Tanzania: Our unique wildlife shall not die

Serengeti Great Wildebeest Migration

This country is rich in its wildlife, unique for both its sheer numbers and variety, with representatives of 430 species and subspecies among the country’s more than four million wild animals.
These include zebras, elephants, wildebeests, buffaloes, hippos, giraffes, antelopes, dik-diks, gazelles, elands and kudus.
We are a country also best known as home to the world’s famous predators, notably in the Serengeti National Park, which German natural scientist Prof Girzmmeck immortalized in his famous book, ‘Serengeti Shall Not Die’.
This is one of the best places for spotting lions, cheetahs and leopards. There are also populations of hyenas and wild dogs and, in Kigoma’s Gombe Stream and Mahale Mountains National Parks, home to bands of chimpanzees.
In addition, Tanzania has over 60, 000 insect species, about 25 types of reptiles or amphibians, 100 species of snakes and numerous fish species, according to the latest records available online.
Complementing this are over 1,000 species of birds, including various types of kingfisher, hornbills (around Amani in the eastern Usambaras), bee-eaters (along the Rufiji and Wami Rivers), fish eagles (Lake Victoria) and flamingos (Lakes Manyara and Natron, among other places).
There are also many birds that are unique to Tanzania, including the Udzungwa forest partridge, the Pemba green pigeon, the Usambara weaver and the Usambara eagle owl.

With such riches, it isn’t an extravagant move that the government has decided to form an entity it calls Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA), whose operations are expected to increase revenues from the country’s national parks, forests and game reserves – all in tandem with wildlife conservation in general.
Natural Resources and Tourism Minister Lazaro Nyalandu announced this in Dar es Salaam last week when he also declared his ministry’s spirited campaign against poaching. We have heard many of these futile government declarations – and we hope this one works wonders.
Yes, we have a duty to hope, as Dame Barbara Ward once said, because declarations are just that: declarations!
The Wildlife Authority Bill passed in November last year gives details of how TAWA will work, headed by a powerful disciplinary committee to coordinate and harmonise its operations to sustain good working relations with communities.
This is good foresight, we might say, because quite often, operations such as “Tokomeza” – which in its loose Kiswahili translation means “decimate” – actually ended up decimating human life and the wildlife itself for which our security forces exist to protect.
Indeed, laws and synergies must be obeyed and closely observed for a sustainable anti-poaching programme, not just a one-shot operation or so-called campaigns, to succeed.
We wish the government – and the wildlife it seeks to protect through this new initiative – all the best.
And, we expect nothing but the best! 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN