Malawi fights poachers
UNDER a scorching sun, a team of British soldiers and Malawian rangers shelter under a tree, ready to pounce on their prey: poachers.
The combined force, armed with rifles and handcuffs, did not encounter any poachers as it patrolled the 530km² Liwonde national park in Malawi’s south.
But the presence of the highlytrained and well-equipped British forces was reassuring for the rangers, who routinely confront gangs of poachers armed with Kalashnikovs.
Liwonde, which borders Mozambique, is Malawi’s leading game reserve and is home to the southern African country’s largest elephant and rhino populations.
The seven British soldiers are there to train 35 of Malawi’s anti-poaching rangers.
Prince Harry is the public face of the project, which began in 2016. Earlier this year he visited the park to oversee the relocation of over 300 elephants to the Nkhotakota game park in central Malawi.
“We were in a poaching crisis in 2015 in this park. But the situation has now been contained,” said Bright Kumchedwa, the director of Malawi’s parks and wildlife department.
And although the fight against the illicit wildlife trade is far from over – poaching halved the country’s elephant population from 4 000 in the 1980s to 2 000 in 2015 – gains are being made.
Kingsley Kachoka, a Malawian who is a sergeant in the British army, told reporters he was delighted to be home “to help my country to deal with poachers”.
“I hope there will be a change because we are covering more ground in counter-poaching skills.”
Craig Reid runs African Parks, a conservation organisation that manages several game parks under a deal with Lilongwe, and said his team had pioneered the use of cyber-trackers and drones to tackle poaching.
“Poaching is declining dramatically, he said, with officers having seized 27 000 wire snares, 43kg of ivory and 56 rounds of illegal ammunition from poachers between from August 2015 and last month, according to African Parks.
Patrols at the park have led to the arrest of 130 poachers, most of whom have been sentenced to jail terms of at least six years. The maximum sentence is now 30 years. — AFP