Poaching and the problem with conservation in Africa - commentary

By Richard Fynn and Oluwatoyin Kolawole  (Okavango Research Institute)

 Poaching is a complex topic that cannot be solved by myopic, top-down enforcement approaches. Crime syndicates may be fuelling the poaching of elephant and rhino but they are not the source of the problem. Rather than treat the symptoms by spending millions on weapons and anti-poaching forces, which experience has repeatedly shown does not stop poaching, there is a need to understand the underlying causes of the poaching problem if it is to be solved.  

Across Africa, state-led anti-poaching forces, no matter how well funded and equipped, have been unable to curtail the high levels of poaching currently observed. 

Devolving power and benefits to local communities will enable local communities to acquire full responsibility for anti-poaching operations, which they are much better positioned to do than external agencies who do not have the social networks and local knowledge needed to effectively perform oversight functions in the local area. As witnessed in the Luangwa Valley and Namibian conservancies, there is every likelihood that there will be a significant decline in poaching once community conservation is properly implemented.

Read more:  https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/poaching-and-the-problem-with-conservation-in-africa-commentary/

IUCN reports deepening rhino poaching crisis in Africa

The number of African rhinos killed by poachers has increased for the sixth year in a row with at least 1,338 rhinos killed by poachers across Africa in 2015, according to new data compiled by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission’s African Rhino Specialist Group (AfRSG). 
 
This is the highest level since the current crisis began to emerge in 2008. Since then poachers have killed at least 5,940 African rhinos.

Read more: https://www.iucn.org/news_homepage/?22519/IUCN-reports-deepening-rhino-poaching-crisis-in-Africa

Poachers killed half Mozambique's elephants in five years

Government-backed survey shows elephant numbers declined from 20,000 to 10,300 due to illegal wildlife trade and lack of governance. Poachers have killed nearly half of Mozambique’s elephants for their ivory in the past five years, the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society said on Tuesday

Mozambique government-backed survey showed a dramatic 48% decline in elephant numbers from just over 20,000 to an estimated 10,300, the WCS said.

“This decline is due to rampant elephant poaching in the country’s most important elephant populations,” the WCS said. Remote northern Mozambique, which includes the Niassa National Reserve, was the hardest hit, accounting for 95% of elephant deaths, reducing the population from an estimated 15,400 to an estimated 6,100.

The figures can be explained by the arrival of poachers from Tanzania, where the elephant population has already been decimated, according to Alastair Nelson, director of WCS in Mozambique, whose organisation administers the Niassa Reserve.

“The major issue is one of governance. The north has always been a remote and poorly governed area, with an underlying level of corruption,” he told AFP.

“Some district police and border guards are being paid off, some even rent out their own firearms.”

The aerial survey found that in some parts of the country nearly half the elephants seen were already dead.

Elephant tusks are prized in Asia, where they are carved into ivory statuettes and jewelry.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/26/poachers-killed-half-mozambiques-elephants-in-five-years

African elephant numbers likely to decline due to continued poaching

A high rate of elephant poaching in parts of Africa was unchanged in 2014 compared to the previous year, meaning that a continued decline in elephant numbers is likely, according to a study released Monday at a conservation meeting in Kasane.

A report by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, known as CITES and which regulates wildlife trade, said poaching rates of elephants in areas that are being monitored still exceed their natural birth rates.Conservationists say tens of thousands of elephants have been killed in Africa in recent years as demand for ivory in Asia, particularly China, increases. Past estimates of Africa’s elephant population have ranged from 420,000 to 650,000.

The poaching situation appears to have deteriorated in Central and West Africa, though there are “encouraging signals” in parts of East Africa where overall poaching levels have declined, said John Scanlon, secretary-general of CITES. The study was presented at an international conference on the threat to elephants that was held in the tourist town of Kasane in northern Botswana. A similar meeting was held in 2013 in Gaborone, Botswana’s capital.

Read more: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/03/24/world/african-elephant-numbers-likely-decline-due-continued-poaching/

Western Conservationists Are Ignoring Local Communities in Mission to Save 'Cuter' Animals

In 2012, Mali's elephants came under attack for the first time. After the Tuareg rebel uprising and coup, their northern migration paths were no longer on land controlled by the government. The instability meant the area was awash with guns. The rebels needed money, and had begun to turn to poaching for ivory, despite the elephants' very small tusks.

 

The elephants had already been suffering for some time: forests and bushland were being cleared, and they had to compete with enormous herds of cattle for their water supply. But hearts at the Mali Elephant Project, which had been working hard to prevent this, sank when war broke out. Gourma elephants trek for 300 miles a year in search of food and water — the most unusual migration pattern of any elephants. There are only 550 elephants in Mali, but they constitute 12 per cent of the world's West African elephant population. It seemed that these could not survive the total insecurity their habitat had been thrown into. Not knowing what to do, the project's co-ordinator, Dr. Susan Canney, said that that was when they turned to local people for help.

 

Young, unemployed men were being persuaded to join the jihadis, with generous salaries of $30-$50 per day — a fortune in northern Mali. So the Mali Elephant Project started its own recruitment drive: it wanted a network of young people to look out for the elephants, and report killings or anything suspicious. It proved an incredible success. The project could only pay them in food for looking out for the elephants and reporting their killers — far less than the jihadis were offering. However, "Not one of them joined the jihadis. They said the project work was more noble - it gave them status in their communities.

 

Read more @  https://news.vice.com/article/western-conservationists-are-ignoring-local-communities-in-mission-to-save-cuter-animals

Poaching and illegal wildlife trade threaten tourism and development options in Africa

Panelists at an event held in Berlin, Germany, during ITB — the world’s largest tourism fair concurred  that record poaching levels of rhinos and elephants are not only threatening the basis of tourism but also tourism-based development options in Africa.

 

In his opening remarks, Hon. Moses Kalongashawa, Minister of Tourism and Culture in Malawi, and Chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Ministers responsible for Tourism noted that the issue of poaching is of huge concern and Africa is losing wildlife at record rates each year to poachers and illegal trade. He said this was because of the involvement of organized criminal syndicates in elephant and rhino poaching, with criminals now deploying advanced technologies ranging from night vision scopes, silenced weapons, darting equipment and helicopters, to carry out their missions.

For more information visit: http://www.traffic.org/home/2014/3/7/poaching-and-illegal-wildlife-trade-threaten-tourism-and-dev.html