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Sifelani Tsiko The Interview
All forms of wildlife trafficking taken together constitute one of the most lucrative forms of illicit trade, with the United Nations Environment Programme estimating the value of illegal trade at between US$7 billionand $23 billion per year. This makes wildlife crime one of the most lucrative illegal businesses run by sophisticated, international criminal syndicates. Our Agric & Environment Editor Sifelani Tsiko (ST), speaks to Olivia Mufute (OM), the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) Zimbabwe country director about illegal wildlife trafficking in Africa.
ST: Chimpanzees and other apes are endangered species with only around 200 000 left in the wild. Wildlife experts say their numbers are projected to decline by 80 percent by 2050 due to habitat loss, diseases and poaching, compounded by their slow reproduction rate. Illegal trafficking is still widespread in Africa and recently, at least 25 gorillas and chimpanzees taken illegally from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)were seized recently at Chirundu Border Post in Zimbabwe, where four suspected traffickers were arrested en route to South Africa. What is your general comment about the recovery and arrest of the traffickers?
OM: The arrest shows the level of vigilance our law enforcement officers are at our borders. More support is needed to ensure that this is maintained. Something of concern is how these traffickers passed through the border between Zambia and DRC without being detected. Some baby chimps, for example, taken from their mothers often end up very distressed and die. Babies rather than adult chimps as well as gorillas, are trafficked because the adults are too strong for people to handle. So the adults end up being shot. They are also transported in cages and covered trucks to avoid being detected by law enforcers, further adding to their distress.
I would like to commend the law enforcement officers who worked together to arrest the traffickers. This is a great show of international cooperation and I hope it motivates countries to collaborate even more in order to fight illegal wildlife trade, which has proven to be a transboundary crime, just like the drug trade and human trafficking. Agencies like AWF can help. We are currently working with Zimbabwe and Zambian authorities to secure the cross-boundary area along the Zambezi.
ST: How prevalent is wildlife crime in Africa? Which are the hardest hit countries in terms of wildlife related crimes?
OM: Wildlife crime is very common — it occurs in all countries where the poached and trafficked species exist in the wild. No country where elephants, rhinos, pangolins and other such species occur is safe from the wildlife criminals.
Where the species do not occur naturally in the wild, such countries are used as trafficking routes or transit as the crime is transnational until the wildlife products get to the consumer countries. Some of the hardest hit countries (source, transit and destination) are South Africa, Mozambique, DRC, Cameroon, Botswana, Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ethiopia, CAR, Singapore, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand and China.
ST: Africa still has a rich wildlife resource base which is increasingly coming under threat from poaching and trafficking. Which are the top five emblematic creatures which are seriously in danger from being killed and harvested illegally?
OM: Rhino, elephants, pangolins, cheetahs, lions including a apes — chimps and gorillas.
ST: Which wildlife species have gone extinct in Africa due to wildlife crimes and other environmental factors?
OM: The western black rhino, cape lion, blue-buck antelope, quagga, Mauritian flying fox, the dodo.
ST: Conservation measures and other mechanisms to prevent wildlife trafficking have been adopted in various African countries. Is there any positive change you are observing in various African countries in terms of decline in ivory trade, rhino horn and other wildlife products of endangered species? Is there a ray of hope?
OM: Yes, lots of hope. Between 2014-2018, AWF’s supported elephant conservation efforts was very successful. We were able to reverse the decline of 10 out of 14 elephant populations in nine countries across Africa with a cumulative population size of 189 835 individuals, equivalent to 46 percent of the continental population. Some countries previously listed by CITES as the Gang of Eight have been removed from the list, for example Kenya and Uganda. Poaching of elephants has gone down — there was a steady increase in levels of illegal killing of elephants in Africa, starting in 2006 and peaking in 2011, followed by a steady downward trend. The continental illegal killing of elephants remained essentially unchanged (constant) between 2017 and 2018. For rhinos, between 2014-2018, AWF helped to stabilise and increase rhino numbers at 10 sites in southern and eastern Africa. In the same period, seven out of the nine carnivore populations supported were stable or increasing, two giraffe populations were increasing and one out of eight great ape populations was increasing — mountain gorillas in Virunga Massif and Bwindi. Continentally, there was a gradual decline in the number of poached rhino in Africa, from the highest peak in 2015 to 2018.
ST: Wildlife related crime is increasingly becoming sophisticated with criminals and syndicates using an array of digital platforms and other tools to perpetrate their activities. How is the African Wildlife Foundation supporting various African countries to upgrade their tools for the conservation of wildlife and protected areas?
OM: For anti-trafficking, AWF has two initiatives — Canines for Conservation and prosecutorial and judicial programmes. The Canine for Conservation Programme has been instrumental in apprehending traffickers. The canines have apprehended many ivory, rhino horn and other wildlife products traffickers and hundreds of kilos seized.
The AWF Judicial and Prosecutorial Assistance Programme supplements the efforts of the Canines. It ensures that those apprehended by the Canines are successfully prosecuted. More importantly, the programme assists governments to improve and strengthen their wildlife laws so that very punitive measures are taken against wildlife traffickers, including life sentences and asset forfeiture. Recently, the Judicial and Prosecutorial Assistance Programme added wildlife cybercrime, which is using the cyberspace technology to apprehend the traffickers. Currently, AWF is training wildlife authorities on this technology. These efforts/approaches — Anti-poaching, Canines and Judicial Assistance have and will effectively cut the supply and demand chain. AWF is also supporting the installation and use of digitalised radio communications systems, use of drones for easy detection of poachers or detection of illegal activities, and the use of camera traps at strategic points such as water holes or known poachers routes.
ST: Is the African Wildlife Foundation engaging governments and politicians to push for reforms to parliamentary conservation laws and policies which have largely been blamed as weak and archaic in some cases?
OM: Yes, through the Judicial and Prosecutorial Assistance Programme, AWF has been at the forefront to assist various countries to amend their laws and make it very punitive to the offenders. One positive outcome is the amendment of the Kenya Wildlife Act 2013, which has very punitive laws. The programme also trains and engages multi agencies — judicially, directorates of public prosecutions, custom, police and revenue authorities — in fighting the crime.
ST: Wildlife traffickers and criminal syndicates usually take advantage of the poor local communities who survive on wildlife and wildlife products. How best can African countries engage local communities in the conservation and protection of wildlife resources?
OM: By making the local communities being part of the natural resource decision making process and ownership. More importantly by improving their livelihoods and reducing dependence on wildlife resources.
A positive outcome is the support to establishment of community wildlife conservancies through which they can generate revenue from tourism. Mitigating human-wildlife conflicts is also key to ensuring their tolerance hence coexistence with wildlife. Communities can only be part of the country’s conservation efforts if they see value in wildlife and this value can only be seen if there are tangible benefits. African countries must do away with the fortress kind of conservation where communities are not part of the conservation efforts.
ST: Covid-19 has affected several countries which survive on wildlife tourism for their operations to protect wildlife resources. What has the AWF done to support the affected countries?
OM: AWF has contributed funds to support rangers — salaries, rations and Covid-19 protective gear. We have also supported their operational costs including support to tracker dogs — donation of trained dogs and fuel for operations.
ST: What are your general hopes for the future of the African wildlife resources in the wake of the continent’s rapid urbanisation, sophisticated criminal tools and climate change?
OM: We must remain cognisant of the fact that the drivers of wildlife crime, habitat loss and wildlife decline is the increasing human population, underlying poverty, incompatible land uses and infrastructural developments.
However, conservation must go hand in hand with development, we must therefore find a balance between the two. The future of wildlife can be secured, if we influence the right policies and at the same time address human needs.
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