Tanzania's elephant population to fall to 55,000 next year

Tanzania's elephant population will fall to 55,000 animals by late 2015 due to resurgence of poaching, down from about 142,000 animals in 2005, the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) said in a report issued Thursday (November 6th).

The escalation in poaching was first noted in 2009, the report said, but there are indicators it began up to four years earlier.

"Between 2009-13, there has been a devastating decline," the report said. "The Selous population fell by 66% in just over four years. Based on available evidence, Tanzania has lost more elephants to poaching during this period than any other country. In 2013 alone, it reportedly lost 10,000 elephants, equivalent to 30 a day."

Tanzania's elephants continue to be poached to supply a growing demand in an unregulated illegal ivory market, predominantly in China, the report said.

"Without a zero-tolerance approach, the future of Tanzania's elephants and its tourism industry are precarious," the report said. "The ivory trade must be disrupted at all levels of criminality, the entire prosecution chain needs to be systemically restructured and all stakeholders, including communities exploited by the criminal syndicates and those on the front lines of enforcement, given unequivocal support."

"All trade in ivory should be resolutely banned, especially in China," it said.

The EIA has accused Chinese officials of buying large quantities of ivory during state visits to Tanzania.
Ivory traders told the EIA that the price of ivory doubled, to $700 per kilogramme, during Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2013 visit to Dar es Salaam.

The report said similar sales were recorded during trips by President Hu Jintao, and that Chinese embassy employees had been "major buyers" of ivory since 2006.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei described the report as "groundless" at a regular briefing in Beijing Thursday, adding that China was "strongly dissatisfied" with it.

The bloody Chinks are going to destroy all wildlife in Africa!

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
The bloody Chinks are going to destroy all wildlife in Africa!

You've got to be shitting me..........



Brett

http://blog1.oceans-campus.com...in-elephant-massacre

There are many internet sites where truths are questionable, but with relation to Chinese ivory smuggling there are a lot of articles - they can't all be wrong !!

Unfortunately the African Governments love of the Chinese infiltration is all too clear, and the corruption all too evident.

I absolutely detest the chinese....you meet them all over Africa....they are like locust....only consume and destroy...leaving nothing behind..

quote:

Originally posted by Pondoro:
I absolutely detest the chinese....you meet them all over Africa....they are like locust....only consume and destroy...leaving nothing behind..

Join the club!

Last month in Dar we were standing in line at the immigration desk - I was second - would you believe two bloody Chinese idiots just cut ahead of me!

I said "Oy! there is line you have to stand in!"

One just looked at me and presented his passport ahead of me. I picked it up, and hand it back to him, giving the immigration officer mine!

Both were still standing there as I left!

The airport was full of them!

makes you wonder how long wildlife is going to exist while they are there!

well said Saeed and it doesn't help that the African countries are more than happy to sell out to them!!! The chinks plan of turning it into a food bowl is just around the corner! BASTARDS!!!!

Chinese , When I was in Kyrgyzstan last year Chinese were everywhere. Daily Chinese mining companies visited the main camp. To visit the owners about gold mining leases. Outfitter stated if they start in those areas and they will soon, All the ibex and sheep will be shot out. So it's just not Africa Saeed it's everywhere. The Chinese have the money, And what's the old saying, Whoever has the most money wins....

We can only hope that african leaders finally get the grip about who they are whealing & dealing with, before they destroy Africa completely..

Wishful thinking. Look at Kenya and Uganda (under Idi Amin) for your answer.


Dutch

I am afraid youre right Dutch,,

quote:

The Chinese have the money, And what's the old saying, Whoever has the most money wins....

And it most certainly isn't Yen either!

White rule will look like the 'good 'ol days' when
the yellow man is running the joint. Subjugation on a level never seen will be poured on the poor black brothers who want to run their countries without white interference. The hell headed their way, and the blunt force trauma inflicted on both the under, and ruling class, will be a shock unlike anything they can imagine. There will be no where to turn, no hand to help, and corruption that would make even Mugabe jealous. And when the yellow man gets his hand around the continents neck, there will be no " Freedom Movements" or " lets take our land back" marches. The Chinese will handle those little rally's with the sweet hum of AK 47 music. They are about to reap a yellow whirlwind.

Yes, the Chinese are bound and determined to dominate the world and that is just fine with our arrogant president Obama!

I don't think this is new. In 2002 1/2 of the tables at the Sea Cliff restaurant were occupied by Chinese.

We found poached elephant north of the Ruvu and a camp in MK1. It is a never ending problem.

I do not think they will do worse than we Europeans did, and I do not think the result will ultimately be different. They will try to take what is left, they will spend vast amounts of money, and in the end they will leave. Africa is more often than not, a money pit.

For those of you who have an interest in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and/or the rest of Northeast Africa, I highly recommend the Sabahi website. Here is a link to the site, as well as the text from their "About Us" page.

There are many articles about the political and military situation, as well as excellent coverage of the poaching disaster now taking place.

Sabahionline.com

The Sabahi web site is sponsored by the United States Africa Command, the military command responsible for supporting and enhancing US efforts to promote stability, co-operation and prosperity in the region.

Sabahionline.com features news from across and about the Horn of Africa region and features analysis, interviews and commentary by paid Sabahionline.com correspondents.

The goal of Sabahionline.com is to offer accurate, balanced and forward-looking coverage of developments in the Horn of Africa region. It is designed to provide a regional audience with a portal to a broad range of information about future stability in the region and promote discussion on the wide range of topics affecting the region.

Navaluk:

The difference between "them" and the Europeans was that the Europeans intended to control wildlife populations with intelligence and a goal of sustaining the populations. The black indigenous people did benefit from an orderly society wherein there was employment, slavery was banned, the countries prospered. Of course there were abuses and one fault of the Europeans was in their attitude toward blacks.

However, the Europeans did not pillage and rape the land in an effort to steal and decimate the natural resources so that they could profit at the expense of the population as a whole.

European rule was on a decidedly different level than the Chinese scorched earth policies and to think so is misleading. I would also proffer that European rule of the 19th and early 20th centuries was not comparable to a more inclusive white rule of Rhodesia and South Africa of the mid to later 20th century.

Would Rhodesia or South Africa be a better country today under a continuing white rule, Mugabe or Communist China. Has any African country prospered under black rule? How did Africa prosper under Arab rule a/k/a slavery?

I believe your position is not tenuous in it's comparisons. But then again I could be wrong.


Dutch

For those of you who want to know what other interests the US Military has in Africa, here is a link to US Africa Command's newsroom (Africom).

AFRICOM

Saeed:

We can all agree on the negative influence of the Chinese in Africa.

Your story, however, reminded me of my wife's experience with Chinese shoppers in Paris. It was similar to yours. Pushy, obnoxious, etc. It apparently isn't limited to the African Continent.

When the word "Chinese" is mentioned, a bucketful of maggots immediately comes to mind.

Yes the Chinese are a threat to the environment. But that does not make it Obama's fault! China has been growing as a global power since the 1960s! Neither the US nor the Soviets could stop China's progress.

The West had over 300 years of dominance & was not successful in improving the lot of any of its former colonies unless the indigenous people were displaced - as in the Americas, Australia, NZ etc.

Before the @#$% starts, let me say that the Chines may be the bad guys & the Africans may be incompetent but that does not make the West the good guys.

I posted a thread on the ARPF about old African History that main stream academics do not tell us about. It is based on this article

http://www.siliconafrica.com/terra-nullius/

Very challenging .... science, literature, astronomy ........
_______________

Some excerpts ....

Did you know that in the 14th century the city of Timbuktu in West Africa was five times bigger than the city of London, and was the richest city in the world?

Today, Timbuktu is 236 times smaller than London. It has nothing of a modern city. Its population is two times less than 5 centuries ago, impoverished with beggars and dirty street sellers. The town itself is incapable of conserving its past ruined monuments and archives.

Back to the 14 century, the 3 richest places on earth was China, Iran/Irak, and the Mali empire in West Africa. From all 3 the only one which was still independent and prosperous was the Mali Empire. China and the whole Middle East were conquered by Genghis Kan Mongol troops which ravaged, pillaged, and raped the places.

The richest man ever in the history of Humanity, Mansa Musa, was the emperor of the 14th century Mali Empire which covered modern day Mali, Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea.

At the time of his death in 1331, Mansa Musa was worth the equivalent of 400 billion dollars. At that time Mali Empire was producing more than half the world’s supply of salt and gold.

___________

“Kumasi was the capital of the Asante Kingdom, 10th century-20th century. Drawings of life in Kumasi show homes, often of 2 stories, square buildings with thatched roofs, with family compounds arranged around a courtyard. The Manhyia Palace complex drawn in another sketch was similar to a Norman castle, only more elegant in its architecture.

“These 2 story thatched homes of the Ashanti Kingdom were timber framed and the walls were of lath and plaster construction. A tree always stood in the courtyard which was the central point of a family compound. The Tree of Life was the altar for family offerings to God, Nyame. A brass pan sat in the branches of the tree into which offerings were placed. This was the same in every courtyard of every household, temple and palace. The King`s representatives, officials, worked in open-sided buildings. The purpose being that everyone was welcome to see what they were up to.

“The townhouses of Kumase had upstairs toilets in 1817.This city in the 1800s is documented in drawings and photographs. Promenades and public squares, cosmopolitan lives, exquisite architecture and everywhere spotless and ordered, a wealth of architecture, history, prosperity and extremely modern living” – PD Lawton, AfricanAgenda.net

--------------------

If you really want to see Chinese in action, watch a couple of families hit the rocks on a spring low tide. Every last living animal is put into a bag, and half the accessible plant growth as well. After three hours it looks like a vacuum cleaner was used. Absolutely no thought for tomorrow and abide by the Regulations, what haha?

quote:

China has been growing as a global power since the 1960s! Neither the US nor the Soviets could stop China's progress.

Very true and whose economic progress and of consequence, the amassing of a fortune, has by and large been brought about by greedy Western trade institutions in their varying forms.

quote:

Originally posted by fujotupu:

quote:

China has been growing as a global power since the 1960s! Neither the US nor the Soviets could stop China's progress.

Very true and whose economic progress and of consequence, the amassing of a fortune, has by and large been brought about by greedy Western trade institutions in their varying forms.

Not totaly up to speed with this but from my understanding what you say is correct.

The Chinese IMHO will totaly ruin Africa. There will be bugger all mineral wealth and animals left by the time China has finished with Africa.

Tanzania poaching peaks, fuelled by Chinese ivory appetite

Tanzania has emerged as the world's largest exporter in the illegal ivory trade, largely fuelled by growing appetite for elephant tusks in China, said a report published on Thursday.

The scale of the trade is so widespread that even high-ranking Chinese dignitaries visiting Tanzania are involved in the illegal trade, aided by corrupt local officials, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) said in its report, published on the eve of a wildlife crime summit in Tanzania.

"We should stop talking about it as a sort of wildlife issue and just talk about it as an organised criminal activity in the same way as we talk about human trafficking or drugs trafficking or arms trafficking," Mary Rice, EIA executive director, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.

Despite a 1989 ban on international trade in African ivory, the global illegal trade has grown threefold since 1998.

East Africa is the source for most of illegally traded ivory. Between 2009 and 2011, 37 percent of large Ivory seizures came from Tanzania, followed by Kenya.

The trade has significant economic implications for Tanzania, one of the world's poorest countries, which relies heavily on tourism as a source of revenue.

The report said that in 2013 Tanzania lost 10,000 elephants - more than any other country, threatening tourism revenues.

CORRUPTION FUELS ILLEGAL TRADE

The trade flourishes, said Rice, because of widespread corruption and lack of political will to tackle to problem.

"There are clearly people who are legitimately in the official capacity who use (it) to facilitate the trafficking," said Rice.

Two years ago Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete received a list of politicians and businessmen with links to the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party, who were allegedly involved in illegal poaching, but most people on the list have not been investigated or arrested, the report said.

EIA investigators reported than an official of Tanzania's wildlife department offered to sell them tusks from the government's storeroom.

In 2013, during an official visit by a Chinese naval task force to Dar el Salaam, a Chinese national was caught trying to enter the port with 81 illegal tusks for Chinese naval officers, according to the report.

He paid $20,000 to gain access to the port without inspection, but was stopped after a tip-off.

Earlier that year a visit of a delegation accompanying Chinese President Xi Jinping to Tanzania created such demand for ivory that local prices doubled.

The trafficking networks operate using legitimate companies, many of them on the island of Zanzibar, to fund their illegal activities, said Rice.

"Our understanding is that the ring leaders are in Zanzibar and they have legitimate businesses...Then within their 'employ' they have a bunch of people based in Zanzibar and on the mainland," she said.

"Triads operate that way, the mafia operates in that way. It's not dissimilar to any other organised criminal activity."

Ivory is shipped out of Zanzibar at night, when it can go through customs without anyone witnessing the trade. Even though some shipments are stopped, the majority leave the island without anyone seizing or intercepting them, said Rice.

"The area that needs most attention is to focus on the networks and the syndicates that are operating and to use intelligence-led enforcement," she said.

"Governments should prosecute, convict and sentence people and make those results known in the public as the example," Rice added.

I wish the WWF would drop the Giant Panda as its logo and replace it with the Tiger, Rhino & Elephant. This would be a real slap for the Chinese - a big loss of face!

The whole world has supported the Chinese efforts to save the Panda but the Chinese are just annihilating the tiger, rhino & elephant.

Bottom line, the Chinese should be kicked out of Africa, and everywhere else. Their citizens should be prosecuted for poaching, trafficking, etc. And we should be done with them.

Does anyone care what I really think?

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Bottom line, the Chinese should be kicked out of Africa, and everywhere else. Their citizens should be prosecuted for poaching, trafficking, etc. And we should be done with them.

Does anyone care what I really think?

Neither do the Chinese poachers care what any of us think.

It is making them very rich very quickly.

What is up with the racial slurs in this post? Disgusting.

Dutch44 - what are you talking about? How many countries in Africa are colonies of China? The European approach to wildlife in Afruca was conservation - from the beginning? Right. Euro rule better? How about the Belgians?

A lot of ignorance and racism on this thread, disgracefull.

-Andy

quote:

Originally posted by oldgold:
What is up with the racial slurs in this post? Disgusting.

Dutch44 - what are you talking about? How many countries in Africa are colonies of China? The European approach to wildlife in Afruca was conservation - from the beginning? Right. Euro rule better? How about the Belgians?

A lot of ignorance and racism on this thread, disgracefull.

-Andy

Andy,

Not many people here like PC, so if they call it like it is, don't get upset.

If you do, you better go somewhere else, because I can assure you won't like it here.

The whites who colonized Africa certainly did it for their own benefit, but destroying wildlife was not one of them.

Now, the bloody Chinese are taking over, and they are killing everything in sight!

And I for one certainly do NOT like what they are doing!

Saeed,

I agree that the current decimation if wildlife in Africa motivated by markets in Asia and directly instigated by Chinese, Vietnamese and others is a total disaster. I disagree about certain aspects of what happened during previous eras. The period of European colonization was also one of expanding markets, and changing land use that led to many declines in wildlife populations both intentional and otherwise.

In my ooinion speaking up against racial epitaphs is not a matter of PC, but one of common respect. And it is also just me telling it as I see it.

-Andy

quote:

The period of European colonization was also one of expanding markets, and changing land use that led to many declines in wildlife populations

Utter BS! - if it wasn't for the "European Colonialists" charting out the reserves and national parks according to the concentrations of wildlife, in most if not all African countries, we would not be blessed with what we have today.

Talking of changes in land use: it most certainly was not the "European Colonialists" who in the last several decades created barren lands devoid of game, including the continuous raping of Parks and Reserves as we see in Kenya today.

Face the facts and keep your racist ideals in the closet.

quote:

Originally posted by fujotupu:

quote:

The period of European colonization was also one of expanding markets, and changing land use that led to many declines in wildlife populations

Utter BS! - if it wasn't for the "European Colonialists" charting out the reserves and national parks according to the concentrations of wildlife, in most if not all African countries, we would not be blessed with what we have today.

Talking of changes in land use: it most certainly was not the "European Colonialists" who in the last several decades created barren lands devoid of game, including the continuous raping of Parks and Reserves as we see in Kenya today.

Face the facts and keep your racist ideals in the closet.

One does not need to be genius to see that Africa's worst enemy is the African leaders themselves!

I also agree that the last several decades of massive declines in wildlife populations are in large part due to corruption of post colonial governments. It is the use of the current situation as evidence that previous eras of natural resource exploitation did not happen, or to down grade their importance and impact that I disagree with.

Creation of national parks was largely a response to the large scale impacts of the colonial era. A good result, but one that does not erase other aspects of that era, i.e. the European market for ivory.

And I think understanding how these earlier waves of problems with market hunting is informative for how the present problem could be handled, rather than denying that it ever happened.

-Andy

I find this "Europeans are the good guys" mindset a real joke.

The US has lost a lot of its original habitat and wildlife population. The lower 48 grizzly is all but gone (barring a few tiny areas). The bison - same story. The passenger pigeon - extinct. Prairie elk, prairie wolf, etc. - gone.

Then you talk about the indigenous people - see this -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJxrTzfG2bo

Africans have not achieved this level of "colonisation" either of other people groups or of their natural resources.

Ok - China is stripping the African continent. But did the West not try to do the same? Who took all the diamonds and gold out of Africa over the last 100 years?

Are we saying that the West did not try to achieve the control on these countries that China now has? What happened during the Post-WW2 & cold war era?

World History is full of one group dominating & subjugating another or exploiting resources etc. That is the very essence of human nature.

No single nation or ethnic group can claim moral high ground.

Having seen what has been going on in the last ten years I'm with Saeed on this one.

quote:

Originally posted by Nakihunter:
I find this "Europeans are the good guys" mindset a real joke.

The US has lost a lot of its original habitat and wildlife population. The lower 48 grizzly is all but gone (barring a few tiny areas). The bison - same story. The passenger pigeon - extinct. Prairie elk, prairie wolf, etc. - gone.

Then you talk about the indigenous people - see this -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJxrTzfG2bo

Africans have not achieved this level of "colonisation" either of other people groups or of their natural resources.

Ok - China is stripping the African continent. But did the West not try to do the same? Who took all the diamonds and gold out of Africa over the last 100 years?

Are we saying that the West did not try to achieve the control on these countries that China now has? What happened during the Post-WW2 & cold war era?

World History is full of one group dominating & subjugating another or exploiting resources etc. That is the very essence of human nature.

No single nation or ethnic group can claim moral high ground.

Whatever the whites have done to Africa, it will pale in comparison to what the Chinese are going to do.

quote:

Originally posted by oldgold:
In my opinion speaking up against racial epitaphs is not a matter of PC, but one of common respect. And it is also just me telling it as I see it.

-Andy

Well said, Andy. Silence in the face of bigotry is complicity.

I've found that people who denigrate a race of people in order to argue a point typically lack facts, decency, or both.

I think we are lucky the present rulers in Africa are there.I don't think there would be any hunting in Africa with any other government.