Poaching, Wildlife Trade Provokes Outrage

By Robert Tumasang

Government and some NGOs working for wildlife protection have expressed outrage at the  horrible spectre of poaching and wildlife trafficking in the East Region.

 

Cameroon's endangered wildlife species like this risk extinction

Meeting on December 17-18, 2008, in Abong-Mbang, some 300 km from the Cameroon capital  Yaounde, members of the East Regional Committee for the Fight Against Poaching, including  CAMEROON wildlife officials, NGOS like the WWFand GTZ, traders in wildlife, the forces of law and order etc, all expressed concern that such iconic species like chimpanzees, gorillas, sitatungas and elephants were being killed by the day by poachers.

The statistics are staggering. In 2008, 60 elephant tusks and 11 elephant tails were 
confiscated from poachers in the Boumba et Ngoko Division of Cameroon’s East Region alone. 

Axiomatically, at least 30 elephants were killed, going by the 60 tusks. A parrot poacher was arrested with 350 parrot heads, while 12 panther heads and a Sitatunga 
skin were confiscated from poachers in the Region.Cross-border arms trafficking and the proliferation of arms have been largely blamed for the rise in poaching and wildlife trafficking in the Region.

Last year, game rangers seized 380 munitions, 46 arms and over 20,000 wire snares from 
poachers.Pandong Eidel, Forestry and Wildlife Delegate for the Boumba et Ngoko Division, told those who attended the Abong-Mbang meeting that, “Arms generally come from the Congo through border towns like Moloundou and Lamidom as well as from the Central African Republic.

“These are countries that are frequently embroiled in internal strife and the consequences 
have been that arms are trafficked across the borders into the forests of South East 
Cameroon where three National Parks, the Nki, the Boumba-Bek and the Lobeke, covering some 760,000 hectares have been created.”

The arms, most of them war weapons such as the Kalashnikov AK 47 generally fall into the hands of poachers who wreck havoc on wildlife in the Region.The Delegate regretted that the game rangers, numbering only about 29 in the Region, “are not only poorly equipped, they are also numerically inferior to the poachers, and this makes any effective fight against poaching difficult.”

Besides, the global credit crunch has had a tremendous effect on wildlife survival in South 
East Cameroon.“Poaching is intensifying in the East Region especially as the global financial crisis has affected logging companies, which are now retrenching most of their workers.

The spiral of unemployment so created has led the jobless to turn to poaching as an alternative,” Bruno Mfou’ou, the East Regional Delegate for Forestry and Wildlife told said.
The Conservator of the Lobeke National Park, Albert Mounga Abanda, complained that the 
implantation of logging companies and mining enterprises in the region has had the effect of encouraging poaching by opening up roads that poachers use to easily skirt control from game rangers.

These roads also facilitate trafficking in wildlife, as “bush meat” sellers find easy access 
to the markets.Participants also complained about administrative bottlenecks, as people of high standing in  society have frequently been involved in what has become known as “white collar poaching.”

According to Leon Nkantio, the Conservator of the Boumba–Bek National Park, some 600 km from Yaoundé, some government functionaries now use loopholes in the laws on wildlife to foster poaching in the region. “The laws on wildlife conservation give local communities the right to carry out subsistence hunting in community hunting zones. But, unfortunately, some highly placed people now hide behind this law and supply local populations, especially the indigenous Baka pygmies with guns to hunt for them,” he said.

To curb the phenomenon, participants, amongst other things, proposed the intensification of joint patrols that would bring together game rangers from the Central Africa Republic, 
Cameroon and the Congo, in accordance with the Sangha Tri-National Framework.

The need to limit the proliferation of fire arms was also stressed while they agreed on the 
necessity to discourage the sale of bush meat in township markets since poachers operate because there is a consumer market.

They also said there is need to work in synergy with all stakeholders: consumers, hunters, 
conservators, NGOS, the civil society and the forces of law and order.

Comments

[Nkem]

Hey, it is good news to hear that our beloved minister is in action. I have never known him as a news make except for – when we where tracking his 100 days in office and this one funny degree he has passed to stop bensikin. That’s great PM keep it out.

Enough of politics!

Why are people killing chimpanzees? Don’t they know that there is a probability that it is the source of HIV/AIDS in the world? Have you guys are read recently the write up on AIDS which is linked to the Polio vaccines? Sure if not people should be careful with primates as they are dangerous. I don’t know how to go about this… but I was discussing with some doctors in the USA and there is a strong argument about a mistake that was made on the polio vaccines and more than 1000 people vaccinated in Congo. They are trying to get the doctor of the operation who is still alive to speak, but he is twisting stuff. So in the mean time, I understand things are very hard, but our health should be supreme not eat. The chimpanzee should not even be encouraged as meat for the pot.

Please brothers stop eaten this kind of meat!