Project update - August 2006

WILDLIFE WARS CONTINUE: WHAT HAS GONE WRONG?

In Africa, wildlife populations continue to decline mainly due to human greed. Large volumes of live and dead wildlife specimens are being illegally traded across the globe accounting for over US$ 10 billion annually. The consumer nations seem not to worry about the predicaments and cries of those who are losing wild animal and plant species. A number of factors that include inadequate resources, insufficient information flow, limited awareness on wildlife crime by law enforcers, inadequate/outdated wildlife legislations and corruption have continued to impede effective wildlife law enforcement.

Law enforcement agencies are usually prompt in releasing general information on seizures and inadvertently fail to avail pertinent details especially to the authorities of countries where the contraband originates. This only prolongs the investigations thereby making them costly and gives the suspects ample time to manipulate as well as interfere with the investigations. Investigations into some seizures of wildlife specimens have taken as long as one year to be instituted during which time vital evidence has been lost.

Law enforcement agencies (LEAs) that control exports and imports appear not to have mastered the art of outwitting illegal wildlife traders. The various documents that accompany the traders' shipments are usually fraudulent as cargo clearing agents are not adequately monitored and more often details of the shipments are not thoroughly examined. Another weakness in the system is the random verification by LEAs which may be exploited by the syndicates to ship illicit goods from point of export or outside the port yard.

Fighting wildlife crime is further made difficult by outdated wildlife legislations and lack of domestication of regional and international conservation treaties coupled with inadequate and ill equipped personnel. This situation is exacerbated by inadequate remuneration of the law enforcement officers who often resort to engaging in corrupt practices.

In an effort to surmount this challenge, the Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF) has been encouraging inter-agency cooperation and is collaborating with other law enforcement agencies by carrying out joint operations against illegal wildlife trade. The following two recent cases illustrate the prevalence of the problem and the endeavours being taken to resolve it.

LATF and ZAWA team nabs ivory smugglers in western Zambia

LATF and the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) conducted a joint law enforcement operation in July 2006 in pursuit of illegal elephant ivory trafficking along the Angola and western Zambian border. The operation covered Senanga, Sioma, Nangweshi and Shangombo areas which are contiguous with the Zambia-Angola border.

Intelligence gathered led the team to a suspect's house which was cordoned off and thoroughly searched. The search yielded results with the recovery of one complete and a cut piece of elephant tusks. The team further applied the use of the recently acquired ivory detector to detect and was satisfied that there were no other hidden tusks within the compound.

The suspect revealed that the two pieces of tusks were supplied by a community scout based at a Sioma ZAWA camp in the Sioma-Ngwezi National Park.

LATF and ZAWA team nabs ivory smugglers in western Zambia

From the information gathered during the interrogation of the suspect, the team then proceeded to the home of an ivory processor and caught him red-handed processing the bangles within the compound. He was found in possession of the following;
1 complete tusk, 5 cut raw pieces, 37 slices of ivory for processing into bangles soaked in a container and 15 Ivory bangles. Two (2) metal files for processing ivory bangles and one metal clamp were also recovered.

On further interrogation, the suspect reported that two days earlier, another person from the same village had collected fifty (50) ivory bangles for sale in Senanga and admitted that he usually received ivory supplies from wildlife police officers to process into bangles. The allegation has been brought to the attention of senior authorities at ZAWA.

Suspect arrested with elephant tusks at Sioma village.

The team handed over the suspects to Nangweshi Police and proceeded to Shangombo, one of the border towns. On the same day, the team made a follow up of intelligence information alleging that some suspects were in possession of five (5) elephant tusks. Using the information, the tusks which had been cut into seven pieces and hidden along Shangombo/ Nangweshi road were recovered and two suspects immediately apprehended. The suspects were also taken to Nangweshi Police Station where they were detained.

Suspect arrested with raw and worked elephant ivory from his workshop in Nakuvunze village

The suspect, who had earlier been reported to have collected some ivory bangles for sale in Senanga was also pursued and arrested. ZAWA commenced prosecution of the suspects.

Intelligence gathered during this operation gives credence to the fact that smuggling of ivory from Angola to Zambia is still rampant and continues to be of great concern to conservationists. It is suspected that the Angolan civil war had caused the slaughter of large herds of elephants whose ivory proceeds could have been used to finance the war. Some ivory from this stock is still being released into illegal markets. With the third generation of Angolan refugees still moving back and forth, and unless law enforcement is intensified, this blatant smuggling of ivory and diamonds will continue.

This operation would not have been possible without the generous financial support of the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) which has continued to support conservation of wild fauna and flora in Africa.

Suffocating tortoises rescued

Recently, an illegal shipment of 228 live tortoises (198 leopard tortoises (Geochelone pardalis) and 30 Bell's Hingeback tortoises (Kinixys belliana) were intercepted at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi while on transit from Entebbe, Uganda to Bangkok, Thailand. The consignment, comprising seventeen poorly ventilated metal boxes was being transferred from import to export section at the airport to be put on the next flight to its destination when an attentive cargo handler heard some movement sounds in what was supposed to be tortoise shells and alerted his supervisor on the anomaly. Upon inspection, it was discovered that the metal boxes contained live tortoises. This seizure was purportedly cleared by various institutions that handle export of cargo namely the Wildlife Authority, the CITES Management Authority, Customs officials, a clearing agent and an airline carrier.

Some of the 228 tortoises seized in Nairobi, Kenya on transit from Entebbe Uganda to Bangkok Thailand, August 2006

Investigations by the Task Force and the Kenya Wildlife Service revealed that the live tortoises cargo had been shipped from Uganda despite the glaring discrepancies on the accompanying documents. Besides the airway bill fraudulently indicating that they were tortoise shells, the CITES export permit, which had earlier been issued for live tortoises, had long expired. Further investigations revealed possible conspiracy between the shipper and the individual enforcement agents. This incident is not an isolated one where licensed wildlife dealers have taken advantage of their legal status to engage in illegal trade. The findings of the investigations have since been handed over to the relevant Ugandan Authorities for further action.

By: Director, Lusaka Agreement Task Force

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