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Project update - April 2006
Zambia's
Wildlife Conflict
Report from Marianthy Noble, DSWF Representative
Human / animal conflicts all over the world
have tragically become part of our culture. At what point do we
stop and take stock of the devastation that man has wrought on
other inhabitants of this planet? Here in Zambia, elephants continue
to pay the price for our greed for land, food and luxury.
Zambia has lost over 90% of its elephants,
primarily due to the ivory trade, with fewer than 22,000 left.
In a country of 750,000 sq km, just 600 men patrol this vast area
of wilderness to protect against ruthless poachers and address
conflict issues.
In the Eastern Province a handful of dedicated
men, supported by DSWF, are tracking illegal caches of ivory being
smuggled from Africa to the Far East. With shockingly few resources,
they know where the ivory comes from, and its probable destination,
but so often the culprits are either 'protected' or simply manage
to evade justice. Zambia's brave wildlife scouts face a thankless
task, which has even cost some their lives at the hands of ruthless
poachers or angry villagers.
Unless the international community helps
us to put more effective measures in place to control illegal
trade, with enormous penalties for both buyers and sellers, we
have no hope and our men and elephants will continue to die. The
reality is that every day ivory is found on sale in our markets
or confiscated at our airports - it is getting worse not better.
Our young elephant Phoenix is an orphan
of our poaching war. Over the last few years we have been alerted
dozens of times about other tiny victims, but despite immediate
dispatch of our medical rescue teams, our only success to date
has been Phoenix. It has been a long and difficult journey, increasingly
due to external causes, but we hope that by the end of this exceptionally
long rainy season, Phoenix, who is now five, will begin her long
walk back to freedom, where she belongs.
Every little contribution helps wildlife
and remember 100% of your donation will go in full to the project - thank you!
You can also help by becoming a member
of DSWF. Click here for more information
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