Une nouvelle opération d’une équipe mixte de lutte contre la criminalité liée aux espèces fauniques vient d’aboutir à l’interpellation d’un individu impliqué dans le commerce illicite d’ivoire, à Kango dans la province de l’Estuaire.
Toute l'actu sur la protection de l'environnement
Une nouvelle opération d’une équipe mixte de lutte contre la criminalité liée aux espèces fauniques vient d’aboutir à l’interpellation d’un individu impliqué dans le commerce illicite d’ivoire, à Kango dans la province de l’Estuaire.
En effet, depuis le 02
juillet, les agents du cantonnement des Eaux et Forêts, de la Direction de la
Lutte Contre le Braconnage et ceux de la brigade centre de gendarmerie de
Kango, appuyés par Conservation Justice, ont intensifié les patrouilles de
lutte anti-braconnage afin de s’attaquer au trafic d’ivoire.
Lors de cette mission,
l'équipe mixte a réussi à appréhender un ressortissant burkinabé sur le point
de finaliser une transaction illicite de vente d'ivoire. Il a été arrêté en
possession de quatre pointes d'ivoire.
Selon les premières
informations recueillies auprès d'une source proche du dossier, le
ressortissant burkinabé aurait déclaré qu'il n'est pas le propriétaire des
ivoires et qu'il les détenait en tant qu'intermédiaire pour le compte d'un
Gabonais basé dans une localité voisine.
Face à cette affaire,
les autorités compétentes ont réagi promptement en renforçant les dispositifs
d'enquête et en collaborant étroitement avec les acteurs locaux pour démanteler
ce réseau de trafiquants. Les
investigations sont en cours, et l'ampleur de ce réseau illégal pourrait
s'étendre au fil des révélations.
En attendant la
conclusion des enquêtes, le ressortissant burkinabé a été poursuivi pour
détention et tentative de commercialisation de pointes d'ivoire, des
infractions graves qui lui exposent à de lourdes sanctions pénales. Selon
l'article 390 du nouveau code pénal en vigueur, il risque une peine
d'emprisonnement de 10 ans, ainsi qu'une amende qui pourrait atteindre le
quintuple de la valeur marchande des pointes d'ivoire retrouvées en sa
possession.
La réduction du trafic
d'ivoire au Gabon en 2022, telle que rapportée par l'ONG Conservation Justice,
est un développement encourageant. Cependant, il est préoccupant de constater
que le commerce d'ivoire persiste dans plusieurs villes du pays. Cette
situation peut s’expliquer par la demande internationale d’ivoire qui existe
encore, principalement en destination de l'Asie.
Le Gabon poursuit
activement la mise en place de mesures efficaces visant à faire respecter la
réglementation et à dissuader les potentiels trafiquants. En conséquence, le
taux de condamnation au Gabon est remarquablement élevé, dépassant les 90 %, ce
qui le distingue des autres pays d'Afrique centrale où ce taux tourne avoisine
50 % voire 70 %.
Boris
Ngounou
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 ».
Fanta Mabo
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.
Fanta Mabo
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 Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) will plant 5.5 million trees over the next five years to mitigate the effects of climate change in the country. The project, presented on 14 March 2023 in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, could help more than 40 million Nigerians, whose livelihoods are threatened by climate change.
« Green Revolution Campaign » is the title of the reforestation project launched on 14 March 2023 in Abuja by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN). Funded by Caritas Nigeria, a specialised agency of the Catholic Church in Nigeria that coordinates development and humanitarian interventions, the project aims to plant 5.5 million trees over the next five years. To achieve this, the more than 50 dioceses in Nigeria will each plant at least 20,000 trees every year.
Father Uchechukwu Obodoechina, the Executive Director of Caritas Nigeria said, « The reforestation project will mitigate crises between farmers and herdsmen and other climate change related problems affecting people and animals. On the latter aspect, the Director General of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW) estimated the number of Nigerians on the frontline of the climate crisis. « This project could help over 40 million people whose livelihoods are threatened by climate change, » says Yusuf Maina-Bukar, before calling on other religious institutions in Nigeria to copy the example of the CBCN.
Climate conflicts cause thousands of deaths
As in many African countries, climate change is manifesting itself in the form of excessive rainfall, rising sea levels, floods, severe droughts, and desertification affecting twelve northern Nigerian states. All these phenomena trigger conflicts caused by the sharp reduction in agricultural land and grazing land.
In a report published on 12 November 2020, the United Nations Group for Sustainable Development (UNGSD) states that climate conflicts have reached a critical level of violence in Nigeria, causing the death of thousands of people and the displacement of several thousand others forced to leave their homes destroyed by attacks. According to the same source, these conflicts have claimed more lives than the insurgency by the terrorist sect Boko Haram.
Fanta Mabo
NIGERIA: Bishops to plant 5.5 million trees in next 5 years
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) will plant 5.5 million trees over the next five years to mitigate the effects of climate change in the country. The project, presented on 14 March 2023 in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, could help more than 40 million Nigerians, whose livelihoods are threatened by climate change.
The Republic of Congo will once again host a summit of the world’s three major forest basins. Scheduled for June 2023 in the capital Brazzaville, this summit will serve as a framework for the creation of a global coalition for the protection of the environment and biodiversity.
On 5 January 2023, during the ceremony to present New Year’s greetings to the President of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou N’Guesso reiterated the announcement he had made at the 27th United Nations Climate Conference (COP27) in Egypt. In his capacity as president of the Congo Basin Climate Commission, he announced that the summit of the world’s three major forest basins would be held in Brazzaville in June 2023. The Congo Basin in Central Africa, the Amazon Basin in South America and the Borneo Mekong Basin in Southeast Asia.
The aim of this summit is to advance the ambition for the protection and sustainable management of tropical forests around three themes. The development of scientific cooperation on forest ecosystems, in particular to increase international expertise on the links between health and biodiversity. The second theme focuses on building sustainable value chains in the forest sector, so that their activities benefit the economy, the environment and local populations. The third theme focuses on innovative financing for biodiversity, to increase the quantity and quality of financing for tropical forest conservation.
On this third aspect, the French Head of State expressed his country’s commitment at COP27 to granting a « special status » to tropical forests. « The states that are home to these forests could benefit from political and financial contracts that would help them to preserve them, » Emmanuel Macron announced at the time.
The large forest basins play a major role in regulating the climate by sequestering huge volumes of CO2. They are also home to exceptional flora and fauna. The Brazzaville summit on countries sharing these ecosystems is the second of its kind. It was initiated by the Congolese president, Denis Sassou N’Guesso, after the one held from 31 May to 3 June 2011 in the same city.
Fanta Mabo
CONGO: Summit of the world’s three great forest basins, scheduled for June 2023
The Republic of Congo will once again host a summit of the world’s three major forest basins. Scheduled for June 2023 in the capital Brazzaville, this summit will serve as a framework for the creation of a global coalition for the protection of the environment and biodiversity.