Archive for the ‘Bushmeat East Africa’ Category
Poachers kill 249 animals in SAfrica’s Kruger park 12th May 2008 JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Poachers have killed 249 animals in South Africa’s largest game park, Kruger, in the last four years, including at least 44 white rhinos, an opposition parliamentarian said on Sunday, quoting official figures. “A reply to a DA (Democratic Alliance) parliamentary question to the minister of environmental affairs and tourism has revealed that over the last four years at least 44 white rhinos and 31 buffaloes were killed by poachers,” Gareth Morgan said in a statement. “The jewel in the crown of South African conservation, the Kruger National Park, is the hotspot for poaching of mammals among the various parks managed by the South African National Parks. In total 249 mammals were killed by poachers in Kruger during this (2004 and 2007) period,” he said. Morgan, DA’s spokesperson on environmental affairs, later told AFP that the figures “were provided to me by the minister on Friday in a written reply to my query on the issue”. He said that the Kruger figures might be much higher as “many of the animals killed by poachers disappear without a trace”. Kruger National Park has the ability to monitor poaching, unlike a majority of the other 21 parks in the country, he said. A total of 8,665 marine species were poached last year at the Table Mountain National Park, compared with 4,578 in 2006 and 3,378 in 2005. Powered by Zoundry
Many people associate me with primates’ conservation following the highly publicised breakthrough discovery of an isolated population of de Brazza’s monkey in northern Kenya. The de Brazza’s monkey is rare and highly threatened in Kenya. Until the discovery, western Kenya was a known eastern limit of the species distribution in Africa. The unique location where this new population is found - isolated mountain ranges of the arid north 200 km away from the hitherto known population and occurring to the East of the Great Valley, led to speculation of speciation and hence the great interest in this discovery. However, I am not here to talk about monkey discovery in this bushmeat blog. The point I want to drive home is that I am not new to wildlife conservation and success for that matter and whatever I have achieved in the past is only a measure of the minimum. To make sure I succeed in bushmeat, I decided to expand my knowledge and capacity to pilot bushmeat projects in Kenya by enrolling for a post-graduate course on Bushmeat under the prestigious MENTOR Fellowship program. The MENTOR (Mentoring for ENvironmental Training in Outreach and Resource Conservation) Fellowship Program was established by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the College of African Wildlife Management- Mweka, Tanzania, and the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group to train and build the capacities of emerging conservation leaders in order to build a network of eastern Africa wildlife professionals who can lead efforts to reduce illegal and unsustainable bushmeat exploitation at local and regional levels. I am one of the eight Fellows under this program.
The 8 MENTOR Fellows, 4 Mentors, the Program Coordinator USFWS Official and BCTF Director More high profile African wildlife issues have long overshadowed illegal bushmeat exploitation. The illegal use of wild meat (bushmeat) is perhaps the least documented, but most far-reaching use of wildlife in eastern and southern Africa. It is believed to involve more people and to have a greater effect on wild animal populations, including those in protected areas, than any other wildlife activity. Due to lack of information, the problem is not getting the attention it deserves and very little has done so far. Today, Bushmeat off take in Kenya is still seen as subsistence activity that has no impact on wildlife population. I beg to differ and that is the reason why I have started this blog to show you just how significant the level of bushmeat off take is in Kenya and the entire East Africa. Bushmeat use in Kenya is no longer a subsistence activity but a highly profitable illegal trade.
Iregi Mwenja USFWS MENTOR Fellow |
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Iregi Mwenja is one of the 8 USFWS MENTOR Fellows from E. Africa studying a post-graduate course on Bushmeat in CAWM Mweka. He is a leading wildlife biologist with 8 years field experience in East Africa
