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| Tanzania's Minister of Tourism and Natural Resources, Khamis Kagasheki |
The government has unearthed a new modus operand by international smugglers transporting the ivory contraband from Tanzania.
The African has been informed that this is first of its kind smuggling attempt by Chinese smugglers who last week were netted with 706 elephant tasks weighing 1,800 kilogramme from three Chinese garlic traders.
Ambassador Khamis Kagasheki, Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism told The African that investigation has started to trace the numbers written in some of the ivory pieces to net the culprits.
Kagasheki said that smugglers have now devices new technique by engraving the ivory to show the destination the person who is supposed to be receiving the cargo.
“The Tanzania government firmly opposes elephant poaching and ivory smuggling and has taken measures including lawmaking, integrated law enforcement and international cooperation, which have curbed the ivory trade,” he said.
Tanzania said will continue to work with the international community in this regard.
The international trade in ivory, with rare exceptions, has been outlawed since 1989 after the sharp shrink in the African elephant population in the 30 years before 1980s.
But as elephant tusks and other body parts are often used in Asia and the Middle East for ornaments, as talismans, and for use in religion, there have been markets for smuggled ivory.
However, Dr. Benson Bana, Senior Lecturer and Head of Department of Political Science and Public Administration told The African last week that there is need for the government now to barn the stockpiles of ivory to defuse smuggling of the tasks.
Bana said that the United Nations should declare and introduce a protocol that would make the trade illegal Worldwide and enforce trade embargoes to the countries whose citizens found to smuggle ivory.
“The most important thing is to declare the trade as illegal undertaking. The effort to fight the problem should start by dealing with those who buy and use the ivory,” he said.
Kangi Lugora, Member of Parliament for Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) said that the government should take stern measures to deal with Chinese citizens who mostly kill the jumbos in the country and smuggle the tasks to China.
Lugora said that there is no need for the government to keeping the seized ivory at Ivory room and employ paid staffs who are responsible for taking care of the stockpiles.
China said it firmly opposes ivory smuggling and will continue to work with the international community to protect wildlife.
Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei said last week that it will be cooperating with Tanzania and that the Chinese government is paying a close attention to the case.
“The Chinese ambassador in Tanzania immediately checked the information and made a statement strongly condemning poaching and ivory smuggling and promising cooperation in fighting the crimes,” he said.
The government of China said that Chinese tourists should abide by the law and stay away from ivory smuggling.
On July 2012, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) prohibited Tanzania from one off sales of its ivory piled up the natural resources strong room in Tanzania.
CITES said that with elephant and rhino poaching and smuggling levels being the worst in a decade, it is clear that strong additional measures are required.
The organization said that the year 2013 will be a critical year to adopt enhanced measures to protect the planet’s biodiversity and ensure effective implementation on the ground.
These authoritative sources of information have shown a very close correspondence between trends in elephant poaching and trends in large-scale ivory seizures, detecting essentially the same patterns at different points in the illegal ivory trade chain.
CITES said that it has written to Tanzania to urgently implementing the African elephant action plan; improving controls for domestic ivory markets; ensuring stronger collaboration between African and Asian countries to combat ivory smuggling.
It has also been tasked to undertake international enforcement actions coordinated by the International Consortium to Combat Wildlife Crime (ICCWC).
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