See link for photo.
Something has changed. Illegal ivory traffickers themselves, caught in a private conversation during a recent survey by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), are saying: “It’s easier to do this business in Mozambique… it’s easier to operate”. The poachers, unaware that they are being secretly listened to, add a word of warning however: “in Tanzania, don’t even think about this.”
Though the sentence is not encouraging for the future of Mozambique, it speaks volumes about the situation in Tanzania: getting ivory out of the country is no longer so easy. Yet Tanzania was, until recently ‘easy pickings’ for poachers, so much so that just between 2009 and 2014, the illegal hunting of elephants led to a thinning and fragmenting of the population to 40% of its initial size. In 2014 alone the country lost over 13,000 elephants and between 2009 and 2013, Selous Game Reserve, defined by UNESCO as a threatened World Heritage site, lost 66% of its elephants, collapsing from 38,975 to just 13,084 elephants.
This inexorable and greedy exploitation, which has affected African elephant populations since the 1970s, is now observed in the appearance of the animals themselves, whose appearance – or ‘morphology’ in technical parlance – has changed due to this unnatural selection. “The average tusk sizes have greatly reduced since the mid-19th century,” argues Iain Douglas Hamilton, one of the world’s leading elephant experts, “the data comes from the trade statistics and from records of hunters around Africa who find that large trophies are very much harder to find.” At the beginning of the last century, elephant males, whose tusks could exceed two, sometimes even three meters in length, were not uncommon. Today the average size of tusks in an illegal ivory confiscation is around 90-120 cm and many tuskless elephants can also be found.
The simultaneous effects of international pressure, hosting of international events, and enforcement activities within the Africa have led to some reduction in the illegal ivory trade. The ban on the legal market in China has led to a welcome price collapse, falling from $1,700 a kilogram in 2014 to $730 a kilogram in 2017. However, in Tanzania other key factors have played a vital role in dramatically turning the tide on poaching and illegal ivory trafficking.
What has pushed so many poachers and traders, in the last few years, to look for “material” outside the country? Why are poachers abandoning old historic outposts, such as Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam and using ports in Mozambique or poaching in the forests of Central West Africa and no longer doing business in one of the world’s most wildlife-rich nations?
It is not just the decrease in the animal numbers (since Tanzania still has more elephants than all but two other countries) or the heavy blow caused by the closure of the illegal market by China. The answer has been reported in Tanzania’s media over the last two years: 1401 arrests (with over 250 of these being buyers and traders located in cities), 428 firearms seized, over 40 vehicles used in ivory poaching confiscated and 360 prison sentences issued, including 79 ranging from 15 to 40 years imprisonment. There has been a dramatic increase in effective enforcement and prosecution.
Is this strange? Definitely. In fact, until 2014 the low detention rate, the lack of meaningful prosecutions and falsified trials favoured those involved in the flourishing illegal ivory trade. But what probably most marks the end of the tide is the arrest of four major ivory trafficking “kingpins” in Tanzania’s backyard, including Boniface Matthew Maliango, nicknamed “The Devil”, and the “Ivory Queen” Yang Feng Glan.
What is the real significance of this success? For the first time, every level of the ivory syndicates and their empires has been hit, representing a concrete demonstration of a fundamental change in law enforcement strategy and will. The creation and the commitment of a National Task Force, which PAMS Foundation has supported to take on illegal wildlife trafficking since 2014, has brought about a drastic change in direction that led to more arrests, successful prosecutions, and sentencing. Based in Tanzania, the PAMS Foundation works to benefit both wildlife and communities, developing a strategy that contains several innovative approaches compared to what has been done in the past to stop the plague of poaching and trafficking.
Change, but how? Since the days of the great Ivory Crisis, when between the end of the ’70 and the ban in ivory trade of the 1989, at least 700,000 elephants were killed all over the continent, great quantities of international capital have been invested in defence efforts that often end up too diluted and reactive to curb the losses. These massive, often poorly supervised investments, have typically failed to address – and in some cases has even exacerbated – the problem. In addition to this, the lack of quality information on the trafficking network and targeted investment, the inability to reach trafficking key players, and, finally, local cultures not being prepared to face such a complex task, have not curbed growing corruption and have led to the failure of anti-trafficking operations. The PAMS strategy as adopted, adapted, and implemented by the Government of Tanzania, has produced solutions where it once seemed impossible. The following actions are key to any strategy:
Information: a widespread informational web network has been established across the traffickers’ area of operation, able to provide a constant and reliable source of key information is essential in order to develop targeted, effective actions and maximise effectiveness.
Donor Investments: the way in which typical donor funding or investment are given needs to be reviewed and improved. Many investments can actually be reduced, to limit misuse and maximize their effectiveness. Through accurate planning, close collaboration, monitoring, and performance management, donations can produce concrete results and minimise injudicious use of funds.
Involvement: local communities are a key part of the solution. Lasting concrete results will not be possible until the battle against poaching becomes a national battle, from the community level all the way up to the top. In order to be effective, the practices of caring for and protecting wildlife must be seen in a positive light at a community level. This is only possible through ongoing close collaboration with communities, and by helping them to understand the value of the natural resources that surround them. For this reason, PAMS has based its field offices and support staff in the communities, and works side by side with them to protect their wildlife and natural environment through regular patrols undertaken by village game scouts. These scouts are trained, equipped, and rewarded for good performance and results. PAMS also helps them to protect crops and livestock in order to minimise human-wildlife conflict, and has rolled out an environmental education programme called ‘Living in Harmony with Nature’. In this manner, long-term relationships and trust form a solid foundation upon which wildlife protection work is based and improved, and which helps to prevent those involved in organizing illegal activities penetrating the communities.
Integration: an organized network is necessary to disrupt illicit ivory trade system from its grassroots base to the top. This includes supporting authorized community based conservation organizations and the Tanzanian government to undertake anti-poaching efforts on the ground and to undertake intelligence-led operations targeting buyers and traders. It also involves supporting case preparation and prosecution. This integrated approach ensures all levels of poaching syndicates are disrupted, and leaves minimal chance of the perpetrators avoiding prosecution.
These represent the key elements of the unique approach applied by PAMS and the National and Transnational Serious Crime Investigations Unit (NTSCIU) and National Task Force, which in just a few years has brought about a crash in an illegal system that seemed set in stone, and the end of a massacre that seemed destined to lead to the inevitable demise of elephant populations as we know them.
The change in numbers. “Thanks to the nationwide intelligence-led wildlife law enforcement campaign we believe that there are in the region of at least 35,000 to 40,000 elephants in Tanzania presently, whereas had the previous 6-year trend of slaughter continued unabated since November 2014 there would likely have only been approximately 15,000 left,” says Wayne Lotter co-founder of PAMS Foundation. He adds: “The next national elephant surveys will provide data to support our estimates”.
What else can be done to help? Each of us has a role to play to help combat the illegal wildlife trade. The first – and easiest – way is to never buy any ivory, illegal or otherwise, and inform others why they shouldn’t either. Spreading information as widely as possible is an important weapon to help stop the buying. Actions such as petitions, or any other initiative aimed to raise social awareness, can be valuable in stopping the demand. Supporting conservation and wildlife protection efforts remains a good option through which to play an active part in the battle, by supporting those who are looking for or implementing solutions in the front lines of the campaign.
Almost 60 years ago Julius Nyerere, the first President of Tanzania called Mwalimu by the Tanzanian people (that means teacher in kiswahili) claimed, in what became famous as the Arusha Manifesto: “…all these wild creatures…are an integral part of our natural resource and our future livelihood and wellbeing. It is a heritage that we not only have the right to appreciate in our lives, but we have a duty to leave intact for the well-being of our successors.” We are still far from applying these words seriously. The number of elephants in the world continues to decline, but recent achievements set a solid precedent for conservators.
https://www.thecourant.org/