DSWT NEWSLETTER 2013_Elephants and Ivory variety perpetrated by local tribesmen, who allegedly had been paid by Somalis to set about the elephants in retribution for them and their cattle having been evicted from the Taita Ranches and the Park. The Trust’s Tsavo Mobile Veterinary Unit headed by a KWS Vet was treating numerous arrowed elephants in order to try and save them, as the country awaited the long promised passage of the new Wildlife Bill into law which incorporates more severe deterrent punishments for poaching offences (In the Bill it says liffe in imprisonment and/or Kshs. 20 million). It seemed obvious that the poaching fraternity was taking advantage of the gap in the passage of this Bill to get as much as they could while they could! The New Wildlife Conservation and Management Bill came into law on 24th December 2013. Hopeful signs that the tide might just be turning in favour of the elephants came towards the end of the year when Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was joined by the President of Gabon in pushing for greater efforts to protect Africa’s elephants at the Clinton Global Initiative function. In November, the Obama Administration crushed the U.S. stockpile of 6 tons of seized ivory just months after committing $10 million to assist in the fight against the illegal ivory trade. With ivory trafficking now defined by the United Nations as a serious crime, an Elephant Summit held in Botswana agreed new measures with U.N. support to combat trafficking; stronger enforcement and forfeiture of illegal seizures, extradition of suspects, mutual help and a zero tolerance approach to poaching and smuggling. Six States signed the petition, but all 30 attending the Summit agreed and were committed. At least we end 2013 on a more hopeful note, but time is not on the side of elephants. The key lies with insuring a total ban on all international and domestic ivory trade is enforced throughout China to the U.S., with all consumer countries in-between following this global lead, for only a total ban on all trade will save the elephants and give them time to recover from decades of mass slaughter for their ivory teeth. Unless this happens, elephants in the wild could be wiped out within the next 10 years.
The Rhinos
The plight of Africa’s Rhinos is equally as dire as that of its Elephants, if not even more so. (White Rhinos are not indigenous in Kenya, the current population being descendants of a handful of individuals imported from South Africa by Private Ranch Owners). In the 1960’s Kenya had a Black Rhino population of 20,000, today it has less than 500. The Tsavo National Park had 8,000 free ranging Black Rhinos, today they have all but gone, just a handful remaining in Tsavo East, and a small population enclosed in the electrically fenced Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary, where even there, there have been losses, so the number remaining is unclear. Distressingly just 1kg of rhino horn is valued at USD$65,000 making it more valuable than gold. Rhino Horn is a valuable commodity in Far Eastern Asian countries, where the ancient myth is that it contains medicinal properties, is a cure all and an aphrodisiac, despite the fact that it is exactly the same substance as a fingernail or a hair/ keratin. In fact, if the populous of those countries simply bit their fingernails, they would be ingesting an identical product. The presence of Chinese Nationals in Kenya and all Rhino Range States has caused an unprecedented surge in Rhino Poaching; this is responsible for driving the demand a thousand fold, especially in a country where unemployment and poverty exists, and where the temptation to kill a rhino for its horn is difficult to resist, even by those paid to protect them. Yet again, corruption has taken perhaps
76
the greatest toll here in Kenya, with Law Enforcement Agencies easily paid off by the professional smuggling cartels, and the rewards well worth the risk. Currently, South Africa is home to about 90% of the world’s Rhino population, which includes both the Black and Southern White species. The number poached there has increased from 13 in 2007 to 1,004 in 2013. The Western Black Rhino, last seen in West Africa in 2006, has now been declared Extinct by IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature). The only good news insofar as Rhinos are concerned comes from Nepal where the Great Indian Rhino has increased in number, and where poaching is under control.