The government has been urged to destroy the warehouse used to keep
elephant tusks in Dar es Salaam which is said to be the largest in the
world.
Addressing the press in Dar es Salaam, the coordinator of Okoa Tembo
Tanzania campaign, Mr Shubert Mwarabu, said that the move would help
to finish the ongoing illegal trade of elephant tusks that promotes
poaching of elephants in the country.
“With deep sorrow, we read the statement made by the Ministry of
Natural Resources and Tourism last month, that states that Tanzania
has not destroyed elephant tusks warehouse. We believe that this is a
very big mistake and we asked the ministry to discuss about this
again,” he said.
Okoa Tembo Tanzania Campaign aims at informing the government to
arrest and take to the court all businessmen involved in elephant
tusks business. The campaign also aims at advising the government to
use the existence friendship between China and Tanzania to close
markets of elephant tusks in China.
“We asked our president to see the importance of destroying all
markets and warehouse of elephant tusks, a move likely to bring to an
end elephant tasks business,” he explained. Some Members of Parliament
(MPs) have been alleging that poaching was out of control.
They claim that an average of 30 elephants were being killed for their
ivory every day. In August 2011, Tanzanian authorities seized more
than 1,000 elephant tusks hidden in sacks of dried fish at Zanzibar
port, a consignment destined for Malaysia.