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Cameroon: African Elephants in Serious Crisis
A wildlife trafficker with a long history of illegal killing of elephants around the Dja Reserve was arrested in Somalomo in the Upper-Nyong Division of the East Region in possession of the trunk of a young elephant. He claimed that the gun he used to gun down these elephants was given to him by a Gendarme.

The National Gendarmerie authorities are investigating the matter. In May of this year and still in the East Region an elephant trafficker were arrested in Abong-Mbang, Upper-Nyong Division trying to sell an elephant tusks. In March of this same year, two other traffickers were apprehended while also trying to sell elephant parts. One had a set of elephant teeth which he was offering for sale and the other had an elephant foot for sale.

On August 5, 2009, the Bonanjo Court of First Instance in Douala in the Littoral Region, sentenced to one year imprisonment term, three dealers who were arrested in Douala trading in sculpted ivory. They were furthered ordered to pay as fines about 300 thousands francs each and to collectively pay the sum of over 2.7 million francs as damages.

The operations that led to the arrest and prosecution of all these elephant traffickers is part of the implementation of the national programme on effective enforcement of the 1994 wildlife law launched by the government of Cameroon in 2003 with the technical assistance of The Last Great Ape Organisation (LAGA). The programme aims at bringing traffickers in protected wildlife species such as elephants to justice in a bid to save them from going instinct.

Illegal cross-border trade in trophies derived from elephants (ivory, tails, tooth, trunk, meat, etc) is said to be the main factor driving African elephants to extinction. The Science reporter of BBC news, Andrew Luck-Baker has stated that within the period of 1970s and 1980s referred to as the "Ivory holocaust", Africa's elephant population plunged from an estimated 1.3 million animals to 500. 000. Quoting a wildlife specialist, Luck-Baker, reveals that 38. 000 elephants in Africa are killed annually to feed the growing demand for carved ivory in Eastern Asia . He warns that at this rate, "the elephant would become extinct across most of sub-Saharan Africa in fifteen years". Experts at the World Resources Institute in Washington DC attribute the extinction of natural resources such wildlife and specifically the extinction of elephant to corruption.

http://www.cameroon-tribune.net
 

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