Poaching: Zim probed by Interpol
http://www.zimonline.co.za/

by Own Corespondent Monday 22 March 2010

HARARE - Zimbabwe is among 18 countries being investigated for complicity in
a racket involving the illegal trade in traditional medicines containing
protected wildlife products, the International Criminal Police Organisation
(Interpol) that is coordinating the probe has announced.

Interpol said last week that the operation - codenamed Operation Tram - saw
national wildlife enforcement authorities, police, customs and specialised
units from countries across five continents working together to combat
illegal trade in traditional medicines made from animal parts.

Countries targeted under Operation Tram are Australia, Canada, the Czech
Republic, Ecuador, France, Georgia, India, Italy, New Zealand, Nigeria,
Norway, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom
and Zimbabwe.

Interpol said its investigations into individuals and companies as well as
inspections of premises such as seaports and wholesalers have so far
discovered a large amount of medicines either containing or marketing the
use of illegal ingredients such as tiger, bear and rhinoceros.

"This operation has again proved that while environmental criminals may
cross borders and display high levels of organisation, so too will the
international law enforcement community in its efforts to apprehend those
criminals," said David Higgins, manager of the Interpol Environmental Crime
Programme.

The exercise has so far resulted in a series of arrests worldwide and the
seizure of thousands of illegal medicines worth more than US$15 million.

Zimbabwe is also under tight scrutiny by the wildlife and flora watchdog,
Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora
and Fauna (CITES), amid allegations that high-ranking officials are
suspected to be behind the country's unacceptable rate of rhino poaching.

Rampant poaching - allegedly being spearheaded by senior government and army
officers - has caused both black and white rhino populations to decline in
Zimbabwe.

A December 2009 report by TRAFFIC and the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) showed that since 2006, 95 percent of the
poaching in Africa has occurred in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The report also showed that the conviction rate for rhino crimes in Zimbabwe
is only three percent.

The Interpol operation, coordinated by the organisation's Environmental
Crime Programme with support from the UK National Wildlife Crime Unit, was
developed in response to the increasing use of endangered and protected
wildlife products in traditional medicines throughout the world.

Most rhino horns leaving southern Africa are destined for medicinal markets
in southeast and east Asia, especially Vietnam, where demand has escalated
in recent years.

The demand for rhino horn is driven by an insatiable appetite in China and
Vietnam where superstitions attribute medicinal properties to rhino horn.

China's recent economic upswing has enabled an unprecedented number of
citizens to afford "remedies" made from rhino horn, and from other
endangered species.

Chinese pharmaceutical companies manufacture rhino horn into "medicines",
which are sold openly in pharmacies throughout China and in hospitals in
Vietnam.

Contrary to popular belief, rhino horn is not used by the Chinese as an
aphrodisiac.

Primitive superstitions - still widely believed in China and other parts of
Asia - consider rhino horn to be a cure-all for common ailments such as
fever, pain, and even acne.

Scientific testing has however proven that rhino horn has no medicinal
effect on humans.