Minister: Laws on poaching faulty

Minister: Laws on poaching faulty

By Zulfa Mussa The Citizen Correspondent

Posted  Monday, October 7   2013

In Summary

• Tibaijuka said 70 per cent of the illegal ivory seized in the world originated from East Africa, especially Tanzania and Kenya

Arusha. The minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Ambassador Khamis Kagasheki, has admitted weaknesses in law enforcement in dealing with the escalating poaching.

He said during the five-kilometre Global Elephant March which took place here on Friday that laws had to be fully enforced in order to contain indiscriminate killing of animals for their trophies.

“It is very strange that a person found guilty of killing an elephant is fined Sh30,000 like people convicted of such acts on other animals,” he wondered. 

He hinted that the government may be forced to downplay concerns by human rights activists and go ahead to impose heavy punitive measures against poachers.

“Our game rangers will deal with them on the spot once apprehended,” he warned. Ms Vista Tibaijuka, the chairperson of the Arusha-based Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (Tato) Conservation Support Committee, said Al Shabaab terrorists were the likely beneficiaries of poaching.

She said without giving details that up to 40 per cent of operations by the Somalia-based terror group might be as a result of support from the illegal ivory trade.

“The value of ivory is now higher than gold and diamond,” she told reporters on the eve of an International March for Elephants at an Arusha hotel.

The event was organised in Arusha and 14 other cities in the world to sensitise the international community on the alarming rate of elephant poaching for their trophies.

Ms Tibaijuka said 70 per cent of the illegal ivory seized in the world originated from East Africa, especially Tanzania and Kenya.

An executive officer with Tato, a powerful lobby group for tour operators, Mr Sirili Akko, said legalised hunting in Tanzania was chiefly responsible for the decimation of elephants.

“Killing of elephants has been legalised through legalised hunting. We (Tanzania) are not that poor to allow hunting of animals for their trophies,” he pointed out.