Get to the root of poaching upsurge

Poaching is on the rise in national parks, reserves and conservancies. With the killing of an elephant at Ngutuni, near the Nairobi-Mombasa highway, at the weekend, confirmed poisonings of the animals in the last week alone hit half a dozen. The previous week, five elephant carcasses were found in the Shaba National Reserve near the Joy Adamson campsite.

Wildlife officials say close to 100 have died in the past year.

The head of species management at Kenya Wildlife Service, which runs national parks, says elephant poaching "more than doubled last year, even in parks that never experienced poaching during the international ban period". And despite robust efforts to stamp out the carnage, it continues largely unabated.

Last month, one poacher was killed and others injured in Laikipia when caught having killed a rhinocerous. But with ten incidents reported in the district in the last five months, commercial poachers, it appears, are getting away with their crimes.

Coming at a time when KWS data suggests a drastic drop in the population of the ‘Big Five’ — elephants, lions, buffaloes, rhinos and leopards — this upsurge in poaching is cause for concern. The importance of such wildlife to the Sh70-billion-a-year tourism industry can barely be exaggerated. Thus the threats they face, from poaching to extermination by pastoralists and farmers, must be quickly addressed by KWS and others.

The ivory removed from elephant carcasses is almost certainly smuggled out of the country and sold on the black market. Conservationists interviewed by Voice of America say the trend reflects the United Nation’s approval, under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, of a "one-time ivory sale" late last year, and growing demand in China. Thus, the battlefield is not merely the vast, poorly-patrolled parks and reserves but also at our ports of entry.

There simply aren’t enough armed KWS rangers to effectively patrol all wildlife areas. The introduction of game scouts partly helps address this problem, but given the limited resources KWS has to work with, the country is better advised to make it difficult to ship ivory and other game trophies out of the country.

While, for practical reasons, it is necessary to pay the greatest attention to commercial poaching and extermination of species (such as Furadan poisoning of lions) we must also keep an eye on the growing problem of subsistence poaching.

This, as the case involving the killing of Robert Njoya at Soysambu in 2007 showed, is considered more of ‘sport’ than crime. As the species involved are more plentiful, it is presumed their killing does less damage. But with environmentalists claiming that more than a million wild animals are snared annually for their meat, it is clear this has a huge impact on wildlife ecosystems.

Protection of local wildlife

There have been suggestions the upsurge in poaching in recent years, after a lull attributed to the adherence to international treaties, is fuelled by foreigners in the country on road construction contracts. Some wildlife officials say herdsmen, trespassing in game reserves, are behind the killings. Whatever the reason, it is imperative that we get to the root of the upsurge in poaching.

As for the protection of local wildlife, it is neither prudent nor practical to leave it entirely to international treaties like CITES. In successive years of debate over what Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe — which have large, stable populations of elephants — would do with growing ivory stockpiles, it must have been clear the day would come when the trading ban would be temporarily lifted.

We should have used the two decades of protection to build up our capacity to protect our animals. This, along with continued opposition to any sort of market for ivory, will discourage poaching.

The proliferation of weapons from lawless neighbouring countries presents a challenge, but it is in our best interests, considering how vital tourism is to economic growth, to invest more in the protection of our wildlife.

 

 

Read all about: Kenya Wildlife Service Shaba National Reserve

 

 

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