Poaching decreased by 70% in Tanzania

Arusha The unjustified killing of animals for their trophies has decreased by more than 70%, thanks to the strengthening of the anti-poaching fight.

The Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Dr. Hamisi Kigwangala, told reporters Sunday that the campaign had been bolstered by the use of intelligence to find poachers.

He admitted, however, that the criminals responsible for the illegal wildlife trade have now turned to their remaining stocks of trophies, mainly ivory.

"They have stocks of tusks and other trophies like pangolin skins. They have trouble getting them out of the country, "he said.

After the opening of a regional meeting on cross-border wildlife crimes, Dr. Kigwangalla told reporters that Tanzania has been largely successful in the fight against poaching.

He added that the government had made deliberate efforts to fight this threat in order to protect its multi-million dollar tourism industry, which is 90 percent wildlife-based.

He particularly praised the members of the anti-poaching force for adopting modern intelligence-gathering systems in cracking down on the killing of animals and illegal trade in wildlife.

The head of the anti-poaching brigade, Robert Mande, said that until 2015, Tanzania was one of eight African countries where poaching was widespread.

This, he said, was no longer the case since the only killing of elephants was reduced by 55%, no case of jumbo massacre having been reported in some protected areas .

Dr. Maurus Msuha, wildlife director at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, said that through the use of ICTs, game wardens were now able to monitor the movements of certain animals.

The technology has mainly been applied to elephants, among the most hunted animals, and some have been equipped with electronic devices to monitor their movements.

Technologies used in the fight against wildlife crime include those developed by Japan's Sensing and Technology Center (Restec).

One of the advanced surveillance technologies can intercept poaching and illegal trade in wildlife through intelligence-based systems and save endangered wildlife.