Elephants still in grave danger

DAILY NEWS Reporter in Dodoma

A COMMITTEE of ten parliamentarians has joined a group of Tanzanians campaigning for government actions for the protection of elephants.

The group, known as Okoa Tembo wa Tanzania convened MPs here to strategise on how best the country’s elephants can be protected.

Similarly, Tanzania has been challenged to publicly destroy its entire stockpile of elephant ivory as part of initiatives to end the illegal global trade and rescue the giant wild animals from imminent danger.

Stakeholders are concerned that the government spends up to USD 75,000 every year to preserve the ivory stockpile which is currently estimated at 120 tons.

At a news conference on Wednesday, the coordinator of a campaign dubbed ‘Okoa Tembo wa Tanzania, Shubert Mwarabu said that keeping the ivory would likely encourage and fuel the illegal ivory trade. He said the funds could instead be channeled to improve other services in the tourism sector.

“We want the government to arrest and prosecute major ivory traders in our country regardless of their prominence.

The government should use its existing bilateral friendship with China to convince China to end its domestic ivory trade," said Mr Mwarabu. According to Mr Mwarabu the campaign also pushes for the government to arrest and arraign the kingpins in ivory trade.

He noted that illegal ivory trade has contributed to the decrease of elephants in Africa and Tanzania in particular.

Statistics show that 144,000 elephants were killed in 18 African countries in between 2007 and 2014, a decrease of nearly 30 per cent. He said that in 1999, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe were allowed by Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to sell their ivory to China, Hong Kong and Japan.

He said such selling of ivory which was repeated in 2008, fuelled poaching in many countries including Tanzania in 2011.

Another member, Ms Jenifer Mboya who is a member of the campaign team applauded the government’s efforts in the fight against poaching, urging for the arrest and arraignment of poachers.

She said reports show that 8,030 suspects were arrested in between 2014 and 2015 and 2, 0179 suspects in 2015/2016.

The recent elephant census conducted by the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) indicate a huge decrease of elephants where in 1979 there were 316,300 elephants, but the number dropped to 50,443 in 2015.

In March 2016, the Minister of Natural Resource and Tourism, Professor Jumanne Maghembe, insisted that Tanzania would not destroy its ivory stockpile.

The Minister maintained that selling the stockpile would put elephants in more danger. He said bound by CITES, Tanzania cannot currently sell its ivory stockpile, nor can it ever sell poached ivory.

Another member Mr Imani Zahoro, called upon the government to request other countries like Korea and Taiwan to close their ivory markets.

Mr Zahoro maintained that in the year 2015 China and Hong Kong, and United States of America (USA) which are among the world's largest ivory markets announced to close their domestic ivory trade in favour of the elephants.