Page 7 - EIA Report on Tanzanian African Ivory Smuggling 2014 report

SELOUS UNDER SEIGE operations of the reserve, including BELOW:
anti-poaching, creating annual revenue Selous Reserve:
The Selous Reserve in southern of $2.8 million.When the scheme was major ivory poaching hotspot.
Tanzania is one of the largest and scrapped, the funds dropped to
oldest protected areas in Africa. $800,000 by 2009.31 In the same year, 6
Covering a wilderness area of 50,000 photographic safaris alone in the Selous
square kilometres, the Selous is generated income of US$1.5 million.
renowned for its unique variety of
habitats, encompassing Miombo The extent to which ivory from
woodlands, riverine forests, swamps elephants poached in the Selous has
and grasslands, which host an array of fuelled the illegal ivory trade is
species including elephant, hippopotamus, confirmed by DNA analysis of seized
lion, giraffe and crocodile. tusks. This method involves comparing
genotyped ivory seizures with a DNA
Yet in reality the Selous is far from reference map to reveal the geographical
protected. Its elephant population has origin of the ivory.
been cynically targeted by wildlife crime
groups due to its formerly large herds Analysis of large seizures dating back
providing a ready supply of ivory, to 2006 shows that the Selous and
under-resourced and ineffective Niassa ecosystem is the most significant
protection from poaching, and its poaching hotspot in Africa; Niassa is a
proximity to the main Indian Ocean reserve in northern Mozambique
ports offering a simple exit route. contiguous with the Selous.

As a result, its elephant numbers have The results show that Selous-Niassa
plummeted from 70,406 in 2006 to was the origin for a number of major
just 13,084 in 2013, the lowest ever seizures; four tonnes in Taiwan in
recorded.25 The Selous has borne the 2006, 2.6 tonnes in Hong Kong in 2006,
brunt of illegal elephant killing in five tonnes in the Philippines in 2009,
Tanzania and, based on DNA analysis 1.5 tonnes in Sri Lanka in 2012, 2.6
of ivory seizures, is the most significant tonnes in Malawi in 2013, 1.9 tonnes in
poaching hotspot in Africa in terms of Uganda in 2013 and one tonne in
numbers killed. Singapore in 2014.32

The warning signs were clear in 2010, In June 2014, the UNESCO World
by which time 31,000 elephants had been Heritage Committee placed the Selous
lost in just three years.26 Newspaper Game Reserve on the List of World
reports described carcasses scattered Heritage in Danger due to the impact
across the reserve, with game scouts of widespread poaching.33
aiding the poaching.27 In response, the
then Director of Wildlife stated that the
poaching level was minimal.28

In 2010, EIA visited the Selous area
and, through interviews with local
villagers, uncovered details of the main
locations for ivory trading around the
reserve, the main smuggling routes and
the involvement of local game rangers
and police.29

Despite these clear signals, the
Tanzanian Government has failed to
combat rampant poaching in the Selous
and a further 25,000 elephants were
lost between 2010-13. The main cause
of this unprecedented scale of deaths
is poaching. In 2011, two-thirds of
carcasses observed at monitoring sites
in the Selous were poached.30

A contributing factor is a lack of
resources which has left the Selous
largely unprotected. Until 2005, a
revenue retention scheme was in
operation, under which the majority of
income generated by photographic
safaris and hunting funded the