Elephant poaching is on the rampage in Tanzania
A REPORT released last week by The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), called Vanishing Points – Criminality, Corruption and the Devastation of Elephants, has revealed that Tanzania is officially the world’s largest source of poached ivory and China is by far the greatest beneficiary.
Nothing surprising there, but what’s of particular concern is that the illicit trade is allegedly masterminded by high-ranking officials from both countries in a nefarious partnership that has caused half of Tanzania’s once-considerable elephant population to be slaughtered in just five years.
Tanzania’s largest game park, the Selous Reserve, has seen its elephant numbers plummet by a staggering 67 percent from around 40 000 individuals to around 13 000, which is equivalent to 30 elephants slaughtered a day.
The report, released on the eve of a major wildlife crime summit in Tanzania, has revealed that senior politicians in Tanzania’s ruling party as well as high-level Chinese diplomatic delegations are responsible for transporting huge amounts of ivory out of the country.
In 2013 an official visit of the Chinese naval task force correlated with a sudden spike in business for ivory traders with one dealer bragging he made $50 000 (R560 000) from naval personnel, while a Chinese national was caught with 81 tusks trying to enter the port of Dar es Salaam, also intended for Chinese naval officers.
The same phenomenon occurred when Chinese President Xi Jingping paid an official visit to Tanzania. Prices of ivory doubled during the period the presidential delegation was there. The large Chinese government and business delegation on the visit used the opportunity to procure a substantial amount of ivory, allegeldy transporting it to China in diplomatic bags on the presidential plane.
As far back as 2006, the EIA uncovered Chinese embassy staff as major buyers in ivory, while in 2012 Tanzania’s president Jakaya Kikwete was handed a list of top business people, government officials and MPs implicated in the ivory trade. Nobody on the list has been investigated, let alone arrested.
Last year for mer natural resources and tourism minister, Khamis Kagaheki, named four prominent MPs in the government actively involved in the ivory trade, and again nothing was done apart from Kagaheki being unceremoniously sacked from his post.
Trade in ‘illicit’ ivory in Tanzania is a booming business with a sophisticated network of high-ranking officials from both countries. Furthermore, the crime appears to be carried out with impunity. One of EIA’s investigators was offered tusks from the government’s storeroom and even put them in touch with a dealer who could supply tusks direct from the Selous Reserve. As EIA’s executive director Mary Rice said: “This report shows clearly that without a zero tolerance approach, the future of Tanzania’s elephants and its tourism industry is extremely precarious.”
Rice believes that “the ivory trade must be disrupted at all levels of criminality, the entire prosecution chain needs to be systemically restructured, corruption rooted out and all stakeholders, including communities exploited by the criminal syndicates and those on the front lines of enforcement, given unequivocal support.
All trade in ivory, including all domestic sales, must be resolutely banned in China which has failed to comply with Cites ivory controls.”
Tanzania and China were both named and shamed in 2013 for their involvemnent in the ivory trade. Cites demanded that both governments implement action plans to halt the plague but it appears that neither have.
Adam Cruise is a travel writer, photographer, and student in philosophy specialising in environmental ethics. He works with Conservation Action Trust www.conservationaction.co.za.
– Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim on the expulsion of the union from Cosatu. – Sapa
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