Ban on Ivory trade by China clearly not enough

Three Chinese appeared in court in Dar es Salaam yesterday charged with ivory possession worth some 7 billion Tanzania Shillings according to the prosecution.

The have been remanded in custody until the end of January to advance investigations further. 

The offenses on the charge sheet related to over 1.000 pieces of blood ivory transported between the Tanzanian mainland and Zanzibar in 2013 and there have been suggestions that the accused were reported to the authorities by other suspects already in court on their own cases.

In 2013 did poaching in Tanzania move towards its peak with an estimated 10.000 elephants killed per year for their ivory, leaving some national parks and game reserves literally stripped of the big herds while the Tanzanian government at the time buried its head in the sand while initially denying a poaching problem existed and then resorting to going after whistleblowers instead to hunt down the poachers, traders and financiers at the time.

Meanwhile were two suspected poachers in Tsavo East National Park gunned down during an exchange of fire with wildlife rangers and security personnel. While reportedly two other suspects managed to escape were AK 47 rifles, ammunition and poaching gear found at the scene. Before and during the recently ended festive season were also four rhinos besides several elephants reported killed by poachers in several locations across the country.