.JPG)
By ADAM IHUCHA, -- Tanzania has offered poachers
unlimited amnesty, saying they would be forgiven if they surrendered but they
would face the "full might" of state wrath if they did not.
“The state would pardon poachers who would voluntarily
confess and surrender to the authorities” announced the Natural Resources and
Tourism Minister, Lazaro Nyalandu at the climax of the Elephant and Rhino March
in Arusha.
Mr Nyalandu also used the march to implore women to
press their spouses with element of poaching to surrender before it was too
late, as those who fail would soon face the full wrath of the law.
“It’s an open secret that women are powerful when it
comes to their spouses. I call upon all women to pursue their poacher husbands to
surrender before it’s too late for the sake of the family” he stressed.
The cabinet minister, however, made a passionate call
to the international community to ban trade on ivory and rhino products in
order to stop the heightening poaching of the threatened wildlife.
He also urged the Asian population to stop purchasing
products with elephant tusks and rhino horns.
Unlike the ivory, which is a raw material for making
covers for handlers of daggers and other items, the rhino horns are in
high demand mainly in the Asian market, as it is believed that it is an
effective sex energizer.
Tour operators and
conservationists are warning that the
African elephant and rhinos are doomed to extinction, if the states and
stakeholders do not act.
Chairman of Tanzania Tour Operators Association (TATO),
Mr. Willy chambulo says that the wildlife-rich country will have no elephant
left by 2020, possibly earlier at current rates of loss.
“We may have as few as 100 Black Rhino left in
Tanzania and all of them are protected at excessive expense. Their future is
precarious” Mr. Chambulo told the audience.
According to him, Tanzania has been losing an
estimated 9-10,000 elephants per annum. It is estimated that nearly 70,000
elephants left down from approximately 106, 000 in 2009 and 200,000 in 1970.
Though the extent of poaching, particularly in the
South and West of the country appears to have slowed down more census work is
expected in these areas to compare with the census taken at the same time last
year.
Globally wildlife campaigners say an estimated 35,000
elephants and 1,000 rhinos are killed each year as demand for ivory and rhino
horn drives increasing poaching rates.
This demand means
both species could potentially be wiped out within the next 20 years.
Chambulo further
said the existing policy was partly to blame for escalating poaching of
elephants and rhino.
He said
ordinary Tanzanians surrounding the resources were sitting on the fence, as
they perceived the treasure trove was not theirs, but belonged to the State.
The
policy should have considered availing more opportunities for ordinary
Tanzanians to directly reap benefits accrued from natural resources.
Community
in and around wildlife-protected areas could fight poaching effectively, if
they are meaningfully benefiting from the resources.
TATO
chief said that the government has no option rather than to embrace the
community if the war against poaching is to be won.
“The
communities in and around the wildlife protected areas feel that the animals
are the state properties and that they have no direct link with their lives”
Chambullo stressed.
Tuesday’s seven km’s
march was timed to coincide with Nyerere Memorial Day. The Father of Nation and
first president Mwalimu Julius Nyerere died in a London hospital on October
14th, 1999.
The late Nyerere is credited for his firm support to
the conservation agenda which has seen at least 200,000 square kilometres
or nearly a quarter of the country's land surface reserved for wildlife
conservation.
Few weeks before Tanganyika's independence in 1961,
Nyerere as the Chief Minister of Tanganyika, issued The Arusha Manifesto which
articulated the country's resolve to protect the wildlife "for our
future livelihood and well being."
0 comments:
Post a Comment