OXFORD, 17 December 2020 – An international team has discovered the origin of the largest cargo of African ivory found from the oldest shipwreck in southern Africa.  

The discovery of a 16^th-century shipwreck has, with the aid of advanced scientific techniques, provided detailed insight into elephant herds living in Africa almost 500 years ago. But the study also highlights the extensive depletion of the West African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) due to the ivory trade, and the need for conservation of this majestic animal. The study, published today, was led by Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum and School of Archaeology alongside partner institutions in Namibia (the National Museum of Namibia), South Africa (University of Cape Town, University of Pretoria) and the USA (University of Illinois). 

This unique story that links shipwrecks with elephants came to life off the coast of Namibia in 2008, when workers mining for diamonds discovered the remains of the Portuguese trading vessel Bom Jesus. The ship was lost in 1533 AD en route to India, making it the oldest shipwreck discovered in southern Africa.Incredibly some of the ship’s structure and over forty tons of valuable cargo were recovered intact – including thousands of copper pieces (ingots), gold and silver coins. 

But the most fascinating items recovered from the Bom Jesus were a collection of over 100 elephant tusks, the largest archaeological cargo of African elephant ivory ever found. The tusks were of varying lengths and sizes, ranging in weight from 2-33 kg, and came from both male and female elephants, young and old alike. The tusks were in good condition thanks to the cold waters off the coast of Namibia caused by the Benguela ocean current. 

Elephant tusks are the source of ivory, which was a valuable commodity in the 1500s and would have been used to make jewellery, mirrors and combs, decorative items and religious objects. Tusks were often traded from Africa to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, but to find such a large number of tusks, and so incredibly well preserved, made this a unique find.  

“The shipwreck cargo contained materials from different parts of the world – Central European copper, German finance, Portuguese ship and perhaps crew, African ivory all destined for western India. This is an amazing snapshot of how connected the world was by the 1530s,” said Professor Shadreck Chirikure, School of Archaeology at Oxford University who led the study at Oxford University alongside Dr Ashley Coutu, Research Fellow at Pitt Rivers Museum. 

A team of experts – scientists, archaeologists and curators – came together to study the tusks and learn more about the elephants who bore them, before they were killed for their ivory. This is the first study to combine genetic, archeological and historical methods, providing much greater detail than ever before about the origin, ecological, and genetic histories of an archaeological ivory cargo.  

Scientists extracted ancient DNA – the chemical in the cell of every living thing that contains its genetic code – from the ivory to trace the source region and family history of the elephants. Ancient DNA analysis of 44 tusks determined that the elephants were Loxodonta cyclotis, or African forest elephants, rather than Loxodonta africana, savannah or grassland elephants. Further DNA sequencing traced the elephants to West Africa, which was surprising as it was expected the elephants would be from different locations across both Central and West Africa where trading networks to move ivory over long distances had been established thousands of years before the sailing of the Bom Jesus.    

Another surprise was that the elephants did not live in deep forests as most forest elephants do today. Dr Coutu studied the chemical elements in the tusks (stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen – isotopes are also used to determine the age of fossils through radiocarbon dating) to reveal that these elephants actually lived in scrubby woodland savannahs, not the deep tropical forests along the West African coast where almost all forest elephants live. “This information gave us a picture of the ecology of the West African forest elephant in its historic landscape. Knowing more about historic environments in which forest elephants thrived will benefit wildlife conservation today,” said Dr Ashley Coutu. 

But the research also reveals a loss of West African forest elephant herds in the last 400 years. The team found that the cargo came from 17 different herds with a distinct family lineage. Of those 17, only 4 of those same lineages still exist and are known from modern West African elephant populations. This means that the other lineages have been lost, primarily due to the hunting of elephants for ivory that took place in the centuries that followed.  

“The other lineages disappeared because West Africa has lost more than 95% of its elephants in subsequent centuries due to hunting and habitat destruction,” said Alfred Roca Professor of Animal Sciences from the University of Illinois who worked together with Oxford University on the project. The genetic information recovered from these lost herds adds a huge amount to the relatively limited amount of data available for scientists to study the remaining forest elephants across the African continent.     

The ivory trade, which continued up until the 20^th century, devastated Africa’s elephant population. Estimates suggest the population reduced from 26 million elephants in 1800 to fewer than one million today. A worldwide ban on ivory sales was instituted in 1989, which reversed the downward trend in the population. Despite the ban, the ivory trade continues illegally, and an estimated 20,000 elephants are killed in Africa annually. 

This research study was led by Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University, one of the leading and best-known museums of anthropology, ethnography and archaeology in the world. It holds over 500,000 items acquired across 130 years, covering all periods of human existence.  

Pitt Rivers leads research on its collections and is actively exploring difficult histories and addressing the colonial past. Oxford School of Archaeology hosts world-class research facilities fundamental to addressing big questions relating to humans and their interaction with the environment in the past. This collaborative research across continents has provided an opportunity to look at the legacy of the ivory trade. But it has also introduced a new way to examine the vast collections of historic and archaeological ivories in museums across the world and showed the vital significance of science in this work.

“There is tremendous potential to analyse historic ivory from other shipwrecks, as well as museum collections. These scientific techniques are vital for understanding the histories of elephant populations, people who hunted and traded the ivory, as well as the global history of the ancient ivory trade, which increasingly drew Europe, Africa, and Asia together via the Atlantic Ocean,” said Dr. Ashley Coutu, Research Fellow, Pitt Rivers Museum. 

Source: Oxford University
Photo credits: National Museum of Namibia
Map created by Alida de Flamingh

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Silent Forests is an intimate, character-driven portrait of conservationists and activists who are struggling to stop forest elephant poaching in Africa’s Congo Basin region. The film explores this story through a range of dynamic subjects; including one of Cameroon’s first female eco-guards, a grassroots wildlife law enforcement group, a Congolese biologist studying elephant behavior, a reformed elephant poacher, and a team of anti-poaching sniffer dogs led by a Czech conservationist.

We begin deep in the forests of Congo-Brazzaville with biologist Clement Inkamba-Nkulu. Clement researches elephant clearings in the Bateke Plateau, doing acoustic monitoring to evaluate the abundance of elephants living in this dense forest. His studies are part of a larger regional effort called the Elephant Listening Project. The ELP studies forest elephant communication to help deepen our understanding about how these complex and intelligent animals “speak” with each other and form social bonds.

In neighboring Cameroon, we meet eco-guard Sidonie Asseme, a mother of five who has worked as a park ranger for the last decade –one of Cameroon’s very first female eco-guards. She treks for weeks on end in the dense jungle, searching for poaching camps – and her dedication has led to the arrest and detention of 15 poachers and counting. Not surprisingly, though, her work has made her a target: she has received death threats, beatings, and was once locked in a house by poachers who threatened to set her and three other rangers on fire.

An important part of Sidonie’s job is bio-monitoring, or observing the various animals that come and go from park clearings. Her favorite animals to see in the wild are the forest elephants; but in these same clearings that she used to see plentiful elephant herds at, she now sees none. “The poaching has scared them all off, they are really threatened here.” To drive home her point, she and her fellow eco-guards find recently abandoned poaching camps all around the clearings they are monitoring.

The film then goes from the depths of the forest to the chaotic streets of Yaounde, to meet Eric Tah and the LAGA Wildlife Law Enforcement Group. LAGA is a grassroots group of dedicated Cameroonian activists that have carried out countless operations into the web of wildlife crime in this region. They are just launching a new investigation into a trafficker who calls himself “Sans Peur”, or “Without Fear.” We observe the hours of work and planning that go into a sting operation. These investigations come with a high risk, especially when the criminals one is targeting are well-connected. Adding to the difficulties is the endemic corruption at some of the highest echelons of police and government ministries. The filmmakers embed with LAGA’s undercover unit and follow the anatomy of an investigation from start to finish – including the critical moment that a trafficker is taken down.

In the Republic of Congo, sniffer dogs are used for finding endangered species products that poachers are attempting to smuggle out of the country. This dog team is led by Arthur Sneigon, a Czech conservationist who has spearheaded anti-poaching activism in Congo since 2014. Recently, Arthur has struggled to get permission from the government to continue his sniffer dog operations. He laments that he is stuck in a web of bureaucracy and corruption, with administrators demanding bribes that he cannot pay. Arthur is part of the same activist network as Eric’s group LAGA, and the two sometimes work together across country borders to take down wildlife criminals. The film follows Arthur from Congo to Cameroon, where he is part of an investigation into a major ivory trafficking network – with a ringleader who smuggles ivory through a U.N. refugee camp.

The final focus of Silent Forests is Jean-Paul, a former elephant poacher who now owns a small cocoa farm and herd of goats. He is the head of a support group of reformed poachers in this area; they are atoning for their past actions and finding less destructive ways of making a living. We attend a meeting of this support group, where Jean-Paul and other members discuss the recent increase of poaching in the area, and plans for the future of their alliance.

Jean-Paul speaks about the poverty that drove him to poach in the first place, and he expresses regret at his decades of slaughter. “When I killed them, I felt terrible. The elephant – it’s like a person. When you kill them, the family sees it, and flees into the forest. If you hunted the Dad elephant, who did the Mom live with after that? What happened to his family?” The irony that his own concern for feeding his family caused him to decimate elephant families isn’t lost on Jean-Paul.

As passionate and tenacious as these conservationists are, they are up against huge institutional challenges like corruption and lack of funding that threaten to derail all their attempts to fight for the future of the forest elephant.

Silent Forests is Mariah Wilson’s third film about wildlife crime and illegal trade; it is a subject she is both passionate about and familiar with. Mariah’s hope is that this documentary will shed light on the severity of the situation in central Africa, and how damaging the ivory trade is for all species — humans included.

The film stands out from some other recent documentaries about poaching issues because three of the four main characters are from either Cameroon or Congo. This is about African activists, scientists, and eco-guards and who care deeply about what is happening in their own backyards. Mariah wants audiences to leave Silent Forests with a realistic look at what it is like to be on the frontlines of conservation in this region day to day – including the dangers, the rewards, the frustrations – and how good efforts are riddled with challenges from dishonest and inept government entities.

Urgent measures are need to save the remaining African forest elephants. Illegal poaching for ivory and encroachment into elephant habitat must be halted, and the international demand for ivory, which fuels poaching and the illegal trade, must be stopped.

More information: https://silentforests.com

Watch the documentary

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In Malawi, the number of elephants has been dramatically decreasing because of poaching.  Since the 1980s, elephant numbers have halved.  Elephants suffer slow and painful deaths from poachers’ snares or gunshot wounds.  If mother elephants got killed, their babies can die too.  Elephants are being killed brutally only to satisfy our greedy and unnecessary appetite for ivory.

It’s not just from the animal welfare point of view.  If elephant gets killed at the current rate, they could disappear from this planet forever.  Countries who are depending on wildlife tourism such as Malawi would lose their precious resource that is essential for their economic growth.  

What’s more, illegal wildlife trade has become the 4th largest transnational crime in the world, and Malawi itself is being used as a transit route for illicit ivory from organized crime syndicates, which in itself is a threat to national security.  

Last year I started working as a volunteer at Lilongwe Wildlife Trust, an NGO that protects Malawi’s wildlife and habitats, and got involved in a series of anti-ivory trade campaign projects.  The biggest achievement so far is the production of ‘Say No to Ivory Trade’ video featuring Malawi’s President and fifteen Ambassadors and Honorary Consuls sending out a powerful ‘Say No to Ivory’ message to visitors to Malawi and to local residents.  The video was launched by the President in April and the message is being spread through TVs, social media and on the screens at airports in Malawi.

Soon after the Presidential launch of the video, I went back to Japan on holiday.  When I was going through a Japanese newspaper one morning, I saw an advert of on-line sales of name stamps (hanko) made out of woods, plastic and ivory.  I was shocked.  I was shocked not only to see the advert of ivory products but to learn how ignorant I was about my own country’s situation over ivory.  I was not aware that ivory products had been still sold in Japan.  I had just assumed that an economically developed country such as Japan had decided to stop ivory trade many years ago.

I did my research.  Japan bans both import and export of ivory and ivory products but it’s legal to trade existing ivory in the country.  The owners must register their ivory at a governmental office stating that they were legally obtained.  Ivory sellers must have an official license.  

But an investigation done by National Geographic says the number of registered ivory in Japan has been increasing.  It jumped up from 500 pieces in 2010 to 1,900 in 2014.  At the same time some Japanese ivory products have been found sold overseas.  This means that the Japanese legislation is not working.

As long as there’s a demand, the market grows. And it’s impossible to tell if they are legal ivory or illegal ivory once they get into the market.  For this reason, China and the US announced to shut down any ivory trade in September 2015 and started their effort to reduce demand for ivory.  Sadly, Japan was one of the countries at the CITES (Convention of the Illegal Trade in Endangered Species) meeting in South Africa this month to vote against a resolution to close domestic ivory markets around the world.

When I was young, I used to see quite a few name stamps and Buddha figurines made of ivory at my grandparents’ house.  As a child, I didn’t even think where and how the ivory comes from just like I didn’t think where my sashimi comes from.  But now I know that elephants are killed by poachers in for their ivory in Africa.  I’ve seen so many photos of elephants being caught by snares and suffering from serious injuries or elephants’ dead bodies without their faces after their tusks are removed.  

Ivory doesn’t come for free.  They come at the sacrifice of elephants’ lives.  Actually it’s not just elephants’ lives.  Park rangers are fighting against poachers and they sometimes become victims of poachers.  Yes, ivory is a symbol blood of elephants and of people who are trying to save elephants’ lives.  

I’d like all Japanese people to be aware of these facts and ask themselves if they are still keen to possess ivory products.  We don’t need ivory accessories when there are a number of other alternatives to dress up.  We can surely get by without name stamps made of ivory.  Can we all stop wanting ivory products?  If there’s no demand for ivory, the market will disappear.

In March this year, the world famous Italian designer Giorgio Armani has confirmed that he won’t use any animal fur for all his products anymore.  This came after many other designers’ decision not to use furs at the sacrifice of animals.  The world is moving away from slaughtering animals for our luxury.  It’s moving towards protecting and caring for animals and the environment.  

I hope the Japanese people take a moment now and think if it’s worth really seeking ivory products and decide to follow the global trend to protect elephants.  I know that the Japanese people have good hearts, and I’m sure that they too can say no to ivory trade and help save the elephants from extinction.

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“I don’t think anybody in the world has seen the number of dead elephants that I’ve seen over the last two years,” said Mike Chase, GEC principal investigator and founder of Elephants Without Borders.

The ambitious three-year Great Elephant Census, funded by philanthropist and Vulcan founder Paul Allen, used a fleet of small planes to find and count savannah elephants.

“This was an extraordinary collaboration across borders, cultures and jurisdictions. We completed a successful survey of massive scale, and what we learned is deeply disturbing,” said Allen. “Armed with this knowledge of dramatically declining elephant populations, we share a collective responsibility to take action and we must all work to ensure the preservation of this iconic species.”

Over a two-year period, using standardized data collection and validation methods, the GEC accurately determined the number and distribution of the great majority of African savanna elephants and provides a baseline for future surveys and trend analyses.

Final results show:

• Savanna elephant populations declined by 30 percent (equal to 144,000 elephants) between 2007 and 2014.
• The current rate of decline is 8 percent per year, primarily due to poaching. The rate of decline accelerated from 2007 to 2014.
• 352,271 elephants were counted in the 18 countries surveyed. This figure represents at least 93 percent of savanna elephants in these countries.
• Eighty-four percent of the population surveyed was sighted in legally protected areas while 16 percent were in unprotected areas. However, high numbers of elephant carcasses were discovered in many protected areas, indicating that elephants are struggling both inside and outside parks.

African elephants are imperiled by poaching and habitat loss. Despite global attention to the plight of elephants, their population sizes continue to decrease. There were estimated to be more than 1 million during the early 20th century, but the population plummeted in the past decades.

Populations recovered in some countries following a Cites trade ban in 1989, but since the early 2000s, the rise of the middle classes in the far east has fueled a new demand for ivory products.

“This project required a Herculean effort on the part of many partners since its launch in December 2013, with 81 airplanes and 286 crew members flying roughly 463,000 kilometres to complete the survey,” said Vulcan wildlife conservation director James Deutsch.

Until now, surveys had been fragmented or isolated, and undertaken on a regional or country-by-country basis.

“If we can’t save the African elephant, what is the hope of conserving the rest of Africa’s wildlife?” said Mike Chase. “The biggest action that would tackle the crisis would be to end demand for ivory and close down the market”.

“People talk about poaching, but in the long-term it’s also about securing space for habitat. Elephants are under siege. In 15 of the GEC countries, the human population is going to double by 2050. Elephants will be compressed to eke out a living in small islands of protected areas. We need to give them the space and freedom of Africa.”

African Conservation Foundation graphic | Source: Great Elephant Census

Deeply troubled by what the GEC revealed, Mr. Allen has made elephant conservation a top priority and is working with individuals, organizations and governments from around the world to ensure that future generations will be able to see elephants with their eyes and not just read about them in books.

New initiatives include the launch of a forest elephant census in regions where poaching is thought to have devastated herds and adequate population data is critically needed. Vulcan has also developed a visual data platform that provides real-time intelligence for protected management areas. The new system has been deployed as a pilot program in Kenya.

Finally, to generate a broader understanding of the critical plight of African elephants, Paul Allen’s Vulcan Productions is releasing two films this year – “The Ivory Game,” an undercover feature-documentary, set to expose the dark world of ivory trafficking; and “Naledi: A Baby Elephant’s Tale,” the true story of a baby elephant born into an elephant rehabilitation program in Botswana and is orphaned at the age of one month.

For more information on the GEC results, please see:

The African Elephant Atlas , an interactive web-based data visualization of Vulcan’s Great Elephant Census Report
Principal Investigator, Mike Chase’s “ Continent-wide survey reveals massive decline in African savanna elephants,” paper.
Featured image courtesy The Great Elephant Census: A Paul G. Allen Project

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It was a calculated murder. He was piloting the helicopter when he was shot down with a single bullet, not as believed from an AK 47, but from a 458: a gun typically used by poachers for shooting elephants. He was scrambled to help wildlife authorities to track the poachers in Maswa Game Reserve, near Serengeti National Park – a hotspot for elephant poaching – when he was fatally wounded. A colleague, heroically, managed to crash land the helicopter but sadly Capt. Gower died before a rescue team could reach him. Pictures from the crash site clearly show a bullet hole through the pilot’s seat which entered from the floor. The survivor was being treated for shock and minor injuries.

Capt. Gower, a former accountant before qualifying as a pilot in 2004, moved to Africa about two years later and worked with a helicopter safari company. According to his former employer, he also supported the British Army on exercises in Tanzania. He had been working with the Friedkin Conservation Fund where Founder, Dan Friedkin, said the organisation was “profoundly saddened by the loss of our dear friend”. He had spotted three dead elephants and was circling after spotting a suspected cache of ivory when one of the poachers “jumped out of the bush” and fired on his helicopter, commented Pratik Patel, another colleague at the Friedkin Conservation Fund.

A man admired

Conservationist group Wildlife At Risk International posted pictures of the wreckage to Facebook, saying: “We are shocked by this unbelievably sad news and we extend our condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Capt. Roger.

Roger was a man admired by colleagues and much-loved by friends and family. His death cannot be forgotten and his murderers must be brought to trial to face the crimes they have committed as soon as possible.

Dan Friedkin said Roger’s work needed ‘honouring’ and he was committed to “ensuring that those responsible for this attack are found and brought to justice. We believe that Roger can best be honoured by redoubling our commitment to protect elephants and our priceless wildlife heritage.”

Capt. Gower had been keen to make a difference in a country where the elephant population had dwindled from 110,000 in 2009 to a little over 43,000 in 2014. “Roger was very, very active. He was very passionate about Africa. He loved Tanzania ,” said another colleague. “He was very keen on making a difference and helping and combating the poaching crisis.”

Tanzanian politician Lazaro Nyalandu tweeted Mr Gower’s killers were “coward, evil and sad people”.

Men arrested

Since Friday, Government Officials state five men have been arrested, shortly after the Tanzanian President Magufuli announced that he would make sure the murderers were found and brought to trial as soon as possible. His comments have come under fire but I see no reason to question him based on what he has spoken publicly previously. They included, reportedly, the person who supplied the ammunition and a person who provided accommodation for the poachers in the reserve near Serengeti National Park in the country’s north.

Efforts are still going on in Tanzania to track others suspected of being involved with the continued help from the Friedkin Conservation Fund who helped capture the five.

Eradicating Poaching

It is heart-rending that it takes incidents such as this to highlight the atrocious risks and frightening costs of protecting not just Tanzania’s, but Africa’s, wildlife that diminishes at an alarming rate every day.

Tragic incidents like this cloud the colossal efforts of several organisations and charities fighting to stop poaching in the northern regions of Tanzania. Tanzania has lost 60% of its elephants in just the last five years. Whilst their efforts tend to focus on protecting animals slaughtered for body parts to be sold in lucrative markets, efforts must now surely be upped in protecting those desperate to stop the poachers. Rangers are exposed daily to disturbing scenes of poached carcasses of elephants, rhinos, various cats and zebra amongst others. These grisly finds are a frustrating reminder of failure and the worrying plight of many species. A ranger’s pay and support is not always adequate in some countries but still they work unyielding to protect and save the lives of the animals in their regions.

Whilst this is the first incident of poachers shooting at our aerial surveillance patrols in its seven years of operation, it isn’t the first crime in seven years against conservationists in the country: last year, Emily Kisamo, head of Tanzania National parks’ head of anti-poaching was murdered. Whilst mean have been charged the reasons behind the murder are not clear. In 2014, for reasons unknown, a helicopter donated to the Tanzanian government to support anti-poaching, crashed, killing four.

In 2014, it was reported: ” Worldwide, about two rangers are killed every week ,” said Sean Willmore, president of the International Ranger Federation and founder of the Thin Green Line Foundation, a charity that trains rangers and supports the widows of those killed in the line of duty. “But that’s only partial data,” he adds. “It could be double that amount.”

The same year, retired US military officials and top diplomats urged African governments to increase the fight against illegal poaching amidst claims that poaching funded criminal and terrorist organisations; any determination to do so since where not enough to prevent this sad and tragic crime. Whether or not this is also the case in Tanzania isn’t clear but other questions must also be asked: how are these poachers acquiring the means to procure AK 47s and other weapons? The answer lies in the organised crime units operating in Africa. Whilst the poachers tend to come from local villages with knowledge of the environment and animals being poached, the export and intermediate trade is masterminded by much more dominant and affluent crime units. Conservationists have since said that extreme violence is a common feature of poachers who are often allied to terrorist groups such as al-Shabaab and Boko Haram; they use the funds from ivory sales to fund their operations.

Statistics like the one claimed by Sean Wilmore show a very exigent need to put into practise plans suggested in 2014 before another pointless and tragic death occurs. This isn’t just an African problem; it is a world-wide one! Many great charities and NGOs are doing as much as they can to tackle such problems but it isn’t just their responsibility. These organisations rely on private funding when a large proportion of their sources should be coming from governments who cannot afford to do their bit; this puts at risk their economies in years to come when tourists no longer visit countries to view game that no longer exists!

Certainly it appears there is enough evidence of organised crime being funded in Africa with poaching operations being hailed the new ‘blood diamonds’ of Africa now several insurgent groups are being accused of having a hand in poaching to raise funds for weapons whilst poachers become more sophisticated. State-sponsored anti-poaching patrols are outnumbered and outgunned . This makes eradicating them somewhat more difficult until the funds being used for and by poachers are cut. Permanently. How could this happen before another tragic murder occurs? It’s a question that needs answers now.

The Friedkin Conservation Fund has been working with the Tanzanian government agencies across six reserves it operates in to respond to what was described as an explosion of an “industrial scale” in poaching in the last few years, driven by demand from Asia and increased human population. Poaching for meat, ivory, fish, timber and illegal cattle encroachment are threats encountered daily across the countries network of national parks and game reserves. They have sixteen anti-poaching teams functioning across six reserves mobilised by a variety of vehicles. However, there are a further ten parks and reserves whose anti-poaching methods need further support, too.

FCF believe there are several things that could be done across Tanzania to answer the above question: a more coordinated and pro-active anti-poaching effort between the Government agencies and all the stakeholders (photographic & hunting operators). By increasing the numbers of well-trained ranger units in the field across Tanzania’s parks and reserves, they would be able to better protect the wildlife and deter poaching through a year round 24/7 presence. They believe it is a battle they cannot win alone. An increase in light aircraft and helicopters for aerial surveillance would also be exceedingly beneficial but to do this would mean more independent funding as it is beyond the government’s means.

It is shocking that the current penalties for poaching are a system of fine and short jail sentences for poaching offenders. This is hardly the deterrent desperately needed to reduce poaching. Alongside this, a reward system for information leading to arrests or confiscation of weapons is a great idea suggested by Andy Payne at FCF – with communities surrounding the reserves benefiting from compensation for information. As well as this, foreign and Tanzanian government cooperation on clamping down of illegal ivory leaving the country is not beyond the government’s means. If Magufuli wants to cut down on corruption, this would be one place to start.

A further change could be to implement the coordination of more wildlife authorities and organisations across Tanzania and in the neighbouring countries. The wildlife population in most other areas in Tanzania is poorly protected. As an inevitable consequence, poachers are turning to our wildlife reserves because that’s where the wildlife is abundant: it is relatively safe and secure in their natural habitat. It is this extreme pressure that puts brave young people, like Roger Gower, in danger. ‘This is a risk we have to accept when confronting armed poachers in the field,’ said Andy. It is a terrible acceptance they make. Help from fellow conservation organisations, such as Honeyguide Foundation, in coordination with the Tanzanian wildlife authorities, is desperately needed to fulfil responsibilities to protect the wildlife under their stewardship.

Enter Tac Trac, one such organisation based in South Africa who run projects aimed at eradicating poaching. Marcus Rangers and his team, along with Rosie Plaia from Different Rhythm, are currently developing a new initiative: Project Thin Green Line, to work towards this vision. In the future, hopefully Tanzania, and other countries in Africa who struggle with poachers, will also benefit from Tac Trac’s amazing work. However, organisations, like Tac Trac, Honeyguide and the FCF, operating in Africa, cannot be expected to solve the problem of poaching alone. Util more support is offered, crimes against rangers will continue across the African continent and the rest of the world.

What you can do 

Roger’s brothers, Max and John Gower, are raising £50,000 to help anti-poaching efforts in Tanzania because some good should come out of Roger’s tragic death. Please donate here:

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However, whilst I spent two days extremely happy that I had seen elephants – we had sporadic sightings of others, I was completely ignorant of the fact that what I should have been witnessing was much larger herds.

It was only after I moved to Africa in 2010 that I began to realise the enormity of destruction of wildlife habitats and the effect this was having on the fauna. In Mikumi National Park in Tanzania, I felt privileged to witness 9 elephants living in a herd; in Tarangire, where I thought I was even more privileged, herds of up to 100. Yet, had I come in the years before, I could have witnessed herds of up to 300.

The decimation of elephants in Tanzania is nothing new. Over the past seven years, several leading newspapers have reported their decline due to the ivory revenue they fetch.

Only last year, it was reported that 11,000 were being killed each year by poachers and in 2007 fears grew that by 2014 there was a strong possibility that elephants would become extinct in a country with no less than 16 national parks.

By June 2015 the elephant population had reduced from 109,000 to just 43,330. It is no great surprise that the government has faced heavy criticism for its failure to stop poachers stripping the country of an iconic animal. The government put into place a ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy last year, making national headlines for its sweeping arrests of suspected poachers. As Kikwete stepped down as president with the Tanzanian elections taking place on 25 October 2015, how far had this policy got?

The answer is, not very. It was suspended after 13 civilians were killed and reports of human rights abuse were made. These included the seizure of property, torture, murder and rape of apparently innocent people. Within weeks of the policy coming into fruition last year, the forced resignation of four Tanzanian ministers took place – including the resignation of the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism.

Ruaha National Park in the south west of the country suffered heavy losses of elephants. Now, it is Selous Reserve that has fallen victim to poachers and the mining of uranium by Russia and Canada, as reported in 2014.

In August 2015, a video released on Facebook by Pastor Donis Nkone shows supposed ivory products in a market in Dar es Salaam. Now making social media waves, the video condemns the production of ivory commodities amid claims they are sent to Taiwan and China. In the video, it claims elephants will be extinct in Tanzania within just 3 years from now. 

Even our own Prince William, who recently made a plea to China to expand their efforts in the cessation of their ivory trade, admits his relatives have been guilty of owning ivory produce in the past. 

He isn’t the only one speaking out as he has been joined by David Beckham and Yao Ming in speaking out on behalf of WildlifeAid to save wildlife everywhere. Until there is a world-wide ban and black markets are wiped out in this lucrative trade, seemingly the future of elephants will remain at risk. Or will it?

The future of elephants in Tanzania is bleak and it isn’t going to improve. But, there is a gleam of light in this ever so, proverbial, dark tunnel. The light comes in the form of Honeyguide Foundation.

Founded in 2007, Honeyguide’s inception began with a small team of people looking to improve tourism in northern Tanzania that would be beneficial to local tribes and villages. Jobs were created, revenue was raised and as the foundation grew. So did their responsibilities and capabilities.

Now, Honeyguide protects several parts of northern Tanzania and works across five of its community-based conservation areas. In its most recent annual report, it proudly announced that for two years running NO elephants had been poached in the Enduiment Wildlife Management Area; and poaching in the Manyara Ranch area had reduced by a staggering 95%.

 

This behemoth achievement was only possible due to the hard work of anti-poaching rangers and dogs used to protect the areas, tracking down potential poachers. They have introduced pioneering, intelligence-gathering software and use mobile apps to share data quickly and effectively. This is just naming one initiative of many they have introduced in the conservation of animals and human survival to run harmoniously.

Compare this statistic with the atrocious demise of the African elephant in Tanzania, and you can see the enormity of their achievement. Tanzania once had the largest population of elephants in Africa; now it has lost 60% of its elephants in just five years.

If Honeyguide made it possible to prevent poaching in an area of northern Tanzania, it can be made possible in the sixteen national parks and reserves where the ‘domino effect’ has already affected other wildlife, such as vultures, found poisoned by cyanide after eating elephant carcasses. 

As Honeyguide grows through more and more sponsorship, so can the excellent work it achieves across the northern regions, close to the border with Kenya. Other NGOs can use the same ideas and stratagems to boost conservation in the regions and areas they protect.

These same stratagems can also be used across the rest of Africa to protect an animal so iconic to the African continent.

Honeyguide certainly has a lot to teach the world in animal protection. But, a teacher is meaningless in a classroom with no students. 

For more information, please visit:
http://www.honeyguide.org

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The ivory in question had been seized by Malawi Revenue Authority in 2013 from two wildlife traffickers, Patrick and Chauncy Kaunda, and the High Court of Mzuzu had ordered its destruction as part of the sentencing on 28th July this year.

Malawi must now fight to ensure that the destruction of the ivory goes ahead after the 90 days granted by the stay order, and that the ivory is not extradited to Tanzania.   

“Today’s turn of events is a big disappointment to us,” said Brighton Kumchedwa, Director of National Parks & Wildlife, standing outside the High Court. “We, as Government, were ready to show the world our genuine commitment to fight wildlife crime.  Malawi is being exploited as a conduit by wildlife traffickers as can be seen from this very case.  Our plan was to send out a message to people – that if they think you can target our nation to traffic illicit goods then they can think again, because we shall turn it to ashes.”

Jonathan Vaughan, Director of Lilongwe Wildlife Trust, added, “Putting ivory stockpiles out of economic use is one of a number of steps that the Government of Malawi has committed to in its fight against wildlife crime, efforts that we shall continue to support.  Malawi’s stance is clear – that ivory is not for trade.”

This is the second burn to be postponed in Malawi this year.  On 2nd April, Malawi’s first planned destruction of its 4.1 tonne ivory stockpile was also cancelled at the last minute, the reason cited being the need for the inclusion of the ivory being held as part of the Mzuzu case.  A date for this is yet to be set. 

If the Tanzanian appeal is unsuccessful, the destruction of the ivory from the Mzuzu case will go ahead within 90 days as per the court ruling.

Kate Moore

Programmes Manager, Lilongwe Wildlife Trust

Tel: 00 265 993 800289 / 00 265 211 951 456

E: kate@lilongwewildlife.org / katemoore01@outlook.com

W: www.lilongwewildlife.org

The post Malawi: Another Ivory Burn Postponed appeared first on African Conservation Foundation.

‘To say we were disappointed with the sentence would be an understatement.’ said Hon Werani Chilenga, MP, the Chair of both the Natural Resource Committee and the newly formed Malawi Parliamentary Conservation Caucus (MPCC).  Chilenga chose the launch of the MPCC, which was presided over by H.E. Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika, President of the Republic of Malawi, to highlight the case and the need to take a tough stance on wildlife criminals, in particular to bring sentencing into line with that of other African countries. 

Malawi a soft target

In his speech Hon. Chilenga compared the judgements of trafficking cases from other African countries from last year to illustrate the gap.  “In Zambia, a man receives 5 years in prison for 12.5kg of ivory, in South Africa 10 years and a $392,000 fine for 1 tonne, and in Kenya, $233,000 for a single tusk weighing 3.4kg,” he said.  “Compare those to our recent sentencing and it is clear why Malawi is seen as a soft target for wildlife criminals.”

Brighton Kumchedwa, Director of Parks & Wildlife (DNPW), added, “The fine is the highest in the history of wildlife in Malawi. However we are aware that this is not commensurate with the sentencing of other countries, and with this in mind we look forward to the imminent review of the wildlife act and associated legislation.”

Jonathan Vaughan, Director of Lilongwe Wildlife Trust, who also sat on the organising committee for the launch of the MPCC, said, “We welcome the tough talk on combatting wildlife crime from all of the speakers. We are looking forward to working together with the MPCC to keep wildlife conservation issues on the agenda, and to seeing the highest of political wills we have heard today further translate into collaboration and action.”

Serious crimes

His Excellency, President Mutharika, gave a rousing speech in which he highlighted the pressing need to formulate legislation that elevated the appropriate wildlife and environmental crimes to the level of serious crimes.  He also pledged his full support to ensuring the caucus succeeded and in particular thanked the International Conservation Caucus Foundation (ICCF) for their instrumental role in establishing the MPCC . 

The ICCF Group first set up the International Conservation Caucus (ICC) in the US in 2003.  It is now the largest and the most bi-partisan collaboration in the US Congress.   ICCF have since facilitated the formation of a number of caucuses around the world with successes in Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania, Namibia and Uganda.  Similarly, the Malawi Parliamentary Conservation Caucus is a coalition of MPs, open to participation from all committees and all parties to encourage diversity in terms of perspectives, opinions and knowledge.  The caucus will provide a forum for its members to engage with a collaboration of stakeholders from other government agencies, the business community, NGO’s and development institutions for the purpose of developing a deeper understanding of the conservation challenges facing Malawi, and to pursue collaborative natural resource management actions.

In her speech, Susan Lyllis, Vice President of ICCF, said, “It is truly rare and commendable when the leader of a country makes a commitment of this magnitude to protect the natural resources of its nation for its citizens and future generations and then follows through with immediate action.”

Following the launch, a roundtable meeting was facilitated by ICCF with MPs from the MPCC, government department heads, and other stakeholders including African Parks, CEPA, CURE, Lilongwe Wildlife Trust and UNDP.  Again, the Mzuzu ivory case was discussed as an example of why legislation and judiciary training needed to be prioritised.  The MPCC pledged to help the Departments of Wildlife, Environmental Affairs and Forestry to ensure their associated proposed bills and revised acts were pushed forward to give authorities the powers to act appropriately with regard to serious wildlife and environment crimes.

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