Poaching: KWS seeks Interpol help

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Poaching: KWS seeks Interpol help

*NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 15 - The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) is to enlist the

help of Interpol for assistance in tracking down of poachers in the

country. *

 

This follows the seizure on Tuesday night of over Sh77 million worth of

elephant tusks and black rhinoceros horns at the Jomo Kenyatta International

Airport.

 

KWS Corporate Communications Manager Ngugi Gicaga said that the consignment

weighing about 300 kgs was unaccompanied at the time of its interception.

 

“It was a big haul of ivory because in total we had about 16 pieces of ivory

in excess of 280 kilos and then we had two pieces of very fresh ivory

totalling about 18 kilos,” Mr Gicaga said, adding that KWS was working

closely with Interpol to bring the perpetrators to book.

 

He was speaking during an exclusive interview with Capital News where he

termed such illegal poaching as a hazard to endangered elephant and rhino

species.

 

“There is an upsurge in poaching. This of course spells doom because if this

kind of activity continues, our elephants are very much in danger,” he

warned.

 

Mr Gicaga further emphasised that nobody should gain any profits from the

killing of such endangered species.

 

“This is a world heritage and no two or three people should benefit by

killing wildlife,” he said. “The horns even had marks clearly indicating

that the animals were shot and that they died a very painful death.”

 

The illegal ivory intercepted on Tuesday was hidden in coffins on a plane

that made a stopover in Nairobi from Mozambique. It was bound for Thailand

en-route to Laos.

 

Officials from Kenya's Wildlife Service said the ivory might have come from

Tanzania or South Africa.

The black rhino is found only in eastern and southern Africa.

 

The international ivory trade has been banned since 1989 making sale of

ivory illegal if it is not from pre-1989 stockpiles.

 

However, some countries have done little to enforce the ban. Thousands of

African elephants are killed every year to supply markets largely driven by

Asian demand.

 

Last year the first legal ivory auction in nine years was held and more than

100 tonnes of elephant tusks were sold exclusively to Chinese and Japanese

buyers who fought to outbid each other in multi-million dollar sales.

 

The resurrection of such auctions and the increase of Chinese workers in

Africa has sparked fears about the potential impact on a species that has

only recently recovered from illegal poaching.

 

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