Poaching on Kenya-Tanzania border a security threat
Amboseli Senior Warden Kenneth ole Nashio addressing wildlife stakeholders in Taveta on February 9, 2017. Rangers from Kenya and Tanzania said increased poaching is posing a security threat along the border of the two countries. PHOTO | LUCY MKANYIKA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Stakeholders from the two countries said poaching has threatened to wipe out endangered species from national parks.
- Wildlife organisations urged to stop relying only on donor agencies to fund conservation activities.
- Komolo urged governments to set aside enough budgets to fund wildlife protection activities.
Cross-border rangers from Kenya and Tanzania say increased poaching is posing a security threat along the border of the two countries.
Speaking at Green Park hotel in Taveta, Taita Taveta County, during the Kilimanjaro landscape cross-border wildlife security meeting, stakeholders from the two countries said poaching has also threatened to wipe out endangered animal species from national parks.
Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Southern Conservation Area Acting Assistant Director Nelly Palmeris said joint a partnership from both countries will curb the vice.
“Wildlife crime has increasingly become a menace and a major impediment to environmental conservation,” she said.
She said KWS and the government are determined to counter the challenge and are ready to join with other agencies from the neighbouring country to reduce the crime.
“As we deliberate on this collaboration, we should ask ourselves how we can stand against these challenges which hinder us from protecting our wildlife as they move from one country to another,” she added.
Wildlife conservation bodies from the two countries led by African Wildlife Foundation pledged to foster cooperation among them.
WILDLIFE CRIME
Tanzania’s Enduimet Wildlife Management Area chairperson, Samuel Komolo, said the cooperation among them will combat wildlife crime at the Kenyan-Tanzanian trans-boundary ecosystem.
He said working together by sharing resources, experiences and information will help in addressing poaching and wildlife-related crimes.
He said harmonisation and collaboration of law enforcement activities including patrols will also bring down cases of poaching and increase security in national parks and conservancies along the border.
KEEP LIVESTOCK OFF PARKS
“We should also inform communities around conservation areas to keep livestock from these areas. We have experienced [an] influx of livestock because of drought which has hit some parts of these regions,” he added.
Mr Komolo also urged wildlife organisations to shun from relying on donor agencies to fund conservation activities.
He urged both governments to set aside enough budgets to fund wildlife protection activities.
"We have realised that when donors withdraw their funds, conservation agencies collapse. We should put guidelines which will make such bodies to continue with their activities even after withdrawal of donor funds," he added.
However, the rangers suggested that citizens from both countries should be involved in wildlife conservation.
“Some say wildlife belongs to government because they don’t know that they are important to all of us. It is time we create awareness about the benefits if wildlife to a country,” said a ranger from Arusha Anti-Poaching Unit, Prosper Kihundo.
