Police investigating ivory smuggling network network


From This Day
November 6, 2009


POLICE in Dar es Salaam are investigating a suspected ivory smuggling syndicate following the arrest of four people this week in possession of over 30 elephant tusks.

According to sources within the wildlife industry, the ivory weighing more than 100 kilogrammes is believed to have come from at least 18 elephants killed recently by poachers within the vast Selous Game Reserve stretching over 54,600 square kilometres to the south of the country.

Other sources within the police force have described the latest seizure of poached elephant tusks in Dar es Salaam as further proof that the city is now a major transit point for ivory smuggling.

This latest development comes just days after THISDAY published a detailed expose on how the world-famous Selous has been turned into a veritable killing field where hundreds of jumbos are regularly slaughtered for their ivory.

The tusks, numbering 33 in total, are currently in the custody of Chang’ombe Police Station in Temeke District pending completion of investigations, said the police sources who preferred to remain anonymous.

The Dar es Salaam Special Zone Police Commander, Suleiman Kova, on Wednesday named the arrested suspects found with the impounded tusks as Donast Mungi (73), Hassan Rashid (30), Salum Said (32), and Akram Masaki.

Kova said the four were apprehended in Mbagala Kizuiani on the outskirts of the city, following a tip from a member of the public in nearby Mbagala Nzasa.

He said they will be thoroughly questioned to reveal the exact origin, destination and would-be buyers of the seized ivory.

�This looks like a chain network of poachers and ivory smugglers at work. Investigations are ongoing to track down any other members of the network. With enough cooperation from members of the public, we hope that by properly uncovering this network, we will have countered the problem of ivory smuggling in the country once and for all,� Kova told THISDAY.

According to the THISDAY expose, there has been a fresh spike in elephant poaching in recent years, with some disgruntled game scouts believed to be either turning a blind eye to illegal hunting activities or themselves taking part in killing the same animals they were hired to protect.

”An average of 50 elephants are being killed in the Selous each month...and that is a conservative estimate,” an official working in the Selous told this newspaper, adding that the hardcore poachers appear to be collaborating closely with ”an army of demoralized game scouts.”

Ironically, as the country buckles under this latest wave of elephant poaching, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism now wants the worldwide ban on ivory trade lifted.

Tanzania and Zambia have jointly petitioned the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to further open up the trade by allowing them to sell off their ivory stocks.

The CITES ban on ivory trade was imposed some 20 years ago. Animal rights campaigners say the ban has been instrumental in allowing the elephant population in Tanzania to recover from the massive poaching of the 1980s.

According to wildlife industry experts, poaching is a sensitive issue that often involves powerful and dangerous syndicates.

It is understood that the wildlife division in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism used to pay game scouts a working allowance of between 250,000/- and 300,000/- a month, but due to budgetary constraints that allowance was suspended a couple of years ago.

Sources have described finding heaps of jumbo carcases minus tusks left lying on the mud roads within the Selous since the beginning of this year alone. One source told THISDAY he himself counted up to 60 carcasses.

�This is organized poaching masterminded by disgruntled game scouts, which is more dangerous than the previous poaching of the 1980s,� said the source, warning that if no action is taken urgently to halt the trend, �we will have no elephants in two years to come�.

Miguruwe (Kilwa District), Matambwe (Morogoro South), Liwale (Lindi Region), Msola (Morogoro Region), Ilonga (Mahenge), Kingupira (Utete), and Mtemere (Rufiji) were described as the most popular poaching areas within the Selous.

Industry observers have meanwhile described the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism as being �literally crippled� and the anti-poaching unit as being �in the ICU (intensive care unit)� due to their joint failure to control poaching.

Possible solutions suggested by the observers include the transfer of game scouts from their current work stations within the Selous Game Reserve, and recruitment of new scouts. Also the revival of Operation Uhai, which involved soldiers of the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces in fighting poaching in the 1980s.

The worst period of elephant poaching experienced in the country was probably 1977-87, when the elephant population dwindled from 184,000 to 55,000.

A joint crusade mounted by TPDF, the wildlife department, police and customs authorities resulted in the confiscation of more than 10,000 guns and at least 700 people prosecuted in connection with poaching activities in 1988 alone.

Contacted for comment this time around, the director of wildlife in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Erasmus Tarimo, said the latest reports of elephant poaching in the Selous were exaggerated.

�A recent aerial count found 41 carcases of elephants. But 41 dead elephants is minimal compared to the total Selous elephant population of around 40,000,� he said, adding that some elephants had died of natural causes.

Said Tarimo: �Our intention is to have zero poaching, but to maintain zero poaching is impossible. It is not easy to control poaching 100 per cent.�

He also acknowledged reports of demoralized game wardens participating in the poaching activities, saying: �It is very difficult to pin down those wardens involved in the malpractice.�

Tarimo called on members of the public with information about game scouts involved in poaching to come forward and give such information to relevant authorities so that preventive action can be taken.