Chinese poachers sentenced to 30 years jail in Tanzania

Two Chinese poachers were recently sentenced to 30 years in jail each or ordered to pay a record Sh108.7 billion fine in one of the heaviest sentences aimed at curbing the illegal ivory trade.

The Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court found Xu Fujie, 31, and Huang Gin, 51, guilty of illegally possessing 706 pieces of elephants tusks.

They were each ordered to pay Sh 54.3 billion fine or face the lengthy sentence of a whole three decades behind bars.

The jailing of the two is the latest in a series of heavy court judgments that has seen several Chinese and Tanzanians handed long jail sentences. This appears to be a renewed anti-poaching drive.

Magistrate Mkeha also convicted the Chinese of attempting to bribe the police and officers from the wildlife department with Sh30.2 million. For this, they will serve five years in jail, and pay a Sh 1 million fine. However, the Chinese were acquitted of charges of possessing a bullet cartridge.

Magistrate Mkeha said the court had been satisfied with the testimony from nine prosecution witnesses and exhibits. “Considering the evidence adduced in court and the huge loss that the nation has suffered for the killing of 226 elephants, it is obvious the accused are a real threat to the elephant generation within the boundaries of our country,” said the magistrate. Evidence provided by nine prosecution witnesses proved the offence beyond all reasonable doubts, he said.

State lawyers, Faraja Nchimbi and Paul Kadushi, had asked the court to mete out a severe punishment, saying between 2010 and December 2013 a total of 892 elephants were killed in Tanzania’s national parks.

I do think that last statement is a slight underestimate by about 40000 !

The convicts entered the country in 2010 and stayed for three years until 2013 when they were arrested at Kifaru Street, Mikocheni B in Kinondoni District, Dar es Salaam. The duo posed as garlic importers and marine product exporters. The seized tusks were found in sacks of garlic in the house where the two lived. They had killed, he said, a quarter of all elephants killed in the country between 2010 and 2013.

Mr Nchimbi told the court that there was sufficient reason to believe the two Chinese were ring leaders and financiers of an elephant poaching syndicate in the country. The dramatic arrest of the convicts was led by the then Tourism minister Khamis Kagasheki, who found the tusks cleverly mixed with shell and garlic to avoid suspicion. The tusks the duo were caught with weighed 1.8 tonnes and had an estimated value of $3.1 million (Sh5.4 billion).

Bring back Khamis Kagasheki !

Angola proposes to ban the trade in ivory

Luanda — A decree banning the sale of ivory and its derivatives will be presented Friday in Luanda by the Multi-sector Commission against environmental crimes.

The decree will shut down ivory sale outlets, like the Luanda's Benfica handicrafts market.

The measure to curb ivory trade (and rhino horn) includes the deployment of a crime unit at Luanda's 4 de Fevereiro International Airport and in the localities of Maria Teresa (Cuanza Norte) and Bengo
province.

The Minister of the Environment, Fátima Jardim, said that trade of ivory artifacts  will cease to exist in the country as a means to curb poaching.

Namibia: Police arrest five for rhino and elephant poaching

The police arrested five people in three different regions on Saturday for poaching rhino horns and elephant tusks.

One man was arrested in Kavango East for possession of elephant tusks, while two men were arrested in Opuwo for possession of rhino horns. Two more suspects were arrested in Khomas Region on suspicion of poaching rhinos, the police said yesterday.

The four poaching suspects, two from Windhoek and two from Kunene, will appear together in the Katutura Magistrate's Court this week.

The latest arrests bring to eight the number of people arrested this year in connection with poaching, or being found in possession of rhino horns and elephant tusks.

Last year 22 people were arrested for poaching, or being in possession of rhino horns and elephant tusks, according to police statistics.Twenty-nine carcasses were found in the Etosha National Park and five at Palmwag/Klip River since January.

Last August Minister of Environment and Tourism Pohamba Shifeta questioned the conduct of prosecutors who recommend bail for suspected poachers, while crucial investigations are still ongoing. Shifeta said it is frustrating for law enforcement officials, who are working tirelessly to nab poachers, when prosecutors propose bail for suspects: "We've arrested a lot of people, including a police officer in Windhoek. I understand the police officer was given bail of N$25 000 and I asked why he was given bail. The prosecutors are supposed to deny bail. I heard they proposed bail on two occasions."

At least half the World's population of black rhinos live in Namibia (2000+ in Namibia).

Tanzania to form elite anti poaching force

Tanzania is working on a new security strategy that will help curb poaching of elephants and other crimes against wildlife within and outside protected areas. It is hoped to be operational by 2017

The Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Jumanne Maghembe said the new security strategy will involve training a special force that will be equipped with modern and high-tech surveillance equipment to detect elephant poachers and other criminals operating inside Tanzania's protected parks.

Conservationists estimate that more than 13,000 elephants were poached in Tanzania in 2015 alone.

A 15% increase in poaching was noted in the Ruaha-Rungwa ecosystem that year.

Commemorating the World Elephant Day in August 2015, conservationists put the number of elephants killed by poachers between 2011 and 2015 at about 65,721.

Between 1970 and 1980 poaching and killing of elephants in Tanzania saw their population decline to 55,000. However, the international ban on the sale of ivory and other elephant products together with highly effective anti-poaching operations resulted in elephant populations increasing to an estimated 130,000 in 2005 and 110,000 in 2009, according to WWF in Tanzania.

Poachers poison an elephant and hundreds of other animals in Kruger National Park

Rangers in the Kruger National Park have found an elephant carcass, 110 dead white-backed vultures, two male lions and two black-backed jackals killed by wildlife poisoning on the 27th of February.

The elephant's body was found with gun shots to its head. The tusks had been removed and then its carcass was laced with poison.. Scavengers in the vicinity of the elephant  were poisoned after feeding from  the remains.

This type of poaching is the very worst, if you can categorise it. It is indiscriminate in a similar manner to the use of snares, but acts on so many other creatures in the food chain.  The poachers use the poison, usually cyanide, to kill off vultures which may alert rangers to their recent whereabouts away by circling overhead.

This technique is more common in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, where there have been several incidents off mass deaths in recent months.

More poached rhinos found in Namibia

Thirty-four poached rhino carcasses have been discovered so far this year by aerial and foot patrols in the Etosha National Park and Palmwag/Klip River areas of the Kunene Region. Twenty nine  were found in Etosha National Park and five at Palmwag/Klip River.

Almost 100 elephants killed in Zimbabwe in 2015

Close to 100 elephants were killed the country last year, with poachers increasingly turning to the use of chemicals such as cyanide to kill them.

There is a worrying trend where locals are increasingly being involved in poaching activities.

The parks agency, which recently received anti-poaching equipment from China, was upping its anti-
poaching activities and had over the last five years detected close to 8,000 incursions and accounted
for 175 poachers, 145 of whom were locals.

More arrests over shot down British helicopter pilot in Tanzania

At least five suspects have so far been arrested in connection with last weekend's incident in which a
British pilot Roger Gower (37) was killed. Mr Gower, 37, who was working for the Friedkin Conservation Fund, had been tracking elephant poachers.

Poachers armed with an assault rifle gunned down his helicopter which was patrolling the Maswa Game Reserve in Simiyu region on January 29th.

Roger Gower came to Tanzania about seven years ago and was piloting the helicopter on a mission to track poachers who had reportedly killed three large elephants.

Gower, 37, and a safari guide, Nicky Bester, were flying low to the ground. A bullet is understood to have passed through the floor of the helicopter, hitting Gower first in the leg then in the shoulder before exiting through the roof. He managed to land the helicopter before he died and his companion jumped free and hid from the poachers.

A source revealed that antipoaching operations have been intensified nationwide since the slaying of the British helicopter pilot, netting eight suspects and 21 rifles within the Selous Game Reserve in Mahenge District as well as the five locally.

The Friedkin Conservation Fund was quoted saying that among suspects arrested are members of a network providing illegal weapons and smuggling ivory.

Black rhino poached in the Maasai Mara

A black rhino has been found killed in the Maasai Mara National Reserve, near the Tanzania border.
It was thought to have been killed on Friday and was minus its horns.

In 2015, 11 rhinos were poached, according to figures from KWS, which says there are about 1,030 of them (black and white) remaining in the country.

According to the Mara Conservancy, there are about 30 black rhinos in the Maasai Mara today, down from around 120 in the early 1970s

A joint investigation is being carried out be KWS and their Tanzanian counterparts.

Kenya ivory detection dogs make four busts in one week

Ivory detection dogs at Kenya's Jomo kenyatta International Airport have made four ivory busts in one week. In each case the ivory was in the luggage of passengers travelling to China. At least two of those arrested were transiting from Ghana and Mozambique, so the ivory could have come from much further afield.

Most of the ivory had already been worked into necklaces, bangles and various other trinkets. This is an increasingly common occurrence, given the number of Chinese now working in Africa.

The dogs and their handlers graduated from the AWF Conservation Canine program in July, after two months intensive training. Other teams from Tanzania have been similarly trained and deployed to Julius Nyerere Airport and the Port of Dar es Salaam.

Kenyan Teams have been deployed to Nairobi and Mombasa airports.

We need more dogs as they can make such a huge contribution to the fight against poaching.