The ‘Elephant Summit’ organized in Arusha by the ICCF, the
International Conservation Caucus Foundation, yesterday heard from
Tanzania’s Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Lazaro Nyalandu
that a newly formed wildlife management and conservation body, the
Tanzania Wildlife Authority, would be taking over a range of
responsibilities and functions alongside TANAPA, taking care in
particular of game reserves, wildlife management areas, hunting blocks
and centralised anti-poaching operations, absorbing and in fact adding
to the functions of the former wildlife division in the ministry.
The change was in the making for a while but announcing it at this
international conference gave the new measures maximum exposure and much
hope is vested in TAWA now to radically alter the ways of the past when
poaching was lamented but not effectively combated and when the old
organisation regularly suffered of a shortage of manpower, equipment and
financial resources.
The last few years saw Tanzania rise to notoriety when commercial
scale poaching led to the wholesome slaughter of tens of thousands of
elephant, as documented in both reports to parliament as well as backed
up by wildlife census figures from the Selous and Ruaha National Park,
with the former game reserves elephant population dwindling since the
2006/7 census of an estimated 70.000 elephant to just over 13.000
elephant in late 2013, while Ruaha was estimated to have lost half of
its population to poaching gangs.
Conservation organisations and conservationists have broadly welcomed
the move though cautioned against too high an expectation during the
formative stages of the new body while additional manpower – according
to the minister was an immediate addition of over 400 rangers on the
cards – and additional equipment, including at least three helicopters,
was being imported.
Meanwhile has in neighbouring Kenya the visiting Chinese Prime
Minister Li Kequiang announced a change of policy in China towards
wildlife conservation in Africa and allocated some 10 million US Dollars
to wildlife conservation measures in Kenya and on the continent of
Africa, a gesture broadly welcomed though with the rider that it was not
nearly enough and more work was needed to suppress the domestic demand
for ivory, rhino horn and other wildlife products from Africa inside
China. Today, Sunday are the heads of state of Tanzania but also from
Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi expected in Nairobi to meet with the Chinese
Prime Minister and his delegation as a gesture by the Kenyan government
keen to see the entire region tied into the visit and the resulting
business, investment and infrastructure opportunities arising from it.
0 comments:
Post a Comment