Central African Republic elephant poaching rises

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Elephant meat is flooding food markets in villages near a famed wildlife reserve in Central African Republic one month after rebels believed to be involved in poaching overthrew the government, conservationists said Thursday.

The Dzanga-Sangha reserve in the rainforests of southwestern Central African Republic has been home to more than 3,400 forest elephants and features a world-renowned clearing where dozens gather each day.

Now the political chaos unleashed by a rebellion that overthrew Central African Republic's president of a decade has enabled elephant poachers to further their slaughter.

"Elephant poaching is on the increase and given the fact that Central African Republic for the moment is also in dire straits we are fearing for the worst in terms of people trying to look seriously for ivory," said Bas Huijbregts, head of policy for WWF's campaign against poaching in Central Africa.

Elephant meat is now being openly sold not only in the town of Bayanga near the reserve, but also in surrounding villages near the protected wildlife area, which is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, he said.

"Given the total absence of any type of law enforcement and rule of law in the area, there is elephant meat all over the place," he said.

At least 40 elephants have been slain at Dzanga-Sangha since the rebels took power on March 24, said local residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the rebels operating in the area.

However, WWF said it was impossible to estimate how many animals may have been killed because there are currently no patrols going on in the forest to determine where the elephant carcasses may be.

Central African Republic's forest elephants have faced growing threats in recent years from Sudanese hunters on horseback who are making their way further and further south.

The poachers are used to killing elephants in savannah terrain though experts say they are increasingly adapting their methods to hunt elephants in the forest terrain of southern Central African Republic and in neighboring Cameroon.

The Sudanese hunters are now working in tandem with armed rebels from the group known as Seleka, which now has seized control of the federal government, anti-poaching rangers who have fled rebel-controlled areas told The Associated Press.

At least one notorious poacher has declared himself the local representative for Seleka.

Poachers are making greater inroads because of the near-anarchic state that has emerged in many parts of the country since President Francois Bozize was forced from power. Bozize, who himself took control in 2003 after a rebellion, fled into exile as thousands of armed rebels descended upon the capital in late March.

While their leader Michel Djotodia has been chosen to lead a transitional government, critics say he wields very little control over the rebels, who came together from several different groups with a common goal of ousting Bozize.

The rebels are blamed for rampant looting of hospitals and aid groups in the capital, and WWF said it has also had to evacuate its staff from the Dzanga-Sangha reserve after armed rebels looted their offices several times.

WWF said it is working with park staffers who have remained behind to try to secure the key areas inside the reserve despite threats to their personal safety. Those efforts may not be enough to protect elephants though if the situation continues to deteriorate.

"The worst case scenario that we could imagine," said Huijbregts of WWF, "is there would be no change in rule of law, and total anarchy would install itself."

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Associated Press writer Jose Richard Pouamba in Bangui, Central African Republic, contributed to this report.

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Online:

Dzanga Sangha Reserve: http://www.dzanga-sangha.org

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South Africa: fight over rhino poaching escalates

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A U.S. firm recently gave smart phones to some game rangers in South Africa to help them track poachers who kill rhinos for their horns. An anti-poaching ad campaign in Vietnam, a key illegal market, shows rhinos with human hands or feet in place of horns, which are made from the same material as fingernails and toenails.

Despite these and other globe-spanning projects to protect the rhinoceros, the rate of poaching in South Africa — home to most of Africa's rhinos — this year is on track to exceed the record number of illegal kills in 2012, conservation officials say. The more money, innovation and publicity go into the cause, the more poachers, who see rhino horn as a high-priced commodity, seemingly diversify their hunt.

It resembles a tit-for-tat escalation, similar to the old arcade game "Whac-a-Mole," in which disparate campaigns can target a poaching tactic or location only for the killing to pop up in other places and forms.

"The demand seems to be such that every time there's a clampdown in one area, another issue emerges," said Dr. Jo Shaw, a rhino expert in South Africa for the World Wildlife Fund.

South Africa, a haven-turned-killing ground, was once a big success. The intensity of the battle here has since made it a crucible for experiments and policy debates on how to stop poachers seeking to meet surging demand in some Asian countries. Consumers covet rhino horn after it is ground into a powder as a balm for health, despite no supporting evidence.

A South African opposition party has urged the government to label rhino poaching as a national disaster, allowing the allocation of disaster management funds to fight poaching. The Democratic Alliance also called for more discussion about legalizing the trade in rhino horns, which can grow back after cutting.

"A total ban on rhino horn trade will eventually lead to the complete extinction of the species. A regulated and controlled trade would supply demand and dismantle poaching syndicates through open market pressures," opposition lawmaker Anthony Benadie said in a statement.

Some conservationists warn that a legal trade would not necessarily stamp out the illegal one. Besides, it would require the approval of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES. The group, which has 173 signatory countries, met in Bangkok in March and won't meet again for three years.

Poachers killed 668 rhinos in South Africa in 2012, a 50 percent increase over the previous year. On April 18, South Africa said 232 rhino had been illegally killed so far this year, 70 percent of them in the vast Kruger National Park.

"The patterns keep indicating that it will be over 800" this year, said Shaw of the World Wildlife Fund.

She said the number of white and black rhinos in South Africa, 19,000 and 2,000 respectively, is actually rising. By some estimates, however, the populations will reach a "tipping point" in 2016 and then decline if poaching persists.

Albi Modise, spokesman for South Africa's department of environmental affairs, said the use of gun silencers and other sophisticated equipment by poachers "requires that we up our game as well in terms of anti-poaching activity."

In one success, Shaw said, authorities have stopped Vietnamese and others killing rhinos in South Africa under the guise of legal trophy-hunting, and then illegally selling the horns abroad. South Africa regulates limited hunting of rhinos, though this practice is coming under increasing scrutiny.

The poaching crisis has triggered an array of measures whose effectiveness is hotly debated.

The private Sabi Sand game reserve has injected horns of some rhinos with a pink dye and chemicals that could sicken a person who ingests rhino horn. The tactic would be tough to implement in the nearby Kruger park, where rhinos are harder to track in the vast expanse and where rangers sometimes clash with armed poachers from neighboring Mozambique. CITES is pushing Mozambique to get tougher on poachers, and also urging Vietnam to take steps to curb demand.

Canvas, a Virginia-based technology company, equipped some rangers at the Sabi Sand reserve with smart phones this year. The devices enable them to swiftly share data and images — for example, footprints, holes cut in fences and animal carcasses — that help them patrol the bush and could eventually serve as courtroom evidence against suspected poachers.

James Quigley, head of Canvas, acknowledged there is a strong financial incentive behind poaching. The price of rhino horn has been compared to the U.S. street value of cocaine, a temptation for criminal syndicates, triggermen from poor villages and some corrupt officials.

"The risk versus reward becomes such that each side has to amplify just to keep in line with each other," Quigley said of the battle to stop poachers.

Tom Snitch, an American expert in imagery from satellites and drone aircraft, plans to test small drones in a South African game reserve in late May. He will use satellite imagery and mathematical models to plot flight paths based on predictions of the movements of both rhinos and poachers.

"If we see the poachers, we put the drones on top of them and basically vector them in where they can be apprehended," Snitch said. Some of the technology mirrors that used by U.S. forces to detect insurgents planting roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the fight against poachers is similarly cat-and-mouse, he said.

"You constantly have to refine your model in the anticipation that your adversary is learning your techniques and tactics," said Snitch, a visiting professor in computer studies at the University of Maryland.

South Africa has signed an anti-poaching deal with Vietnam, which has pledged more rigorous inspections of cargo, particularly from Africa, at land, air and sea entry points as well as public awareness campaigns. The World Wildlife Fund and TRAFFIC, a wildlife monitoring network, are launching an ad campaign on social media networks and elsewhere in Vietnam. One poster depicts hands and feet on a rhino's face, noting human nails and rhino horns are both made from a tough protein called keratin.

The caption reads: "Rhino horn is made of the same stuff as human nails. Still want some?"

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