An ecoguard post is now operational in Hwange National Park in north-western Zimbabwe. It is a permanent base camp for ecoguards to prevent wildlife crime and protect local communities. The facility is the result of cooperation between the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
Toute l'actu sur la protection de l'environnement
An ecoguard post is now operational in Hwange National Park in north-western Zimbabwe. It is a permanent base camp for ecoguards to prevent wildlife crime and protect local communities. The facility is the result of cooperation between the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
Security in Hwange National Park is going up a notch. The 14,651 square kilometre natural protected area in northwestern Zimbabwe now has a base camp. Opened on Saturday 15 April 2023 by Zimbabwe’s First Lady, Auxillia Mnangagwa, in her capacity as Zimbabwe’s tourism and wildlife ambassador, the Makona Ecoguard Station comprises several offices, an operations centre, a recreation area and 12 accommodation units for more than 24 ecoguards and their families.
The base is located about 15 kilometres from the riverside community of Tsholotshlo, to which missions are assigned. In addition to preventing wildlife crime, the ecoguards at this base also have the task of protecting the local communities. The proximity of these communities to the base allows the rangers to be deployed quickly in the event of human-wildlife conflicts.
Over 120 elephants poisoned with cyanide
The opening of the Makona base is the result of a partnership between the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority (ZimParks) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
This IFAW-ZimParks partnership has invested over $3.5 million in the Hwange-Matetsi-Zambezi landscape. These funds have been spent on wildlife crime control, protection and welfare of rangers, park management (infrastructure improvements, management of water resources used by wildlife), tourism development, wildlife rescue and human-wildlife conflict mitigation.
These actions, in addition to the opening of the Makona game warden post, are intended to turn the page on the disastrous poaching in this area, as well as in the rest of Hwange National Park. In 2013, cyanide poisoning killed more than 120 elephants and other wildlife in the southern part of Hwange National Park, near Makona.
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A team of Chadian ecologists and scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have announced the return of the lion to Sena Oura National Park in southwestern Chad. A lioness was photographed on 22 February 2023 in the park. Conservationists welcome the return of lions to a national park where the species has not been seen since 2004.
A team of Chadian conservationists and scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the New York-based conservation organisation in the United States of America, released an image on Thursday 20 April 2023, which was described as « a beautiful lioness, at her peak and clearly in excellent health ».
The photo was taken on 22 February 2023 by a camera trap in Sena Oura. In this national park in southwestern Chad, lions were last seen in 2004, according to WCS. The team of scientists behind the discovery believe that there is more to the park than just this lioness. « Unlike other big cat species, lions (especially females) generally live in family units called ‘troops’, » says Luke Hunter, executive director of the WCS Big Cat Program.
A species listed as vulnerable by the IUCN
Nowhere to be found due to organised and ruthless poaching, the lions were considered extinct in Chad’s Sena Oura National Park. The protected area of about 182,000 hectares is adjacent to Bouba N’djida National Park in Cameroon, where the big cats « are now on the increase and appear to be recolonising parts of their former range, including Sena Oura », says WCS.
Despite this recovery of the species in Chad, lions are considered a « vulnerable » species worldwide. According to the 2014 edition of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, there are 22,000 to 24,000 lions in the wild.
Their populations in West and Central Africa are declining. According to the WCS, the lion population has declined by about 66% since the early 1990s and is considered « critically endangered ».
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CHAD: After a 20-year absence, the lion reappears in Sena Oura National Park
A team of Chadian ecologists and scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have announced the return of the lion to Sena Oura National Park in southwestern Chad. A lioness was photographed on 22 February 2023 in the park. Conservationists welcome the return of lions to a national park where the species has not been seen since 2004.
At least five elephants were shot and stripped of their tusks in early April 2023 in southern Chad. Shocked by this wildlife crime, the organisation SOS Elephants of Chad is calling on the government to act firmly against the resurgence of poaching of Chad’s endangered elephants.
The Chadian law enforcement and security forces are continuing to investigate the elephant carnage that occurred in early April 2023 in Beinamar in southern Chad. At least five pachyderms were shot dead on the spot. Their tusks were torn off and their heads cut off.
Initial investigations point an accusing finger at the armed horsemen. These poachers usually leave from neighbouring Sudan on the backs of horses in search of ivory tips in Chad’s natural parks. « Between 2009 and 2011, more than 200 elephants were killed in the provinces of Chari Baguirmi and Mayo Kebbi East, close to Beinamar and bordering Cameroon, » explains Ahmat Assane, the secretary general of SOS Elephants, an organisation that works to protect elephants in Chad.
Firm measures against poaching
In a statement issued following the elephant massacre in Beinamar, SOS Elephants expressed fears of a sudden return of elephant poaching in Chad. « Poaching had been declining for about 10 years, when the late Chadian President Idriss Déby took very strict measures to protect the last elephants in Chad from 2008. This was after armed horsemen from Sudan massacred more than 90 percent of the elephants in Zakouma National Park in just a few months, » the elephant organisation said.
The situation has worsened in recent years and elephants are on the verge of extinction in Chad. There are less than 1,500 elephants left today, whereas 30 years ago there were several tens of thousands, the Chadian media underlines, specifying that elephants reside in protected areas, but also outside these areas where they are very vulnerable to poaching. In its press release, SOS Elephants calls on the authorities to take firm measures to prevent a resumption of these practices.
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CHAD: A sudden resumption of elephant poaching worries civil society
At least five elephants were shot and stripped of their tusks in early April 2023 in southern Chad. Shocked by this wildlife crime, the organisation SOS Elephants of Chad is calling on the government to act firmly against the resurgence of poaching of Chad’s endangered elephants.
The World Resources Institute (WRI), an American think tank specialising in environmental issues, has just secured funding of $100 million, or 59.8 billion CFA francs. The funds will be used to encourage tree planting in the Lake Kivu and Rusizi River Basin, which straddles the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi and Rwanda, as well as in the cocoa belt in Ghana and the Great Rift Valley in Kenya.
Committed to environmental restoration, the World Resources Institute (WRI) has just raised $100 million (59.8 billion CFA francs) from the Audacious Project, a collaborative funding initiative supported by leading philanthropic organisations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Emerson Collective charity and the Skoll Foundation.
« The funds will be used to encourage tree planting in the Lake Kivu and Rusizi River Basin, which straddles the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi and Rwanda, as well as in Ghana’s cocoa belt and Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, » the WRI said in a statement released on 17 April 2023. Running from 2024 to 2028, this reforestation project will contribute to the objectives of AFR100 (African Forest Landscape Restoration), an initiative launched by the African Union (AU) to restore 100 million hectares (or 1 million km²) of degraded and deforested landscapes by 2030.
AFR100 is led by the African Union’s (AU) New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) agency, in partnership with 27 participating countries. The initiative, launched in 2015, requires a total of $500 million in funding to be realised. This funding has been slow to materialise, despite commitments from states.
In September 2018, two countries committed to restoring a combined 19.6 million hectares of land in order to achieve the 100 million hectare target. These are Burkina Faso (5 million hectares) and the Republic of Sudan (14.6 million hectares). These commitments follow those of Togo (1.4 million hectares) and Tanzania (5.2 million hectares).
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AFRICA: WRI mobilises $100m to restore forests in five countries
The World Resources Institute (WRI), an American think tank specialising in environmental issues, has just secured funding of $100 million, or 59.8 billion CFA francs. The funds will be used to encourage tree planting in the Lake Kivu and Rusizi River Basin, which straddles the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi and Rwanda, as well as in the cocoa belt in Ghana and the Great Rift Valley in Kenya.
The European Parliament has just passed new legislation that will ban the sale of deforestation-related goods in member states. However, African researchers and specialists doubt the effectiveness of such a European measure.
After several years of lobbying, the European Parliament finally passed a law on Wednesday 19 April 2023 that bans the import of deforestation products into the European Union (EU). Voted by a very large majority, the text aims to fight against climate change and preserve biodiversity. The import into the EU of products from cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soya, wood, rubber, charcoal and printed paper will be banned if these products come from land where deforestation has taken place after December 2020.
« We are losing about 10 million hectares of forest worldwide every year and this instrument will put an end to that, or at least to our complicity in that deforestation, because our shelves are currently filled with chocolate, coffee, etc., soya-based products that contribute massively to the destruction of forests », explains MEP Christophe Hansen, who is also the rapporteur for the new legislation. The EU is responsible for 16% of global deforestation through its imports (mostly soy and palm oil, 2017 figures) and is the second largest destroyer of tropical forests behind China, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Ivory Coast has already committed to it
Once the text is in force, companies will have 18 months to implement the measure. Smaller companies will have a longer period. This will include providing the relevant authorities with relevant information such as geolocation details. These checks will be carried out using satellite monitoring tools. If companies fail to comply with the rules, they could be fined up to 4% of their suppliers’ annual turnover on the EU market.
Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer, believes that it is ahead of the law in setting up a system for geolocating production. In the West African country, more than one million cocoa producers have been registered. They have been issued with name cards and the geolocation coordinates of their plots. « If you are not registered, your products cannot be marketed. If you usually produce five tonnes of cocoa, but we see that for this season you have gone beyond that, it means that you are at fault and you will be prosecuted, » explains Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, the Ivorian Minister of Agriculture.
The text is still criticised
For many observers, the EU law on imported deforestation is only a first step towards the desired objectives. « The European approach is good, but how can it be applied? » asks Bakary Traoré of the association Initiatives pour le Développement communautaire et la conservation de la Forêt (IDEF). « How can we check? With what means can we check the beans on site and justify their origin?
For the nature conservation organisation Greenpeace, this regulation has « loopholes », for example by excluding ecosystems such as the savannah and by failing to target European banks that finance projects that destroy forests.
During the debate, rapporteur Christophe Hansen acknowledged that the text was « not perfect », explaining that this was why three reviews were planned: after 1, 2 and 5 years. « The perfection will be for tomorrow », he announced.
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AFRICA: What can EU law do against imported deforestation?
The European Parliament has just passed new legislation that will ban the sale of deforestation-related goods in member states. However, African researchers and specialists doubt the effectiveness of such a European measure.