Twelve suspected poachers
have been arrested and 14 elephant tusks
confiscated outside protected areas in southeast
Cameroon this week. Forest rangers carried
out the arrests and seizures near Boumba-Bek
and Nki National Parks after receiving intelligence
information from village monitoring groups
formed by WWF.
The anti-poaching operation comes just weeks
after the Cameroon military entered a national
park in the North Region of the country
where poachers have slaughtered hundreds
of elephants since January. Up to 12,000
elephants are killed each year for their
ivory, most in Central Africa.
In southeast Cameroon,
rangers confiscated six firearms and 30kg
of elephant meat in the joint anti-poaching
operation that involved rangers from both
national parks. Two other suspects are said
to be on the run. The confiscated tusks
are being kept under seal while the detained
suspects await trial.
Constant threat
The adjoining national parks of Boumba-Bek
and Nki are home an estimated 4,000 forest
elephants according to a 2006 survey carried
out by WWF. But elephants in these protected
areas are under constant pressure from poachers
from within Cameroon as well as from neighbouring
Congo Brazzaville.
Achille Mengamenya, Park Warden of Boumba-Bek,
says the poaching suspects have been operating
in the area for a year and have evaded arrest
several times in the past. “Preliminary
investigations show this group of poachers
has very strong links with a sister group
based in Souanke, Congo Brazzaville. But
they poach elephants mostly in Nki National
Park,” Achille said.
“With the connivance
of some local people ivory is surreptitiously
transported through the towns of Messok
and Lomie in the East Region of Cameroon
to Douala,” the park warden said. “Four
poachers, who were arrested in December
2011 with 44 ivory tusks near Lobéké
National Park, also attested to having links
with accomplices in Souanke. It is clear
that the fight against poaching in the border
areas between Cameroon, Congo and Central
African Republic has to be stepped up to
save what is left of elephants in the region.”
International links
Those suspected of killing hundreds of elephants
in North Cameroon’s Bouba N’Djida National
Park are believed to be foreigners who entered
the country illegally across its border
with Chad. Following that incident, WWF
urged the Cameroon government to secure
its borders, reinforce anti-poaching efforts,
and ensure that suspects are tried and punished
according to the law.
“After the international
outcry of the Bouba N’Djida massacre it
is time to put a stop to this senseless
commercially motivated slaughter of Africa’s
biodiversity,” says David Hoyle, Conservation
Director for WWF Cameroon.
“Back in 2010, Jim Leape, Director General
of WWF International, wrote a letter to
the prime minister of Cameroon, drawing
attention to the upsurge of elephant poaching
using war arms in Southeast Cameroon,” said
Natasha Kofoworola Quist, WWF's Central
African Regional Programme Office Representative.
“The recent gruesome massacre of elephants
in Bouba N’Djida in the north of the country
in the space of two months shows the rapidity
in the decimation of elephant population
in Cameroon.”
Global response
“We hope to see stronger local and regional
approaches and collaborative platforms to
combat wildlife poaching and ivory trafficking
in Central Africa. WWF is urging all participants
who will be attending the Regional Workshop
on Wildlife Trafficking and Dismantling
Transnational Illicit Networks billed for
Libreville, Gabon on April 3-5 to come out
with concrete and realistic resolutions
that could be implemented immediately to
halt the carnage,” Kofoworola Quist said.
In a letter to Cameroon
President Paul Biya, European Parliament
member Catherine Bearder highlighted the
severity and scope of ivory poaching and
offered the assistance of the European Union.
"It is clear that illegal wildlife
trade is not a small scale, local issue,
but a major, organised transnational crime
that threatens not only Africa's wildlife,
but the security of its borders, its people
and its reputation," Bearder wrote.
"It is important to engage with the
Heads of State in Chad and Sudan to launch
a full response to this issue that will
reassure the global community that these
trans-national criminal acts are taken seriously,"
she said.
WWF has been providing critical support
to Cameroon’s Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife
to combat poaching, especially ivory trafficking,
in the southeast of the country for over
12 years. Logistics and financial support
have been provided to hire, equip and train
rangers, while buttressing field anti-poaching
operations.
+ More
Groundbreaking Mexican
Climate Change Law up for vote
A decisive moment for
Mexico and climate change legislation
WWF is urging Mexico’s Congress to approve
the country´s proposed National Climate
Change Law, which could position Mexico
at the forefront of the fight against climate
change, help create green markets and jobs,
and improve the competitiveness of its industrial
sector.
The Congress is expected
to vote on the law on Thursday, March 29.
In 2010, Mexico and its Congress showed
international leadership as hosts of the
United Nations climate change negotiations
in Cancun, demonstrating to the world the
importance of headship and innovation in
the legislative sector by tabling a first
version of the Mexican Climate Change Law.
If adopted, Mexico will
be the second country - after the United
Kingdom - to pass comprehensive national
climate change legislation. The proposed
legislation sets a vision for low carbon,
climate resilient development that provides
legal certainty for international investors
and Mexican entrepreneurs who see “green
business” as a new and fast growing area
of opportunity in the country.
Companies from Denmark, Sweden, China, Spain,
the United States and many other countries
have expressed the need for a national legal
framework to have confidence in increasing
their green investments in Mexico. Countries
like Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, United
States and Canada have indicated that climate
change funding could be conditioned to the
existence of solid legal and policy frameworks
in recipient countries.
There are companies in Mexico´s steel
and coal sectors that are opposing the proposed
Law.
Contrary to their claims,
however, recent estimates by Mexico’s National
Institute of Ecology have found that smart
mitigation action could trigger a 5% incremental
GDP growth, and create 3 million additional
jobs, distributed among the poorest sectors
of the population.
Low carbon measures
can spur economic recovery, income redistribution,
and contribute to social justice. WWF invites
these companies to identify and take advantage
of the important opportunities the Law provides
to increase their own competitiveness. WWF
also urges them to think in the Mexican
people´s interests before their own.
On 29th March the final word is in the hands
of the members of Congress from all political
parties who need to demonstrate Mexicans
and the world their conviction and determination
through the approval of an ambitious Law.
Countries must show leadership in crafting
a sustainable, low-carbon future through
legal frameworks that are economically viable
and socially just.
