Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday called for increased control and inspection of the country’s national parks, in order to neutralise and prosecute the gangs of poachers who are decimating Mozambican wildlife.
Nyusi was speaking in Mecula district, at a press conference marking the end of a three day visit to the northernmost province of Niassa.
“We have to find out who the poachers are and who is giving them their orders”, said Nyusi. “We have to identify the market where these products are sold, which implies collaboration with other countries”.
To protect the wild life reserves, he added, the government is strengthening the paramilitary force that defends them, endowing it with the necessary equipment and resources.
Poachers reduced Mozambique’s elephant population by almost half between 2009 and 2014. The census undertaken in 2014, showed a decline over the five year period from around 20,000 to just 10,300. The worst decline was in the Niassa Reserve where the number of elephants counted fell from 12,000 to 4,440. During the 2014 census, 43 per cent of all the elephants seen in Niassa were carcasses.
Nyusi believed that the situation was beginning to improve. Thanks to the operations of the security force only 63 elephant carcasses had been seen in the Niassa Reserve so far this year.
At a meeting in the Reserve earlier in the day, the President also faced complaints from the Niassa game wardens who said that when poachers were arrested and thrown into police cells, they were “arbitrarily released”. They said courts allow them to be released on bail, even when they are caught in possession of firearms and elephant tusks.
Some of the guns used by poachers appeared to have been rented to them by members of the Mozambican security forces. “We seized a gun belonging to the commander of the Marrupa military unit”, said one warden. “It was in the hands of a Tanzanian. But he was released”.
The wardens also urged Nyusi to replace the administrator of the Reserve, accusing him of nepotism and poor relations with the workers.
Nyusi was not convinced, and argued that they key problem was not the person of the administrator, but the way the Reserve was organised. Poor organisation, he believed, was among the reasons that had allowed poachers to slaughter thousands of elephants.
“We can change the administrator, but while you continue to work in this way, there will be no development”, he warned. “It’s easier to remove the administrator than to find one who will meet what you want”.