http://www.itv.com/news/2015-0...-numbers-fall-again/



1 June 2015 at 3:22pm
Tanzania pledges action on elephant 'slaughterhouse' as numbers fall again

By Paul Tyson, ITV News


Tanzania today promised firm action against poachers who are turning part of the country into a “slaughterhouse” as new figures showed thousands of elephants have been lost in the past year alone.
The figures released today show the east African country’s elephant population, once among Africa’s largest, has fallen to 43,330, a drop of several thousand from the previous survey. In 1976 Tanzania boasted seven times as many elephants but successive waves of poaching since have endangered whole populations and tarnished Tanzania’s image amid allegations of high-level corruption and complicity in the slaughter.
The number showed a 'mixed bag' with increases in some areas offset by huge losses in others.

Announcing the results of a new aerial survey the Tanzanian Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Lazaro Nyalandu claimed the figures were a “mixed bag” with increases in some areas overshadowed by a dramatic fall in the Ruaha area from 20,000 in 2013 to 8,272 last year.

The announcement confirmed an ITV News report earlier this year which was “categorically denied” at the time by the National Parks authority. Our report highlighted that 4,000 of the elephants poached in the area were lost in the Ruaha National Park, one of Africa’s largest protected areas.

Exposed: Tanzania's elephant killing fields
The minister suggested some of the number could be explained by migration, a claim at odd with report authors.

The Minister made no mention of the park, using figures from the wider ecosystem instead and highlighting Rungwa, a nearby game reserve, as the country’s poaching epicentre. “Ruaha is one thing but Rungwa I believe is an epicentre of where all the trouble has come from” he said. “Rungwa has become a slaughterhouse.”

The minister also suggested that some of the loss may be due not to poaching but to migration and announced a re-survey of the Ruaha-Rungwa area. This is at odds with the findings of the survey team who concluded in their report that migration was not a factor and stated that a “major mortality” had taken place.


Exposed: The brutal world of Tanzania's illegal poachers
New funding and more rangers will be brought in to try and curb the decline.

Mr Nyalandu announced a number of measures to combat poaching including an increase in the number of rangers in the affected areas, new funding for anti-poaching efforts and a national law enforcement strategy to address the lack of successful prosecutions for poaching.

The Minister received pledges of support from the US and German Ambassadors and a donation of all-terrain vehicles, night-vision equipment and communications technology from the Chinese Ambassador, Liu Xinsheng. China has long been accused of driving the illegal ivory trade but the government in Beijing has recently signalled a crackdown on the problem.

“Wildlife conservation is the common task of all human beings, we are strongly against the illegal wildlife trade and will take severe punishments against anyone involved in wildlife crime” said Mr Xinsheng.
Last updated Mon 1 Jun 2015

BLA BLA BLA Another African minister that make promises!!! mmmm let me see have they ever done anything but talk and make promises? if so please tell me where that country is I want to move there.

Hi Kathi:

I'm an extreme hard core old timer.

Thanks for your persistence in bringing these atrocities to the publics attention.

I don't waste time or sympathy. I've seen the wishy washy failures miserably.

My sanguine solution is to terminate the poachers with extreme prejudice. That means specifically - KILL THEM.

China does that with the Pandas. Kill a Panda and you are dead.

We already have serious surplus of worthless scum in Africa. Any reduction is a good day for all,

Note that I am an agnostic Christian. That means specifically that I do not subscribe to all of the Christian hokey, pokey malarkey and phony "miracles" that are so implausible and physically impossible.

Just get the show on the road and shoot the Bass Turds that need to be expunged from our planet.

I would do it in a heart beat with NO remorse whatsoever, AND GOOD RIDDANCE.

Of course my lesser knock kneed fellow hunters don't have the conviction nor courage.

quote:

Originally posted by INTREPID SAFARIS:
BLA BLA BLA Another African minister that make promises!!! mmmm let me see have they ever done anything but talk and make promises? if so please tell me where that country is I want to move there.

PR works!

Especially with the silly idiots!

It would be interesting to prepare a chart comparing the numbers of elephants, vs. the numbers of Chinese in Tanzania over the years.