Selous anti-poaching drive pays off

Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Lazaro Nyalandu. PHOTO|FILE 

By Bernard Lugongo,The Citizen Reporter

Dar es Salaam. Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Lazaro Nyalandu has announced success in fighting poaching as the country has recorded zero elephant killing in the Selous Game Reserve in the past three months. 

Mr Nyalandu, who spoke at the climax of the Swahili Tourism Expo in Dar es Salaam on Thursday evening, commended game rangers and other stakeholders who have given their lives to protect the wild animals in the area.

In June, the World Heritage Committee meeting held in Doha (Qatar) inscribed the Selous Game Reserve on the List of World Heritages in Danger because widespread poaching was decimating wildlife populations in the reserve.

“We will not get tired, the battle is not won yet,” he said as participants clapped and cheered.

Statistics show that poachers are killing the elephants for their ivory at alarming rates that the population could be completely wiped out in just six years.

Tanzania’s Elephant Protection Society said that about 30 elephants are killed daily, and at this rate the population will be exterminated by 2020. 

At the Selous Game Reserve, rampant poaching has caused a dramatic decline in wildlife populations, especially elephants and rhino, whose numbers have dropped by almost 90 per cent since 1982, when the game reserve was inscribed on the World Heritage List.

Covering 50,000 square kilometres, the Selous Game Reserve is one of the largest protected areas in Africa.

Mr Nyalandu said that he was looking forward to seeing the tourism industry stabilize by increasing the number of wild animals and tourists coming to Tanzania, to make the sector sustainable.

He assured tourist companies of not introducing new fees in the sector without properly consulting them on the matter.