A pro-wildlife charity has commended
Kenya for its anti-poaching war saying the gains made could be more if
state officials known to condone transportation of illegally harvested
ivory through its ports are exposed.
In its report titled 'Out of Africa; Mapping the Global Trade in Illicit Elephant Ivory,' Born
Free USA hails the new punitive laws that have seen game trophy trade
and all game related offences being treated as economic sabotage crimes.
However, the report notes that “corruption has ensured only the small fish are nabbed and not the kingpins.”
The
report has been prepared by The Center for Advanced Defense Studies’
data analysts Varun Vira, Thomas Ewing, and Jackson Miller.
Recently,
a Kenyan human rights group claimed that 18 poachers have been killed
in the past three years by Kenya Wildlife Service rangers in an effort
to cover up their own collusion in elephant poaching and hence
perpetrating the ivory trade within the expansive Tsavo National Park.
The
revelation is contained in a report set for release this week which was
widely reported by the Associated Press and an array of news websites
across the world.
PROTECT ANIMAL HABITAT
The
anti-poaching war also enjoyed a commitment by private wildlife
sanctuary owners who teamed up with local communities living in wildlife
rich areas to share tourism wealth thereby ensuring wild animals and
their habitats are protected.
This has resulted to locals getting better incomes and also the implementation of community projects by hospitality firms.
The
Born Free USA report says that addressing poverty among communities
leaving in elephant rich areas could greatly curb poaching thereby
giving elephants a new lease of life.
It adds that
helping Somalia get out of lawlessness could help reduce the threat of
poaching of wildlife along its borders with elephant rich conservancies
in neighbouring countries like Kenya.
Somalia is blamed
for being the source of poaching gangs, especially those linked to
Al-Shabaab rebel group that provides poachers in Kenya with firearms and
cash.
VIOLENT POACHERS
The
report prepared by the non-profit group, C4ADS on behalf of Born Free
USA warns that poaching in Kenya is steadily increasing, and that Kenyan
poachers are particularly notable for their high levels of violence
when confronted by wildlife rangers.
“Kenya’s largest
port of Mombasa is currently the continent’s single most active ivory
trafficking hub, servicing much of Central and East African with 2,828
kilogrammes of ivory being nabbed in 2014.
It however observes that the newly enacted The Wildlife (Conservation and Management) Act has acted as a major deterrence to ivory trafficking.
It however observes that the newly enacted The Wildlife (Conservation and Management) Act has acted as a major deterrence to ivory trafficking.
The
illegally harvested ivory is mainly sourced from the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC), Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), South Sudan
as well as in Kenya, says the report.
The report
recommends the scaling off transit routes to curb illegal ivory trade an
all-out war be waged by all stakeholders including governments,
conservationists and citizens with one message – that wildlife is a
national resource.
MILITARISED TRADE
“We
found an industrial level of slaughter in a highly militarised trade
that is funding a wide range of destabilising actors across Africa.
“East
Africa has clearly eclipsed West and Southern Africa as the primary
gateway,” it says adding that the continent’s most active ivory export
hub is Kenya’s Mombasa port.
The pro-charity lobby
recommends that true beneficiaries who consign cargoes, bankroll
transactions and ultimately reap the financial rewards of ivory trade be
pinned down through intensive investigations of key networks and
entities, facilitated by sharing of historical and current data between
state and non-state actors.
“Poachers
and their mastermind networks together with other forms of illicit
trafficking (including the trade in drugs, weapons and minerals) and all
financial activities must be identified along the supply chain with
enforcement agencies given ultimate instructions to act decisively.
“This is the only way of wiping out the kingpins who both facilitate and service multiple syndicates,” the report says.
TRADERS SHUN JKIA
The
four month probe notes that stringent measures have seen ivory
traffickers shun Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA)
but emerging proof shows Mombasa’s Kilindini port is a major transit
point where kingpins collude with dubious clearing and forwarding firms
registered locally and abroad.
The analysts believe
that wildlife trade must be treated as international crime since it
destabilises states through proliferation of illegal firearms found to
have been used in fuelling inter-ethnic crimes while at the same time
being used to kill elephants.
“It also amounts to a
massive illicit financial transfer out of the poorest communities in
Africa towards some of the most destabilising and destructive actors on
the planet, including internationally organised crime syndicates,
warlords, corrupt politicians and even extremists, insurgents, and
terrorists.
“There is little doubt that the illicit
ivory trade is no longer just a conservation issue, but has evolved from
an opportunistic and artisanal trade to a multi-million dollar criminal
enterprise spanning continents,” it says.
Clearing and
forwarding companies at the port must also be scrutinised and punitive
measures enforced on anyone found to have allowed ivory to pass
disguised as timber, avocados, nuts, copper or bananas. Such firms
should be blacklisted.
“This effort is likely to have a
sizable spill-over impact on all forms of illicit trade, given the
networked nature of ivory and wildlife product traffickers.
No comments :
Post a Comment