Ripoti: Wawindaji halali ndiyo wanaovuna tembo

Uchunguzi huo ulibaini kuwa vinasaba vya pembe hizo vilifanana, hivyo kujenga dhana kwamba baadhi ya watu wamekuwa wakiwinda katika hifadhi hiyo mara kwa mara katika utaratibu maalumu unaotambuliwa na Serikali.PICHA|MAKTABA 

Na Peter Elias, Mwananchi

Posted  Jumatano,Aprili30  2014  saa 24:0 AM

Kwa ufupi

Ripoti hiyo inafafanua kuwa uchunguzi wa vinasaba (DNA), katika tani 11 za pembe za ndovu zilizokamatwa Taiwan, Japan na Hong Kong mwaka 2006, ilibainika kuwa pembe 1,500 zilitoka Tanzania (Selous).

Dar es Salaam. Ongezeko la kasi ya ujangili nchini limedaiwa kusababishwa na vitendo vya rushwa, matumizi mabaya ya madaraka na mfumo dhaifu wa usimamizi wa sheria katika Wizara ya Maliasili na Utalii.

Kwa mujibu wa ripoti iliyopewa jina la Urasimishaji wa Ujangili wa Kitaalamu Afrika, tangu mwaka 2000 wizara hiyo imejikuta katika kashfa za rushwa na kusababisha mawaziri na watendaji wakuu kuvuliwa nyadhifa zao.

Katika ripoti hiyo, Taasisi ya Kimarekani ya Utunzaji Wanyamapori ya Born Free USA kwa ushirikiano na Shirika la Ripoti za Kichambuzi na Takwimu la C4ADS, imeeleza pia jinsi vikundi vya waasi barani Afrika wanavyoendesha shughuli za ujangili.

Ripoti hiyo iliyozinduliwa mwezi huu nchini Kenya, inaitaja Tanzania kama kitovu cha kusafirisha pembe za ndovu katika ukanda wa Afrika Mashariki na Bandari ya Dar es Salaam imekuwa ikishindana na ile ya Mombasa katika kutumia bandari kibiashara.

Kutoka mwaka 2008 mpaka 2013, inaelezwa zaidi ya tani 20 za pembe za ndovu ama zilikamatwa zikisafirishwa kuingia au kutolewa katika Jiji la Dar es Salaam, hii ni kwa mujibu wa taarifa ya Taasisi ya C4ADS.

Ripoti hiyo inafafanua kuwa uchunguzi wa vinasaba (DNA), katika tani 11 za pembe za ndovu zilizokamatwa Taiwan, Japan na Hong Kong mwaka 2006, ilibainika kuwa pembe 1,500 zilitoka Tanzania (Selous).

Uchunguzi huo ulibaini kuwa vinasaba vya pembe hizo vilifanana, hivyo kujenga dhana kwamba baadhi ya watu wamekuwa wakiwinda katika hifadhi hiyo mara kwa mara katika utaratibu maalumu unaotambuliwa na Serikali.

“Kuna udhaifu mkubwa katika usimamizi wa uwindaji halali na wawindaji wenye vibali hawasimamiwi ipasavyo kufanya uwindaji kwa taratibu zilizowekwa kisheria. Hivyo hutumia nafasi hiyo kufanya vitendo vya ujangili,” inasema sehemu ya ripoti hiyo.

Serikali yakanusha

Hata hivyo, Mkurugenzi wa Wanyamapori, Paul Sarakikya alikanusha madai hayo akisema siyo kweli kwamba wawindaji halali huachwa bila usimamizi, bali wana mifumo ya kusimamia shughuli hiyo.

“Sikubaliani na ripoti hiyo, tumeshaongea sana juu ya suala hili, Rais alishalizungumzia na waziri pia. Ufafanuzi ndio huo, hamna ukweli wowote katika ripoti hiyo,” alisisitiza Sarakikya.

Salakikya alisema idadi ya tembo nchini inazidi kuongezeka katika hifadhi tofauti na upungufu unaoelezwa katika ripoti hiyo.

Mkurugenzi huyo alihoji kuwa kama hakuna usimamizi madhubuti katika uwindaji halali, wamewezaje kusimamia uwindaji miaka yote mpaka idadi ya tembo inaongezeka, baada ya upungufu uliokuwepo miaka ya nyuma.

Wakati Sarakikya akisema tembo wanaongezeka, ripoti hiyo inaeleza kuwa idadi ya tembo katika hifadhi za Selous na Mikumi kwa mwaka 1976, ilikuwa ni 109,419 lakini kufikia mwaka 2009, idadi hiyo ilishuka hadi kufikia tembo 38,975.

Nchi zilizoathirika zaidi na ujangili barani Afrika, zinatajwa kuwa ni Jamhuri ya Afrika ya Kati, Jamhuri ya Kidemokrasia ya Kongo (DRC), Cameroon, Msumbiji, Kenya, Zimbabwe na Tanzania ambayo pia inatajwa kuwa kitovu cha usafirishaji wa pembe za ndovu.

Idadi ya tembo waliosalia

Na kwa utafiti uliofanywa na Taasisi ya Frankfurt Zoological Society mwishoni mwa mwaka 2013, ripoti hiyo inaeleza kuwa ni tembo 13,084 wanaokadiriwa kusalia katika hifadhi, sawa na upungufu wa asilimia 66 katika kipindi cha miaka minne tangu 2009.

Hii imefafanuliwa kuwa zaidi ya tembo 25,000 waliuawa katika Hifadhi ya Selous ndani ya miaka minne pekee. Pia, ripoti hiyo inabainisha upungufu wa tembo katika hifadhi ya Ruaha-Rungwa kutoka tembo 35,461 mpaka tembo 20,090 sawa na upungufu wa asilimia 36.5 kuanzia mwaka 1990 mpaka sasa.

Graft fuels poaching in Tanzania - study

By Polycarp Machira

27th April 2014

Aglobal wildlife protection lobby group has accused Tanzania and other African countries of condoning corruption within their ranks, fueling the raging poaching menace.

A newly commissioned study by US lobby group ‘Born Free’ claims that corrupt government officials were behind intensive and organized illegal hunting in Tanzania’s protected areas.

 The report dubbed “Ivory’s Curse: The Militarization and Professionalization of Poaching in Africa” says control of hunting concessions by Tanzanian and foreign elites had enabled organized hunting by small groups in concentrated areas.

The report prepared by C4ADS, a non-profit organization dedicated to reporting of conflict and security issues worldwide, calls for political goodwill from world leaders where all security operations were fully engaged in the anti-poaching war to stop poaching across Africa.

“The elephant poaching crisis has reached historic levels and shockingly, some elephant populations face extinction in my lifetime,” says the organization’s chief executive officer Adam Roberts.

According to the report, poaching and transnational trafficking networks may align given Dar es Salaam port’s role as the second busiest ivory trafficking hub on the continent.

It says Tanzania once had a strong reputation in conservation as home to one of Africa’s largest elephant populations and as a strong backer of the 1989 CITES regulation that rendered the international trade in ivory largely illegal.

“In recent years, however, this reputation has been thrown into disarray with elephant populations currently being devastated by intensive poaching,” the report reads in part.

In 1976, the Selous-Mikumi ecosystem was home to 109,419 elephants  which dropped to 38,975 in 2009; and today, an aerial survey and estimates by the Frankfurt Zoological Society in late 2013 put the remaining jumbo population at a mere 13,084.

This represents a 66 percent decline over the last four years and a decline of nearly 90 per cent from the 1970s, the report says.

Even as poaching intensifies, Tanzania is reassuming its historic role as one of the continent’s largest trafficking hub, the report further claims.

From 2008 to 2013, over 20 tons of ivory were seized either in, in transit to, or originating from Dar es Salaam, according to C4ADS’s database of reported  ivory seizures, making it second only to Mombasa as a trafficking hub.

This is not counting the immense stockpile Tanzania has accrued over years of seizures, which by some accounts totals more than 90 metric tons.

Tanzania’s role as an export hub is not extensively explored in this report, but it states that several factors make it suitable for use as a port of exit for ivory.

“It is relatively well-developed infrastructure, systemic corruption, proximity to large elephant populations, and established routes to transshipment ports.” reads the report in part.

Control of wildlife preserves in Tanzania falls, in part, to private individuals, it elaborates, saying Tanzania has a unique system of private management of hunting blocks within parks.

These blocks are distributed via an administrative process every five years to Tanzanian and foreign operators.

“All wildlife in Tanzania is, legally, the property of the state, but owning a hunting concession gives a tourism operator legal ownership over animals hunted in the area, provided the right fees are paid.”

The report further alleges, “Tanzania’s system of wildlife management creates the conditions for abuse of otherwise legal hunting.”

The real and potential negative externalities of increased organized criminal penetration into Tanzania are significant, given the profits at stake, and the destabilizing effects on East Africa’s second largest economy are nontrivial.

Finally, increased presence of transnational organized crime in Tanzania would continue to have negative effects on elephant and human populations in neighbouring Mozambique and Kenya

Big money
It's a lucrative business; a kilo of ivory is worth some $850 (650 Euros) in Asia, with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), suggesting ivory smuggled to Asia from Eastern Africa was worth over $31 million (23 million Euros) in 2011.

But such short-term and finite profits generated by the spate of killings are threatening the far more valuable tourism industry, which is the second largest foreign exchange earner -- after agriculture -- in Kenya and Tanzania.

"The African elephant is not currently deemed 'endangered' as a species, but its decimation in Eastern Africa could be devastating," the UNODC report says in part.
"In addition to the reduction in genetic diversity, its loss could seriously undermine local tourist revenues, a key source of foreign exchange for many of the countries of the region," the reports points out.

But the region's two large container ports -- Mombasa in Kenya and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania -- are also notorious trafficking hubs, funneling more elephant tusks to Asia than all of central, southern and West African nations combined.

The two nations made up almost two-thirds of all large shipments of ivory seized across the entire continent from 2009-2011, according to the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS), a tracking database run by wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC.

Seizures of containers crammed with tusks -- often hidden under foul-smelling fish or dried chili peppers in a bid to confuse sniffer dogs or discourage detailed searches -- are regularly found.

Much of the ivory smuggled is destined for China, whose rapidly growing economy has encouraged those enjoying disposable income to splash out on an ivory trinket as a sign of financial success.

"Growing affluence in China, where possession of elephant ivory remains a status symbol, appears to have rendered China the world's leading destination for illicit ivory," the UNODC report adds.

The smuggling of rhino horns is a bigger problem for Southern Africa, which has far more of the endangered animals. It is often done by air, due to the value of the horn and its smaller size.

But scores of East African rhinos are also being killed despite wildlife rangers often risking their lives to protect them.

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY

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Save Ngorongoro Crater from further destruction

Editorial

By Editor

15th April 2014

Editorial Cartoon

You can’t eat your cake and have it, so goes an old adage. This could be said about the situation unfolding in our country right now, especially in the Northern Tourist Circuit.

This comprises Tanga, Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Mara and Mwanza. It is a fact that much of the revenue from Tanzania’s tourism sector has for a long time come from this circuit.

Such tourist destinations as Mt Kilimanjaro, Serengeti, Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater, to name but a few, have attracted close to a million tourists to Tanzania each year.

But now a problem has arisen in Ngorongoro Crater. It is to do with the number of motor vehicles going down to the crater. It has been realized that the 400 motor vehicles descending the crater’s 610-metre deep steep walls are just too many.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) is therefore looking into ways of reducing motor vehicles entering the crater, which is the world's sixth largest unbroken caldera.

According to Dr Freddy Manongi, the NCAA chief conservator, tourists have complained that there are too many motor vehicles descending the crater.

It is now attracting more than 500,000 tourists annually and generating an average 55bn/- in revenue, the target being over 60bn/- this year. They say the vehicles distract them from enjoying the natural scenery and wildlife.

Granted, this has resulted from the NCAA’s continued climb in the popularity charts of the global travel industry, but something needs to be done to stop this denudation of the area. And, as the customer is always right, something should be done to heed to the tourists’ complaints.

Going by the NCAA’s own vision, the issue of preservation of the crater is paramount: “An overall tourism strategy for the property is a long term requirement, to both guide the public use of the property and ways of presenting the property, and to prioritize the quality of the tourism experience, rather than the quantity of visitors and tourism facilities.

Vehicle access to the crater and other popular areas of the property requires clear limits to protect the quality of experience of the property.”

Ngorongoro has paleontological and archaeological sites over a wide range of dates. The four major sites are Olduvai Gorge, Laetoli site, Lake Ndutu site and the Nasera Rock Shelter. The variety and richness of the fossil remains, including those of early hominids, has made it one of the major areas in the world for research on the human evolution.

The NCAA has to now translate its tourism strategy, balancing between the quest for more revenue from tourism and preservation of the crater’s ecology, so crucial to understanding the evolution of human beings. How to balance the equation is a headache for every stakeholder in the tourism industry.

Be that as it may, however, a solution has to be found to this challenge facing the crater. We go by the suggestion of Manongi that it is high time the NCAA looked into the promotion of other attractions within Ngorongoro.

These include other caldera, the beautiful Empakai Crater, the historic Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli sites where the first human being lived.

Visitors decry number of cars entering Ngorongoro Crater

By Lusekelo Philemon

14th April 2014

Authorities looking for alternatives

Dr Freddy Manongi

Despite the fact that only four wheel vehicles are allowed to descend into the 610 meters deep steep walls of Ngorongoro crater, the number of vehicles that make the trip now exceed 400 a day and now the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) is working on ways to reduce the number of cars that enter the Ngorongoro Crater animal sanctuary.

Recognised as the world's sixth largest unbroken caldera and deemed the eighth wonder of the world Ngorongoro is said to spot just too many vehicles that pose potential danger to the environment and the ecosystem balance as well as spoil the experience for visitors’ seeking to enjoy the wilderness without interruptions.

Dr Freddy Manongi, the NCAA Chief Conservator confirmed receiving numerous complains from visitors over the matter.
“We have been getting complaints from tourists who report that there are just too many motor vehicles descending into the crater on a daily basis.”

“The vehicles are a distraction and they interrupt the experience denying our guests the natural scenery they sought many miles from home,” he added.

Despite the fact that the increasing number of is a clear indicator of Ngorongoro’s ever increasing popularity, Dr Manongi admitted that the vehicles are now threatening to negatively affect the sanctuary and subsequently the number of visitors.

“The caldera attracts more than 500,000 tourists annually and generates an average of 55bn/- in revenues every year,” he detailed noting that the authority targets to realize annual earnings in excess of 60bn/- this year.

“The issue of how to control traffic in the crater is now our current headache we need a different mode of transport because at the moment game viewing in the caldera can only be done in cars,” he said.

“We have received proposals from some firms that want to introduce hot air balloon tourism. We are working on this concept as one of the possibilities to reduce the number of motor vehicles entering the crater,” said the NCAA conservator pointing out that balloon tourism is successfully being practiced in the adjacent Serengeti National Park.

Other than the breathe taking sites to see and the diverse wildlife other attractions within Ngorongoro include the beautiful Empakai Crater as well as the historic Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli where the first human beings reportedly lived.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN