By Zephania UbwaniThe Citizen Bureau ChiefArusha. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has urged Tanzania and other African countries to act urgently against increased poaching of endangered animals for their trophies.

The call is being made amid revelations that elephant poaching in Tanzania is high compared to other countries in the world. On Friday, the chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Land, Natural Resources and Environment, Mr James Lembeli, warned that the vice is being entrenched in Tanzania where between 20 and 30 elephants are at risk of being killed daily. He told a meeting of the committee with officials of the Tanzania National Parks Authority (Tanapa) that corruption has been the major setback in fighting the malpractice, and elephant poaching has continued unabated.

Meanwhile, the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) reported in 2010 that nearly 50 per cent of illegal ivory traded globally originated from Tanzania.Speaking at the launch of the Africa Ecological Footprint Report by the WWF in collaboration with the African Development Bank (AfDB) on Friday, the WWF director general, Mr  Jim Leape, said the great demand for  ivory and rhino horns in Asia was a matter of serious concern.

He urged governments to protect the fragile ecosystem in the continent which was under pressure from increasing human activities.Mr Leape said in Arusha that rhinos were the most threatened animal species in Africa because of poaching and the illegal wildlife trade.

“Elephant populations in Central Africa alone are estimated to have declined by more than 50 per cent between 1995 and 2007 primarily due to poaching,” he said. He was speaking to reporters at the end of the five-day annual meetings organised by Africa’s premier bank. Conservationists estimate that Tanzania has between 110,000 and 140,000 elephants, making it one of the largest sanctuaries in Africa.

A total of 448 rhinos were killed for their horns in South Africa last year. About 150 others were killed in the first three months of this year, an increase of 3,000 per cent between 2007 and 2011.

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By KATY DAIGLE

NEW DELHI

A state in western India has declared war on animal poaching by allowing forest guards to shoot hunters on sight in an effort to curb rampant attacks on tigers and other wildlife.

The government in Maharashtra says injuring or killing suspected poachers will no longer be considered a crime.

Forest guards should not be “booked for human rights violations when they have taken action against poachers,” Maharashtra Forest Minister Patangrao Kadam said Tuesday. The state also will send more rangers and jeeps into the forest, and will offer secret payments to informers who give tips about poachers and animal smugglers, he said.

No tiger poachers have ever been shot in Maharashtra, though cases of illegal loggers and fishermen being shot have led to charges against forest guards, according to the state’s chief wildlife warden, S.W.H. Naqvi.

But the threat could act as a significant deterrent to wildlife criminals, conservationists said. A similar measure allowing guards to fire on poachers in Assam has helped the northeast state’s population of endangered one-horned rhinos recover.

“These poachers have lost all fear. They just go in and poach what they want because they know the risks are low,” said Divyabhanusinh Chavda, who heads the World Wildlife Fund in India and is a key member of the National Wildlife Board, which advises the prime minister. In many of India’s reserves, guards are armed with little more than sticks.

India faces intense international scrutiny over its tiger conservation, as it holds half of the world’s estimated 3,200 tigers in dozens of wildlife reserves set up since the 1970s, when hunting was banned.

Illegal poaching remains a stubborn and serious threat, with tiger parts in particular fetching high prices on the black market because of demand driven by traditional Chinese medicine practitioners.

According to the Wildlife Protection Society of India, 14 tigers have been killed by poachers in India so far this year — one more than in all of 2011. The tiger is considered endangered, with its habitat shrinking more than 50 percent in the last quarter-century while its numbers declined from an estimated 5,000-7,000 in the 1990s, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Eight of this year’s tiger poaching deaths in India occurred in Maharashtra, including one whose body was found last week chopped into pieces with its head and paws missing in Tadoba Tiger Reserve. Forest officials have also found traps in the reserve, where about 40 tigers live.

Naqvi said encounters between Maharashtra’s forest guards and poachers were rare because poachers generally hunt the nocturnal big cats at night. He said the state’s offer to pay informers from a new fund worth about 5 million rupees ($ 90,000) would likely be more effective. “We get very few tips, so this will really help,” he said.

But conservationists said the fact that poachers are rarely seen has more to do with low ranger numbers, and that increasing patrols around the clock would help.

Dozens of other animals are also targeted by hunters across India, including one-horned rhinos and male elephants prized for their tusks, and other big cats like leopards hunted or poisoned by villagers afraid of attacks on their homes or livestock.

A recent study on hunting in India noted 114 species of mammals were being actively hunted across the country, with dozens of birds and reptiles also under attack.

“There has been an onslaught going on in India,” said William Laurance, a conservation biologist at James Cook University in Australia and one of the three authors of the study, which was published in Biological Conservation journal in April. “It’s a serious threat to wildlife, along with habitat encroachment and forest degradation. A lot of species are clinging to survival in remote areas.”

It’s unclear whether Maharashtra’s example in targeting poachers will be followed by other states, though tiger poaching has also been a major problem in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in recent years. The hunting of male elephants for their tusks has skewed the sex ratio, and there are now about 100 female elephants for every male in the south.

According to the April study, some of the most rampant hunting is occurring in the eastern Himalayas, where high numbers of army troops are deployed and some hunt for sport, and in the northeast near the porous border with China and Myanmar, where hunting is a way of life and sometimes an economic necessity for tribal communities.

“The remarkable thing in India is that there is still anything alive at all with 1.2 billion people,” Laurance said. “As populations grow, an increase in hunting pressure is a classic thing that happens.”

——

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Satnews Daily May 21, 2012

NASA Looks Down Reveals Increase In Elephant Poaching

[SatNews] Unbelieveable to see such carnage…

The Kenya Wildlife Service has failed to contain elephant poaching in Kenya and it has now reached alarming levels, according to research by KWS scientists and their American counterparts using satellite images.

The peer-reviewed research in the reputable Australia-based Wildlife Research journal on April 12 employed sophisticated techniques to accurately identify hotspots of elephant poaching. It used KWS records, Japanese government data as well as satellite images from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “Recent reports from Kenya indicate continuous year-to-year increase in the proportion of illegally killed elephants since 2003,” the report says.

According to the report, elephant poaching escalated between 1999 and 2002 but drastically reduced in 2003 only to rise sharply thereafter. “At the beginning of 2004, poaching levels rose sharply and eased only slightly in 2007 before rising sharply (again) in 2008 and 2009 to levels not seen in the 1990 to 1998 period.” Only 32 elephants were reported poached in the Tsavo Conservation Area between 1990 and 1998 but that the number rose by more than 700 percent to 236 elephants between 1999 and 2009.

The article Spatio-temporal Patterns of Elephant Poaching in South-eastern Kenya reported research was carried out by scientists from KWS and Miami University about poaching activities between 1990 and 2009.

The researchers found out that though KWS rangers appear well armed and trained, their anti-poaching operations are ineffective and their presence is not an effective deterrent to poachers. They say that poachers operate even in areas near KWS ranger bases and outposts. “When distances to ranger bases and outposts were analysed, there was a strong negative correlation between poaching (incidents) and distance to patrol bases and outposts,” the report said. This means that poaching is often close to KWS posts.

The researchers said that poachers usually target remote areas that are infrequently patrolled by park rangers in other African countries such as Zambia. They conclude that this may suggest that “there is collusion between anti-poaching units and poachers.”

The report accuses local people living at the edges of the Tsavo Conservation Area of collaborating with foreign poachers. “Most of the poachers apprehended originated from a neighboring country (i.e. Somalia). Among those arrested were local people serving as guides and porters to the foreign poachers.” They say Somalia is the source of the illegal weapons used in poaching particularly along the Galana river near the Tana River District.

The 23,000 sq km of Tsavo Conservation Area includes Chyulu Hills, Tsavo East and Tsavo West national parks as well as South Kitui and Ngai Ndeithya national reserves. The semi-arid area has inadequate rainfall with the Galana river and its tributaries, the Athi and Tsavo rivers, being the main sources of water. Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks account for 53.7 percent and 44.8 percent respectively of all the elephants killed in Kenya by poachers. Poachers kill more elephants during the dry seasons and ambush them where there both good roads and water.

The report appears to vindicate claims made by Dr Richard Leakey and others that there has been a huge jump in killing of rhinos and elephants recently. Kahindi Lekalhaile, Chief Executive of Ecotourism Kenya, was arrested by police in April after the KWS protested over his allegation that 2,000 elephants a year are being killed in Kenya. He was later released without charge. The highly detailed report highlighted how and when the elephants were killed in national parks and reserves.

The report said elephant poaching has escalated because “the local people no longer collaborate with KWS,” partly because local people are switching from pastoralism to irrigated agriculture, and partly because of lack of compensation by KWS. Financial problems may also prevent KWS from properly supporting its ranger patrol units and outposts.

KWS has reportedly also reduced its support for clean water, health facilities and education bursaries around parks. “This support for community conservation programs has been scaled down in recent years because of budgetary constraints,” states the article. The researchers said that poachers operate in woodlands and avoid open grasslands. Such information could help KWS rangers to decide where to concentrate their anti-poaching activities especially if they used hand-held GPS gadgets “rather than approximation of poaching sites from topographic maps.”

Source: allAfrica

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NAGPUR: Even as reactions condemning poaching of tigers in Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve ( TATR) landscape are pouring in, NGOs and conservationists have been coming up with several suggestions and ideas to handle the situation.

Dilip Gode, secretary of the Vidarbha Nature Conservation Society ( VNCS), said there are some good examples of community forest management where wildlife protection has been given top priority. “It is again time to initiate an action of participatory wildlife management in select areas by building public trust,” he said.

“The Borda episode (tiger chopped into 10 pieces) is a conspiracy cooked by a gang very systematically operating in the area since long. Everybody knew that its leaders stay at some places in Madhya Pradesh. Yet, we unable to control the poaching incidents,” says Gode.

He felt it’s futile to set up task forces. “What has happened to earlier such investigations and task forces. Have their recommendations been implemented,” asked Gode.

Gode demanded that responsibility be fixed and stern action against those forest officials neglecting their duties. “Investigate the matter by constituting a committee under a retired high court judge with officials from revenue, police, forest and representatives of credible NGOs,” said Gode.

As a state wildlife board (SWB) member, Gode had raised the issue of wildlife management in non-PAs. The government had set up a committee to find problems and prepare implementable management plan but the panel failed to function due to apathy of a top officer of the department who headed the committee.

Another tiger escapes trap

A tiger escaped a nylon wire trap, set for herbivores, on Monday in Pipardol forest under the Pandharkawda forest division in Yavatmal district. Forest officials told TOI that the incident came to light around 6.30pm. Even as a rescue team was getting ready to leave Nagpur, the tiger managed to extricate itself from the net. The forest officials have launched a hunt for local poachers. The spot is 20km by road from Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary.

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The Kenya Wildlife Service has failed to contain elephant poaching in Kenya and it has now reached alarming levels, according to research by KWS scientists and their American counterparts using satellite images.

The peer-reviewed research in the reputable Australia-based Wildlife Research journal on April 12 employed sophisticated techniques to accurately identify hotspots of elephant poaching. It used KWS records, Japanese government data as well as satellite images from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “Recent reports from Kenya indicate continuous year-to-year increase in the proportion of illegally killed elephants since 2003,” the report says.

According to the report, elephant poaching escalated between 1999 and 2002 but drastically reduced in 2003 only to rise sharply thereafter. “At the beginning of 2004, poaching levels rose sharply and eased only slightly in 2007 before rising sharply (again) in 2008 and 2009 to levels not seen in the 1990 to 1998 period.” Only 32 elephants were reported poached in the Tsavo Conservation Area between 1990 and 1998 but that the number rose by more than 700 percent to 236 elephants between 1999 and 2009.

The article Spatio-temporal Patterns of Elephant Poaching in South-eastern Kenya reported research was carried out by scientists from KWS and Miami University about poaching activities between 1990 and 2009.

The researchers found out that though KWS rangers appear well armed and trained, their anti-poaching operations are ineffective and their presence is not an effective deterrent to poachers. They say that poachers operate even in areas near KWS ranger bases and outposts. “When distances to ranger bases and outposts were analysed, there was a strong negative correlation between poaching (incidents) and distance to patrol bases and outposts,” the report said. This means that poaching is often close to KWS posts.

The researchers said that poachers usually target remote areas that are infrequently patrolled by park rangers in other African countries such as Zambia. They conclude that this may suggest that “there is collusion between anti-poaching units and poachers.”

The report accuses local people living at the edges of the Tsavo Conservation Area of collaborating with foreign poachers. “Most of the poachers apprehended originated from a neighbouring country (i.e. Somalia). Among those arrested were local people serving as guides and porters to the foreign poachers.” They say Somalia is the source of the illegal weapons used in poaching particularly along the Galana river near the Tana River District.

The 23,000 sq km of Tsavo Conservation Area includes Chyulu Hills, Tsavo East and Tsavo West national parks as well as South Kitui and Ngai Ndeithya national reserves. The semi-arid area has inadequate rainfall with the Galana river and its tributaries, the Athi and Tsavo rivers, being the main sources of water. Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks account for 53.7 percent and 44.8 percent respectively of all the elephants killed in Kenya by poachers. Poachers kill more elephants during the dry seasons and ambush them where there both good roads and water.

The report appears to vindicate claims made by Dr Richard Leakey and others that there has been a huge jump in killing of rhinos and elephants recently. Kahindi Lekalhaile, Chief Executive of Ecotourism Kenya, was arrested by police in April after the KWS protested over his allegation that 2,000 elephants a year are being killed in Kenya. He was later released without charge. The highly detailed report highlighted how and when the elephants were killed in national parks and reserves.

The report said elephant poaching has escalated because “the local people no longer collaborate with KWS,” partly because local people are switching from pastoralism to irrigated agriculture, and partly because of lack of compensation by KWS. Financial problems may also prevent KWS from properly supporting its ranger patrol units and outposts.

KWS has reportedly also reduced its support for clean water, health facilities and education bursaries around parks. “This support for community conservation programs has been scaled down in recent years because of budgetary constraints,” states the article. The researchers said that poachers operate in woodlands and avoid open grasslands. Such information could help KWS rangers to decide where to concentrate their anti-poaching activities especially if they used hand-held GPS gadgets “rather than approximation of poaching sites from topographic maps.”

Copyright © 2012 The Star. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

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A Malaysian government plan to double its population of endangered Malayan tigers to 1,000 through tighter protection is under threat due to persistent poaching, a conservation group warned Tuesday.

Illegal hunting, fuelled by continued demand for tiger parts remains a serious threat to the animal and other endangered wildlife, MYCAT Tracks, an alliance of conservation groups, said in a report.

The Malayan tiger is a subspecies of the great cat and is found in central and southern parts of the Malayan peninsula.

In 2009, the government announced a plan to double the wild Malayan tiger population — now estimated at just 500 — by the year 2020.

Conservationists say factors behind the fall in numbers include poaching, declines in prey such as deer and wild boars, and habitat loss due to agricultural development.

But protective measures, among them a ban on deer hunting aimed at preserving tiger food sources, are being cancelled out by continued poaching, MYCAT Tracks said.

“This is evidenced by the discovery of many poaching signs and close to a thousand snares in (key tiger habitat areas) between 2010 and 2011 as well as the arrest of several poachers,” it said.

WWF-Malaysia has previously said demand for wildlife parts to be used in traditional Chinese medicine posed a grave threat to tigers and a range of other species.

There were an estimated 3,000 tigers in Malaysia as recently as the 1950s but numbers have steadily declined since.

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Minh Nguyen, 38, is charging ahead with a goal of helping save the rhino from extinction by collecting contributions and donating 100 percent of his own income this month to various campaigns supporting the cause.

“If we can shoot for $ 10,000 to $ 15,000 this month, I think I would hit my goal,” the San Jose resident and co-owner of Fitness for 10 in Milpitas, said.

Nguyen expects to receive approximately $ 5,000 alone from a monthly boot camp he is running with other funding coming from his personal training and nutritional counseling in various places including Cahill’s Judo Academy in San Bruno, where he teaches Saturdays.

Nguyen also has posters (made by brother-in-law Linh Diep) up at Calhill in addition to Fitness for 10, Los Gatos Health & Fitness, and Neil Dahl Jewelers of California’s Milpitas and Palo Alto locations, where they will be for at least two months.

Nguyen said he was inspired to raise awareness and funds in the cause to stop rhino poaching after watching a television news report by Brian Williams.

According to the February story, South Africans brought the white rhino back from the brink of extinction with only 50 left in the world to nearly 20,0000 today through conservation work.

Although data on the global rhino horn trade is scarce, a recent spike in Africa has soared in the past two years.

Last year, poachers killed more than 400 rhinos versus a decade ago when about a dozen rhinos were poached each year, according to electronic

campaign stoprhinopoaching.com.

By April 30, a total of 199 rhinos had been killed for the illegal trade in rhino horn.

The traditional medicine systems of Asia have long promoted rhino horn as a way to cure a variety of illnesses such as nosebleeds, strokes, convulsions and fevers, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

But an urban myth has recently emerged in Vietnam where ground rhino horn, which shares the same protein found in human fingernails, is believed to have magical healing properties that can cure cancer.

Medical studies have shown there are no healing properties.

“When they were talking about the rhino’s horn and where it was going to, a lot of it went to China and Vietnam,” Nguyen said. “And I’m Vietnamese so when I saw that, I was ashamed and sad.”

He has been an animal activist for years, donating a combined $ 100 monthly to WWF, World Society for the Protection of Animals and American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals the last eight years.

So Nguyen made an announcement to family and close friends during his birthday gathering Feb. 28, announcing his plans to rally for the cause in May.

“This month is like Earth month for me,” he said. “…I can’t save the world but I want to do whatever I can this month to help out.”

His raised donations will benefit WWF, WSPCA, International Rhino Foundation, African Wildlife Foundation and Stop Rhino Poaching.

Nguyen said he has made slight lifestyle changes, including cutting back on Starbucks and Jamba Juice, dining out with wife Christine and buying toys for his 3-year-old son Mason and 5-year-old daughter Taylor.

“I’m very fortunate financially because I’ve been working hard for the last few years,” Nguyen said.

Christine Nguyen said she didn’t know Minh was planning to take such a drastic stand.

“I was shocked at the announcement because I didn’t know he had taken it so personally, but then after reading the facts about it, it did make sense,” she said. “…It’s our nationality that’s depleting it.”

Minh Nguyen said he is fortunate for the support, from his wife and others.

“I feel very special and blessed because I try my best to do all the right things in life and my friends and family know that by them supporting me,” he said.

Friend John Murphy is participating in the boot camp as a way to show support.

“Knowing Minh for half of my life, he’s a man full of integrity,” he said. “…So over the course of 20 years I’ve watched him, whatever it is he puts his mind to, he is the consummate overachiever.”

Joe Gigantino, founder and chief executive officer of Fitness for 10, said he was happy to help display Nguyen’s efforts at two of his businesses.

“Minh’s always been compassionate about animals and rights so it wasn’t surprising,” Gigantino said. “It’s right up his ally. To be able to level his passion with business is a unique way to raise money.”

Neil Lamba, Minh’s long-time friend and owner of Neil Dahl Jewelers of California’s Milpitas and Palo Alto locations, talks with customers about the cause in addition to displaying posters at his business.

“So many things over time have started with an individual’s thought, persistence and dedication to it,” Lamba said. “I’m not saying we can drop everything and go to the jungles and save the rhino, but if you can get enough exposure where enough attention can be given to that region of the world … it can make a difference.

Minh Nguyen asks for the public to help further his efforts. He is holding a car wash 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, May 27 at Fitness for 10, located at 1000 Jacklin Road. Volunteers are sought. All funds raised during the car wash will benefit the cause.

For more information, call 891-3531 or e-mail minh@workout.com. To make a donation to the efforts, visit causes.com/causes/668016-minh-nguyen-wwf-donation.

This article will appear in the May 25 issue of the Milpitas Post.

Contact Shannon Barry at sbarry@themilpitaspost.com or 408-262-2454. Visit us on our social media sites at facebook.com/milpitas post and twitter.com/milpitaspost.

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[unable to retrieve full-text content] Telegraph.co.uk South Africa Seizes Assets Of Alleged Rhino PoachersRTT NewsVishnu Naido said in a statement on Wednesday that the seized assets are believed " "to have been acquired through criminal activities, particularly rhino poaching." He added that it was "one of the biggest wildlife cases in South Africa.R55 million assets seized from poachersSouth African Police Service

South African police seize $ 7 million in assets from suspected rhino poachersGlobalPostDemand for Rhino horns surges undoing decades of conservation effortsTelegraph.co.ukMother Nature Network -East Coast Radio -BBC Newsall 174 news articles »

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BHUBANESWAR: The Wildlife Wing on Thursday suspended the range officer of Nuwana South under the Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) in connection with the alleged mass poaching of elephants. Chief Wildlife Warden Janardan Dibakar Sharma, who had proceeded to STR to personally inquire into the incident on Monday, said the suspension order had been served on the officer for dereliction of duty.

After three deaths were reported from the Nuwana South Range, Sharma found instance of a fourth death during his inspection.

Barring one, in the rest cases, the Forest officials had found burnt remains buried in different places prompting them to seek DNA investigation. The skeletal remains will be sent to Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, for DNA testing, Sharma said.

Since the Wildlife Wing is still in dark about how the ‘poaching’ occurred, the DNA test is expected to throw light on what� the species were, their age and other genetic details.

However, what has put the Wildlife Wing in a spot is how the poaching went unnoticed. Given the state of decomposed remains, most of the deaths, prima facie, appeared to have taken place a month back or maybe, even much before.

While the Wildlife Wing is still unsure if the skeletal remains belonged to elephants, the way the animals were disposed of has raised question marks.

“Burning and disposing of a 3.5-tonne elephant __ three of them __ are no mean task. And burying them is even more tougher. If the animals were elephants, such incidents should not have escaped the notice of the field officials,” Sharma said.

However, a problem with the DNA testing could be the length of time the examination takes in the Dehradun-based institute. In 2010, a series of deaths were reported in STR and the Wildlife Wing sent samples for examination to WII but the reports are yet to be received. The Wildlife Wing has an alternative in Hyderabad-based Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) for conducting the DNA tests.

DOG SQUAD: Meanwhile, the Wildlife Wing is also planning to raise a dog squad to strengthen the wildlife crime investigation in the State. Taking its cue from Jharkhand, where the Forest Department has got its own kennel squad, the State now wants one for it.

“The State Police have one but they cannot spare the dogs. Besides, we have to train the canines in wildlife crime detection matters too. We will soon have one of our own,” Sharma said.

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Days after a man was arrested with 67kg of hippo teeth and elephant husks, police in Kasese, in collaboration with park rangers, arrested five notorious armed poachers in Queen Elizabeth national park.

This was after they shot down two hippos at a place called Rwemihunda near Kazinga channel, about 14km inside the park. According to a Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) official who talked to The Observer on condition of anonymity, the operational rangers were prompted by the gun shots. According to the district deputy CID, Andrew Salube, a group of 17 armed poachers entered the park on the night of May 2. But their operation was cut short when the gunshots that killed two hippos tipped off park authorities who called in police for assistance.

“We got the suspects as they were heading to the Democratic Republic of Congo were they sell their game meat,” Salube said.

The poachers were intercepted with their two vehicles at Kinyamaseke trading centre as they made their way into Congo. The suspects were identified as Charles Bwambale, Peregerino Bwambale aka Pere, Mbusa Musisi, Lawrence Thembo aka Elephant and Deo Kyenge, all described as notorious poachers. While being interrogated at Kasese police, the poachers revealed that they entered the park in a group of 17 people but seven remained in the park while five escaped.

“We entered the park in a group of 17, but some of our colleagues escaped after sensing danger,” said Kyenge.

The suspects further confessed before police that it’s their group that has been killing animals in the park. When asked to produce the guns they used in the exercise, they said some of the guns were abandoned in the park. Salube noted that live ammunition was recovered on the scene and carcasses of animals observed. Inside the car they were travelling in, only two hooves and ribs of a hippo were recovered. The poachers are to be charged with counts of illegal entry in a protected area, unlawful killing of a wild species and poaching.

Due to increased poaching, Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo recently decided to embark on joint patrols following the death of a gorilla between Visoke and Sabyinyo volcanoes, an area that has been frequented by poachers in recent times. The joint patrols coordinated by the Greater Virunga Trans-boundary Collaboration (GVTC) saved gorillas of 49 snares put up by poachers to trap the endangered species. Most of the snares, according to a report released by GVTC, were found out to have been set up recently.

The renewed coordinated law enforcement efforts began mid-March and will continue for a period of six months, with the two parks sharing intelligence about the presence of illegal activity, which threaten the conservation of the park and its fauna and flora in this area. During the patrols, the rangers destroyed eight buffalo and hippo snares and five elephant snares. However, Uganda’s laws remain weak especially when it comes to such crimes like poaching. Usually, the punishment ranges from Shs 1m fine to two years in jail.

Copyright © 2012 The Observer. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

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