as a ‘serious crime’ – a move that will unlock international law enforcement co-operation provided for under the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime. This co-operation includes mutual legal assistance, asset seizure and forfeiture, extradition and other tools to hold criminals accountable for wildlife crime.

Other measures agreed to include engaging communities living with elephants in their conservation, strengthening national laws to secure maximum wildlife crime sentences, mobilizing financial and technical resources to combat wildlife crime and reducing demand for illegal ivory. More....

Poaching: Can Technology Help Prevent Extinction of Kenya's Big Game?

12/23/2013

Source: Ezinearticles.com

By Franklin Cross

To the horror of naturalists and lovers of wild animals, poachers of rhinos, elephants, and other large mammals in East Africa are bringing to their grim work the technology of sophisticated military operations, including night tracking devices and long-range sniper rifles. And they are winning the war.

The recent toll on East Africa's wildlife has been horrific. Big game animals are dying, not of natural causes but because they are being slaughtered for bones and skin. Last year some 385 elephants were butchered for their ivory tusks. In October 2013, officials in Mombasa seized a 4-ton cache of ivory as it was being loaded to a vessel in the harbor. Some species are now at risk of extinction. What drives this awful drama? The short answer is 'money.'

Ivory fetches between $200 and $500 per pound on the black market, while rhino horn, much harder to obtain, can easily bring $12,000 a pound in markets in China and Vietnam. For rewards like these, poachers are willing to train hard, as a military unit would, using assault rifles and night-vision goggles. They develop strong bush skills that make them formidable combatants when confronted by law enforcement. Modern, military-style poachers will not hesitate to kill park rangers who interfere with them. A year ago, in January 2013, Somali poachers working the Kasigau Wildlife Corridor in southeast Kenya fatally shot Wildlife Service Ranger Abdullahi Mohammed. A colleague was shot in the face, but survived with crippling injuries.

Kenya's legislators have slowly responded with tough new laws to combat the increasingly militarized poachers. Penalties for killing animals may be made more severe (the maximum punishment a poacher currently faces is a mere 36 months in prison). But more intriguing are proposals to turn technology against sophisticated poachers. For example, Kenya's game wardens announced in October that they will now routinely implant a microchip transponder into every rhinoceros within Kenya's borders. It is thought that only 900 living rhinos still roam Kenya's game parks, down from thousands only decades ago.

Ground-up rhino horn is considered a more powerful aphrodisiac than Viagra in many wealthy communities of Southeast Asia, where deluded males believe that drinking powdered rhino horn in their tea will give them massive penile erections. In fact, rhino horn is made of keratin, the same material as comprises human fingernails. Drinking powered rhino horn is thus chemically indistinguishable from drinking pulverized human fingernails. It has no effect whatever on sexual drive.

A British parachute regiment stationed at Nanyuki will coordinate the implantation of the microchips, which will greatly facilitate tracking the endangered rhinos. More....

International Arrests Help Fight Against Poaching

12/22/2013

Source: Enca.com

By Lenyaro Sello

This year is set to end with a record number of rhino having been slaughtered across the country.

More than 900 rhino have been killed this year, but South African National Parks says international arrests are playing a major role in the fight against poaching.

It's also stepping up efforts to protect the endangered species, of which 946 have been killed across South Africa so far this year.

SANParks spokesman Reynold Thakhuli said 573 of those have been poached in the Kruger National Park.

"However, we are also cushioned by the fact that the arrests have also been quite significant. In the Kruger National Park alone we have arrested 123 people," he said.

Last year 267 suspects were arrested.

In 2012, 668 were killed, nearly 300 less than this year. But authorities say partnerships with countries like Vietnam, Japan and Mozambique have yielded positive results.

"Already we are seeing movements in Mozambique where people are also getting arrested before they even reach the Kruger National Park. The political will is there in our country and we can only hope that other countries can assist us," Thakhuli said.

Earlier in the year South Africa signed agreements with Vietnam and the People’s Republic of China on cooperation in law enforcement and compliance with international conventions.

But although 330 arrests have been made nationwide, authorities are battling to nail kingpins operating globally.

"We are not yet cracking syndicates but we have arrested people that could lead us to the syndicates. We are unfortunately arresting a lot of foot soldiers," Thakhuli said.

As poachers appear to be stepping up their illegal trade, the South African National Parks says new strategies and methods will be introduced in the next year to fight the scourge.

Rhino Poaching Continues to Soar

12/19/2013

Source: Bdlive.co.za

By Linda Ensor

The government’s attempts to reduce rhino poaching in South Africa seem to be failing, if figures released on Thursday by the Department of Environmental Affairs are anything to go by.

The number of rhino poached in South Africa so far this year has climbed to 946 — already a 42% increase on the 668 recorded by the end of last year, and much higher than the 333 killed in 2010 and the 448 animals lost in 2011.

Scientists have warned that if poaching continues to increase at this rate, the species will be extinct in the wild by midcentury. South Africa is home to more than 80% of the global rhino population.

Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa said recently that the increase in rhino poaching had strengthened the government’s determination to fight it. "Our rhino population is still viable and stable but it will take a concerted effort to end poaching," she said. A national rhino fund has been established.

While the government seems to be losing the battle in terms of the numbers of rhinos poached for their horns, it has had some successes in terms of the number of arrests for rhino poaching-related offences, which so far this year total 330, up from 267 last year, 232 in 2011 and 165 in 2010.

Rhino horn, prized in southeast Asia, primarily in Vietnam, as a "pick-me-up", cancer cure and even an aphrodisiac, fetches about $60,000/kg in that market.

Research conducted in Vietnam by the World Wide Fund for Nature, in collaboration with wildlife trade-tracking organisation TRAFFIC’s Greater Mekong Programme office, has shown that, despite beliefs about rhino horn’s curative qualities for diseases such as cancer, it is predominately used as a status symbol and a general panacea.

The horn is used by educated, successful, powerful people and given as gifts. It is also acquired by those who want to maintain or enhance a healthy lifestyle.

The research, conducted by a Vietnamese market research company, surveyed 720 people in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

The Department of Environmental Affairs said the Kruger National Park continued to suffer the brunt of the poaching. It has already lost 573 rhinos this year. Over the past four years the park has lost 1,396 rhinos. Since the start of the year, 127 alleged poachers have been arrested in the park, a number that has climbed consistently each year from 67 in 2010. More....

South Africa: Controversial Zuma Lion Ads Go Back Up at or Tambo After Court Says Airport Illegally Censored Them

12/19/2013

Source: AllAfrica.com

Petition to Zuma to ban the lion bone trade surges to 1 million after court ruling.

Adverts calling on President Zuma to end the trade in lion bones will tomorrow (Friday) be put back up in OR Tambo airport after the global campaign group Avaaz successfully sued airports authority ACSA for unconstitutionally pulling them down.

The ads, which feature a lioness staring down the barrel of a gun with President Zuma looking on, were censored last year by airport officials after hanging in the airport for a mere nine days.

Emma Ruby-Sachs, Avaaz campaign director, said: "Instead of trying to silence free speech, President Zuma and Minister Molewa should be trying to save the lions -- a national treasure that are being destroyed to make fake sex potions."

The adverts - which were being seen by tens of thousands flying into the city - had been pre-approved by ad firm Primedia on behalf of the Airports Company of South Africa. But days after being hung last September, ACSA ordered the ads immediately ripped down. A secret email later revealed that the ads were censored because ACSA feared the image would cause a "public relations nightmare" for the Zuma government. Last month, the High Court in South Gauteng ruled that ACSA violated the constitution by pulling them down and ordered them put back up.

The global campaign group Avaaz placed the advertisements in OR Tambo last year after more than 750,000 citizens around the world, including thousands of South Africans, signed a petition calling on President Jacob Zuma to ban the trade in lion bones.

South Africa's lion population is dwindling. The failure to manage the legal private 'canned hunting' safari lodges across the country where tourists can shoot what they want for a price, has led to a nasty export trade springing up, driving up demand that leads to poaching of wild lions. On the markets of Ho Chi Minh City and Beijing, lion bone wine fetches over R250,000 a case as east Asian demand locks onto lion bone wine as the alternative to tiger bone wine as their bogus cure. South Africa is the largest exporter of lion bones in the world and the latest government figures show a 250% increase in these exports between 2009 and 2010.

President Zuma has the power right now to institute a ban. Experts say that prohibitive sentences for commercial poachers and enhanced monitoring of airports and harbours to reduce the flow of these products would go a long way towards stemming the proliferation in illegal poaching. Avaaz plans to continue to press President Zuma and Minister Molewa to implement effective laws to curb the trade and protect South Africa's lions. Since the court ruling, the Avaaz petition has topped 1 million.

China’s Obsession with Rhino Horns is Sending South African Rhino Deaths Through the Roof

12/19/2013

Source: Qz.com

By Gwynn Guilford

One of the world’s flashiest luxury items isn’t made of gold or sold by Hermès. It adorns the snouts of rhinoceroses. That explains why poachers killed 946 of them in South Africa so far in 2013, 42% more than in 2012.

That’s grim news given that something like 85% of the planet’s rhinos live in South Africa. At this rate, the animals will be extinct by 2032, say researchers. Though the country has stepped up poaching arrests this year, its authorities clearly can’t keep up.

What’s behind all the bloodshed? As we’ve covered in the past, pulverized rhino horn is coveted in Vietnam as both a designer party drug and a cancer cure. That’s driven the price of a rhino horn to between $45,000 and $60,000 per kilogram ($21,000-27,000 per pound).

But in recent years, Chinese demand for rhino horn has picked up more than most realize, as Tom Milliken, an expert in illegal wildlife trafficking, told China Dialogue. He says demand from southern Chinese provinces, such as Guangdong and Guangxi, is particularly strong.

“Their culture might be similar to what we have seen in Vietnam, where rhino horn is not often used as medicine but rather a product that provides status for its owners,” says Milliken. “This is what’s driving the trade in Vietnam, and may be part of what’s driving the new trade in China.”

He points to an 80% increase in rhino horn seizures in China in the last few years. While this shows that Chinese authorities are cracking down, it also offers a clue about the magnitude of China’s rising demand. (Interpol estimates that authorities confiscate only about 10% of illicit contraband, reports China Dialogue.)

And though seizures of cargo containers have picked up, so too has a trend in Chinese tourists purchasing rhino horns in Vietnam, something Milliken has tracked. That squares with a recent investigative report by conservationist Karl Ammann, who witnessed Chinese tourists snapping up rhino horn prayer bead bracelets in a village outside of Hanoi for about $15,000 a pop.

It also explains an uptick in activity elsewhere in the world. Those yields are promising enough to drive an elaborate global trade in rhino contraband. For example, Texas has emerged as the US’s rhino horn smuggling epicenter due to its taxidermy auction business, reports the Dallas Morning News. Last month, US authorities convicted a smuggler associated with the Rathkeale Rovers, an Irish organized crime outfit that’s been behind a spate of rhino head heists in museums throughout Europe. From Texas, horns typically go to New York or California, where they’re sold on to buyers in Asia. Graphs.

Vietnam Authorities Seize 200 kg of Ivory from Singapore Flight

12/19/2013

Source: Thanhniennews.com

Authorities are investigating an illegal consignment of nearly 200 kilograms of ivory they seized from a flight arriving in Hanoi from Singapore on December 16, online newspaper Dan Tri reported Wednesday.

The consignment, comprising of tusks, bracelets, and chopsticks, is believed to have been shipped from Mozambique to Singapore.

Elsewhere, customs officials in the northern city of Hai Phong Monday said they have started investigations into the smuggling of nearly 4.6 tons of ivory in two separate cases.

On October 21 they and the local police and seized 2.4 tons from a container at Hai Phong port.

The consignment had been declared as containing sea shells and sent to the city-based Hoang Gia Joint Stock Company.

Earlier, on October 3, they they had discovered nearly 2.2 tons of ivory and hawksbill turtle shells, which are also banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, when checking a container received by the Haiphong Trading Import Export and Services Co. Ltd.

It had also been declared as sea shells meant for re-export.

South Africa Rhino Poaching Surges at Least 42% From 2012

12/19/2013

Source: Bloomberg.com

By Chris Spillane

Rhinoceros poaching in South Africa has surged at least 42 percent this year with nearly a 20th of the local herd killed as the demand for their horns, which is falsely believed to cure cancer and boost sexual prowess, continued to rise.

So far 946 rhinos have been poached in 2013, exceeding the 668 animals killed last year, the Department of Environmental Affairs said in an e-mailed statement today. Three hundred and thirty people have been arrested in 2013 for poaching-related offenses compared with 267 last year.

Kruger National Park, an area the size of Israel that borders Mozambique, was the region most affected by poaching with 573 of the animals killed, the department said. The country’s Limpopo province was the second highest with 106.

South Africa is militarizing its force of park rangers as poachers kill more rhinos to feed a market for horns in Vietnam and China. White and black rhinos were brought back from the brink of extinction in South Africa in the 1960s to a population of close to 20,000, about 90 percent of the global rhino population.

Most of them are the larger white rhinos, which can weigh more than two metric tons.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Spillane in Johannesburg at cspillane3@bloomberg.net

2013: A Year of Positive Developments in the Wildlife Trafficking War

12/18/2013

Source: Annamiticus.com

By Rhishja Cota-Larson

In 2013, horrifying headlines about the voiceless victims of wildlife trafficking captured public attention around the world. Has a turning point in the war on wildlife crime finally arrived?

Make no mistake: This is not a fight that will one day be “won” so we can all go home. Rather, it is an ongoing state of vigilance for law enforcement, activists, NGOs, environmental journalists and concerned citizens. Nevertheless, we need to recognize — and celebrate — our progress.

I’ve been writing about wildlife trafficking for nearly five years and I think there is something different about 2013. World leaders have publicly committed to tackling the illegal wildlife trade and there seems to be a consensus that this scourge is nothing less than transnational organized crime which — and it should be dealt with accordingly. Wildlife trafficking breeds corruption in governments and encourages greed in the private sector. It threatens regional security and funds global terrorism.

So, what happened in 2013?

Experts agree that demand for wildlife products must be reduced. It can be said that from almost every corner of the world, demand reduction was a unifying battle cry for 2013.

John E. Scanlon, Secretary-General, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), writes that CoP16 was a “watershed moment” for combating wildlife crime.

“In addition to addressing enforcement, there was a clear recognition by CITES Parties that we need to reduce demand for illegal and untraceable products and to enhance overall public awareness of the severe damage caused by unregulated and illegal trade.”

The Clinton Global Initiative launched “Partnership to Save Africa’s Elephants”, a coalition of non-governmental organizations brought together to “directly target the chief drivers” of ivory trafficking.

This commitment takes a triple pronged approach by dedicating funding to: “stop the killing,” “stop the trafficking,” and “stop the demand.”

A post on the ARREST (Asia’s Regional Response to Endangered Species Trafficking) blog notes that as part of NGO Education for Nature-Vietnam’s demand reduction campaign, banners discouraging consumption of wildlife were hung at nearly 30 markets in major Vietnamese cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh and Da Nang. More....

Vietnam's Seized Ivory Waits to be Sold, Stolen or What?

12/18/2013

Source: Thanhniennews.com

On December 12, Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court sentenced two men to three years in prison each for smuggling 2.4 tons of ivory from Mozambique into Vietnam by sea last June.

The court then ordered the ivory to be submitted to the state treasury.

Speaking in an interview with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, Nguyen Van Luc, chief of the HCMC Department for Execution of Judgments, said the ivory will be handed over to the Department of Finance, which will be charged with handling the contraband.

However, Dao Thi Huong Lan, director of the HCMC Department of Finance, said the department had never dealt with items like ivory and was unsure of what to do with it.

Do Quang Tung, director of the CITES (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species) office in Vietnam, said at the moment about 25 tons of seized elephant ivory ordered by courts to be submitted to the state treasury is being kept in storage by different agencies nationwide.

CITES was informed of the ivory’s weight only, and has yet to assign people to check the stores, Trung said.

Under Vietnamese laws, once submitted to the state treasury, assets will be managed by the Department of Public Asset Management at the Ministry of Finance.

But, an unnamed official with the department told Tuoi Tre that his agency did not manage ivory and that ivory consignments are now being kept by customs, police and court’s execution divisions around the country.

According to CITES to which Vietnam is a signatory, the trade in ivory is banned, so local authorities cannot put the exhibits to auction, the official said.

In the meantime, at least one case in which officials stole confiscated ivory has been reported.

Police in the central province of Nghe An last month arrested one official and three employees – a security guard, a storekeeper, and an intern – with local execution divisions for allegedly stealing 105 kilograms of ivory from state storage.

According to Tuoi Tre, the ivory was among more than 209 kilograms local police confiscated from in a smuggling case one year ago. More....

Mozambique: Police Seize Seven Rhino Horns

12/18/2013

Source: AllAfrica.com

The Mozambican police last week seized two suitcases containing seven rhinoceros horns at Maputo International Airport before they could be dispatched to Vietnam. The spokesperson for the Maputo City Police Command, Orlando Muumane, told reporters that the suitcases also contained 44 kilos of ivory, and eight kilos of ivory bracelets.

The labels on the suitcases indicated that their destination was Vietnam, and were registered in the name of two Vietnamese citizens, whom the police have not yet been able to locate.

“The suitcases were ready to be transported to Vietnam”, said Mudumane. “They were seized and sent to the competent authorities. As yet there are no clues as to the whereabouts of the owners of the suitcases”.

Rhinos are being driven towards extinction because of the demand for their horns in Asia, particularly Vietnam where it is believed they can cure everything from hangovers to cancer. Black market prices for rhino horn have reached 65,000 US dollars a kilo. The current price of gold is slightly less than 40,000 dollars a kilo.

Also at Maputo airport, the police arrested a 40 year old Polish citizen who was carrying 100 grams of cocaine hidden in a camera.

Mudumane announced that last week the police detained another man accused of involvement in an attempted kidnapping in the outer Maputo neighbourhood of Triunfo. This brings to four the number of people arrested in connection with the case. The first three were detained on the day of the abortive kidnapping, after an exchange of fire with the police.

“This man was detained at his home, in the Mahotas neighbourhood”, said Mudumane. “The police were on his trail; we investigated and found him there”.

The would-be kidnappers used two vehicles. With one of them they staged an accident, banging against the wing mirror of their victim's car, obliging it to stop. They then planned to seize the victim and bundle him into the other car.

This operation was aborted because it was seen by plain clothes policemen, who immediately drew their guns and took action against the criminals.

Apprehending Ivory Traffickers: A Conservation Fairy Tale?

12/18/2013

Source: Newswatch.nationalgeographic.com

By Karl Ammann, Erick Kaglan

In December 2012, Malaysia announced the discovery and confiscation of the largest illegal ivory shipment ever—six tons of raw tusks hidden among teak planks in a shipping container from Togo (alternative news reports talked of 24 tons). In July of this year, another two ton shipment of tusks of baby and teenage elephants was intercepted in Hong Kong, also coming from Togo. In addition to this, there were recently a range of confiscations from Vietnamese air passengers who were transporting ivory pieces disguised as wooden ornaments while traveling from Lome, the capital of Togo, to Nairobi. We documented the same type of camouflaged pieces of ivory being sold by a dealer outside of Hanoi, and I’m pretty convinced that these items were from the same production facility as the items confiscated in Nairobi.

Bryan Christy, the author of the National Geographic magazine print feature on the ivory trade, in a subsequent blog entry on the subject pointed out that in the last 24 years not a single kingpin type of trafficker of ivory had ever been arrested and prosecuted—either at the production or consumer end of the supply chain. At about the same time as Bryan Christy’s reporting of this fact, a producer for ABC’s Nightline was putting out his feelers to do a story about the wildlife trade in Africa, approaching various NGOs and stakeholders with some background experience in these issues, including ourselves. It was clear that the main interest for ABC was ivory and maybe as a fallback position, the rhino horn trade. It would appear that Ofir Drori of LAGA, a Cameroon-based conservation NGO, then suggested the Togo ivory trail as a topic where relevant shooting sequences could be guaranteed and that the team, while en route, take in the arrest of a chimpanzee dealer that had some chimpanzee orphans on offer, which supposedly LAGA and its local counterpart in Guinea had lined up. This operation was delayed for several months after we reported—as part of another investigative documentary—the same dealer and the presence of two chimps to LAGA. By the time the operation was mounted to coincide with the arrival of the ABC team, the dealer and the two chimps had disappeared.

At the Togo end, a local dealer had been pinpointed as a kingpin ivory trafficker. A South African investigator visited him at his shop to ask about the availability of ivory and got him to mention that he had sent ivory to Pakistan, Hong Kong, and China. This was, he now claims, part of a typical sales pitch which was then used as an admission of guilt and evidence that he was a big shot international exporter. However, the shop door still today has a posted letter from the French army commander of the local military contingent based in Togo and going back to the 1990 CITES ban on cross border trade, stating that exports of large amounts of ivory was now illegal and that any souvenir item exported should not exceed the value of 1,000 French francs! So he says he knew and accepted these restrictions, but they did not apply to domestic trade.

Mr. N’Bouke was arrested in early August 2013 with a great deal of media fanfare. More....

2013 In Review: Elephant Poaching

12/16/2013

Source: Britannica.com

By Richard Pallardy

No one knows for sure how many elephants exist in the wild in 2013. Even the agencies that monitor them will not issue official population estimates and will venture unofficial counts only with the greatest of trepidation. Some projections, however, suggest that the rapid surge in poaching could lead to the extinction of the African species within a decade. Fueling that threat is a brisk escalation in the ivory trade in Asia.

Counting Invisible Giants
Estimates do exist for the three species. The African savanna, or bush, elephant (Loxodonta africana), is the largest living land animal, with males, known as bulls, weighing up to nine tons each. Its cousins, the African forest elephant (L. cyclotis)—considered by some authorities to be a subspecies—and the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus)—comprising three subspecies—are not much smaller. A comprehensive 2013 report compiled by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and the wildlife-trade-monitoring network TRAFFIC suggested a combined population of 420,000–650,000 African savanna and forest elephants spread across 35–38 African countries. Some 80% of the population—comprising solely savanna elephants—is concentrated in southern and eastern African countries, with 50% living in Botswana, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Central Africa and western Africa, home to both forest and savanna elephants, host the remaining 18% and 2%, respectively.

The IUCN estimates that 40,000–50,000 Asian elephants are spread across 13 countries in Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. India is likely home to more than 50% of all Asian elephants. There is still no reliable mechanism for keeping tabs on one of the most conspicuous residents of the planet. Data are difficult to gather on both continents owing to the political volatility of some regions and to the expense of aerial and ground surveys; unsystematic data collection further skews the projections.

Blood Ivory
The price of that unknown is exacted in blood and gore. Tusks, the enlarged incisor teeth that are the raw material for worked ivory, are normally sawed off at the base by poachers, often while the elephant is not yet dead. The valued part of the tusk comprises dentin covered by cementum. The dentin component is what is used to create the often-intricate ivory confections demanded by the Asian market; the cementum is usually discarded.

The African elephant, at greatest risk from the uptick in ivory poaching, is protected in only 20% of its range. That leaves a huge proportion of the pachyderms unprotected even by the porous boundaries of national parks and other conservation areas. These populations—which oftentimes overlap areas inhabited by humans—are thus harder to monitor. Populations that cannot be monitored cannot be defended. Despite their physical size and strength, elephants are in increasing need of protection. Even the armed guards who patrol some national parks are often no match for the heavy artillery and stealthy maneuvering of poachers harvesting ivory in central and eastern Africa at the behest of military leaders and warlords, who sell the valuable tusks to fund their operations. Park rangers themselves have been implicated in poaching incidents. More....

Rhino Poaching Threatens Survival Of Species

12/16/2013

Source: Neontommy.com

By Syuzanna Petrosyan

One of Africa’s most prized natural assets, the rhino, has come on the brink of extinction as illegal poachers from Asia have increased exponentially. The rhino’s horn, while its main source of protection, has become its worst enemy, currently priced higher than gold.

South Africa is the epicenter of the poaching battle, at present home to around 85 percent of Africa’s 25,000 rhinos.

While in 2007, 13 rhinos were poached, in 2011, the number rose to 448 and 618 have already been poached in 2012. Most of the killings take place in the world-famous Kruger National Park, one of the continent’s biggest tourist attractions. As a member of the “big 5” animal group, the rhino is an important part of maintaining wildlife tourism in South Africa, a large portion of South Africa’s economy.

Illegal wildlife trade is at $7 billion to $8 billion per year, comparable to the money criminals can get in drugs, arms or human trafficking. At present, in the black market the rhino horn costs around $65,000 per kg, which is more than the price of gold. Moreover, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), since 2003, Vietnamese hunters are estimated to have paid more than $22 million to hunt rhinos in South Africa.

According to Robert Hormats, under secretary for economic growth, energy and the environment at the U.S. Department of State, the demand for rhino horns has increasingly gone up in the last 20 years partly because more people have more money to spend. For example, even though medical science has proven that rhino horn does not cure cancer, there are plenty of people with money who believe it does and are willing to pay up to $30,000 to get it, resulting in the slaughter of this endangered animal and an increasingly sophisticated breed of poachers.

In the recent years, the South African government has set forth many efforts to stop the poaching of the rhinos in Kruger National Park. The South African government has closed any loopholes in laws, which would allow poachers to earn legal hunting permits.

Most important of these efforts is increasing the number of rangers who patrol the park. Many times, these rangers shoot the poachers, at times killing them. By making the risk of death higher, the government hopes to decrease the number of poachers who arrive in South Africa.

Nonetheless, sophisticated guarding methods have resulted in more sophisticated poaching methods. So far, however, none of South Africa’s methods have focused on targeting the demand.

Poaching Undermining Africa’s Development – AfDB

12/15/2013

Source: Sundaystandard.info

By Bashi Letsididi

With its abundant wildlife, Botswana is host to the fifth largest international criminal activity which the African Development Bank (AfDB) says is undermining Africa’s development as well as threatening peace and the rule of law.

“Over the last two decades, wildlife crime has developed into a multi-billion-dollar industry and is now considered to be the fifth largest international criminal activity after narcotics, counterfeiting, illicit trafficking of humans and oil,” says AfDB in the aftermath of its participation at last week’s emergency summit on illegal ivory trade in Gaborone.

The bank estimates that illicit trade in wildlife species amounts to US$10 billion yearly. In May this year, AfDB and the World Wildlife Fund launched a joint call (Marrakech Declaration) for action and commitment from governments and other institutions to combat the illicit wildlife trafficking across the continent.

The Declaration is summed up in a 10-point action plan to combat this trafficking. Subsequent to that, the board of the bank approved loans to Cameroon, Chad and the Central African Republic for the financing of the Central Africa Biodiversity Conservation Programme. At the launch of this programme, the bank’s president called upon African countries to collaboratively commit to fight international illegal wildlife trafficking.

AfDB was represented by the Resident Representatives of Zambia and Zimbabwe and by two experts from the Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department at the Gaborone summit. Some of the bank’s actions against elephant poaching and other wildlife trafficking operations were presented, including program to protect elephant in Central Africa, and the Marrakech Declaration.

The bank also presented its 10-year strategy to demonstrate possible linkages and support through the core priority areas. During discussion on resource mobilisation, it suggested that innovative financing was an option to pursue in the face of scarce resources and increasing needs to fight elephant poaching and the illegal ivory trade.

The summit was attended by ministers and delegates from 30 participating countries, including elephant range states such as Gabon, Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Niger, Zambia and Ivory Coast; transit states such as Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia; and ivory destination states including China and Thailand.

It also featured bilateral and multilateral organisations - German Society for International Cooperation, United States Agency for International Development, United Nations Development Programme, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, European Union and the World Bank. More....

Without an Effective Poaching Solution, Rhinos could be Extinct By 2022

12/15/2013

Source: Thesouthafrican.com

By Gavrielle Kirk-Cohen

World Rhino Day has been and gone in September, but with over 900 rhinos poached in South Africa this year alone, what is actually being done to deter rhino poaching?

The demand for rhino horn for the use of traditional medicine in Asia is leading to the near extinction of our rhinos and our government is debating various possible solutions, unsure as to what measures will actually stop the slaughter.

Various possible solutions have been tried and proposed, but as of yet nothing seems to be entirely effective, because we have now surpassed last year’s record number of rhinos poached in South Africa.

The South African government has been involved in ongoing debates about legalising the trade in rhino horn. The argument for legalising the trade is that it will enable the market to be regulated and will bring down the price for rhino horn thereby reducing the incentive to poach. However, a recent study in Vietnam, sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), shows that the demand for rhino horn is actually far greater than originally assumed. Besides the regular consumers of rhino horn, there is another group of potential consumer called “intenders” who intend to buy rhino horn as soon as it becomes affordable. The demand for rhino horn is fuelled not only by its popularity in traditional Asian medicine but also because it is seen as a status symbol. The findings of this study have thus cast doubt on the feasibility of legalising the trade in rhino horn, as future demand will probably far surpass the supply of stockpiled and harvested horns.

In a letter posted on www.rhinodotcom.com, John Hume suggests that the most viable option to deter poaching is by putting some of our rhino in the custody of the communities and black emergent farmers. He feels that if game owners and breeders engage the local rural communities and teach them how to breed and look after the rhinos, it will generate an income for the communities and will encourage them to protect and guard the rhinos as it will be a part of their livelihoods. It will completely change local communities’ attitudes towards poaching and rhinos and will encourage more people to get involved in the conservation of our rhinos. Hume suggests donating 4,800 rhinos to rural communities and he believes that if the communities are able to increase the rhino population as has been done over the last 50 years, as a result of conservation efforts, then in 25 years time the communities will own 29,000. However, he says that the only way in which this model will be successful is if the trade in rhino horn is legalised and the communities can reap the rewards of selling farmed rhino horn.

Another, more controversial solution is to inject poison into the horns. More....