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DAR ES SALAAM Tanzania (Xinhua) --
Britain on Friday reaffirmed its commitment to
working with East African governments in fighting poaching and the
illegal wildlife trade.
“Only through partnerships among governments and other players, the
war on poaching and illegal wildlife trade would be won,” said Matt
Sutherland, the British Deputy High Commissioner to Tanzania.
Sutherland said the British government placed a high priority on
protecting Tanzania’s unique biodiversity, and that doing so was
good for the environment, the economy and for social development
within the country.
He spoke in the east African nation’s tourist city of Arusha during
talks with the Director General of Tanzania National Parks Authority
(TANAPA), Allan Kijazi, shortly after the British envoy handed over
laptops to help with better collection and use of data and
intelligence.
“We are delighted to be part of the Tanzania government’s efforts to
fight illegal poaching,” said Sutherland, adding: “By bringing
together information and intelligence, TANAPA can tackle criminal
networks, identifying trends and patterns in behavior to ensure they
are one step ahead of poachers.”
He said working together with neighboring countries will ensure that
criminal networks cannot exploit borders for their own gain.
The handover of laptops marked the completion of two rounds of
regional training involving conservation officials from Tanzania,
Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda.
The training was facilitated by The British Peace Support Team (BPST)
based in Kenya. BPST is part of the British Army which coordinates
and delivers peace support training across the Eastern African
region.
In June 2015, the government of Tanzania released an elephant
population estimate from a country-wide aerial survey which showed
that the elephant population has declined by 60 percent since 2009.
A
2014 elephant census showed that the country has a total elephant
population of 43,521, compared to the 2009 census where there were
109,051 elephants in the East African nation.
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EARLIER REPORT:
China sees sharp decline in ivory
smuggling in 2016
BEIJING China (Xinhua) -- The amount of smuggled ivory tracked down
in China fell 80 percent in 2016 from previous peak years, the State
Forestry Administration (SFA) said Sunday.
Liu Dongsheng, deputy head of the SFA, made the remarks at the
opening ceremony of a wildlife protection campaign, without
specifying detailed numbers.
China will stop commercial processing and sales of ivory by the end
of this year. Last year, it imposed a three-year ban on ivory
imports in an escalated fight against illegal trading of wild
animals and plants.
The number of illegal wildlife trade cases has been on the decline
since last year, said Liu.
Meanwhile, the numbers of critically endangered species in China,
including giant pandas, crested ibis, Yangtze alligators and Tibetan
antelopes, have been increasing steadily, he said.
China’s newly-revised law on wild animal protection took effect at
the start of this year, imposing harsher punishment on overkilling
and illegal utilization of wild animals. |
