EAST AFRICAN COUNTRIES CLOSE RANKS TO FIGHT POACHING AND SMUGGLING
(Posted 13th February 2016)
Kenya on Thursday hosted a meeting of the Eastern African elephant range states of Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Sudan and Ethiopia to find common ground to stop poaching and fight other wildlife crimes, which have seen mainly elephant and rhino but also other species poached and trophies, teeth and skins smuggled abroad to consumer markets like China and Vietnam.
The newfound cooperation, supported by the Lusaka Agreement Taskforce, extends to the sharing of intelligence data, joint antipoaching operations, law enforcement in broad terms and future alignment in legislation and regulations.
Participants were drawn from the regional wildlife management bodies, law enforcement and security agencies and policy makers.
East Africa in recent years was at the very centre of poaching, where especially in Tanzania elephant were lost in alarming numbers while the ports of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa were becoming notorious for smuggling ivory out of the continent.
Host Kenya is also the only country in the region which has a forensic laboratory dedicated to conservation, based at the headquarters of the Kenya Wildlife Service and additional investments are underway to upgrade the facilities and allow for DNA sequencing. This will also allow for the chain of evidence to be tightened when samples are delivered to the lab for analysis.
Meanwhile has Kenya also announced the fitting of additional satellite based tracking devices on elephant and rhino in the world renowned Masai Mara Game Reserve to improve real time monitoring and surveillance of populations. Uganda is using similar technology where especially in Murchison Falls National Park elephant have been fitted with collars to allow the Uganda Wildlife Authority monitor their movements and, in case they stray from the park, intervene in a timely fashion.
