Malawi Torches Tonnes of Contraband Ivory

By Charles Mkoka

MZUZU, Malawi, March 15, 2016 (ENS) - Malawian authorities burned 2.6 tonnes of ivory to ashes at a ceremony Monday at Mzuzu Nature Sanctuary in the northern region. This high profile event was witnessed by police, wildlife officials, Malawi Defense Forces, National Audit officials, members of the judiciary, conservationists, local and international observers and the media.

The 781 raw ivory pieces were seized in 2013 from two local ivory traffickers, brothers Patrick and Chancy Kaunda. The ivory was intercepted by Malawi Revenue Authority's Fast Anti-Smuggling Team near Phwezi in a truck carrying bags of cement from Tanzania. The ivory was concealed under the legal cargo.

Mzuzu High Court Judge Dingiswayo Madise convicted the Kaunda brothers on July 28, 2015 after they were found guilty of two crimes - money laundering, and illegal possession of specimens of endangered species contrary to the National Parks and Wildlife Act.

They were fined Malawi Kwacha 2.5 million (US$5,000), or in default to serve a seven year prison sentence. The judge ordered the destruction of the contraband ivory by burning.

Traced to Tanzania and Mozambique, the ivory was in transit to Lilongwe, Malawi's capital city, when it was seized. The court then set September 18, 2015 as the date for destroying the ivory.

Only a pile of ashes remains after the burning of 2.6 tonnes of seized ivory in Malawi, March 14, 2016 (Photo by George Zwide)

But Tanzania's Principal State Attorney Faraja Nchimbi applied to halt the burning so that the government of Tanzania could use the seized ivory in prosecuting a crime thought to be linked to an ivory seizure in Dar es Salaam.

In his March 2 order Judge Madise said, "Being a good neighbor, I granted the order of a stay of 90 days and stopped the burning of the ivory at the 11th hour. As of today, I have not been approached to extend the period any further. I now order the Government of Malawi through the Director of National Parks and Wildlife to destroy the 781 pieces of ivory through fire at a public place within Malawi in full view of the public on 14th March, 2016.”

Brighton Kumchedwa, director of Parks and Wildlife, said there is no legal market for the seized ivory anywhere globally. He said the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), a treaty to which Malawi is a signatory, put a moratorium on ivory trade in 1990 in a bid to save African elephants from extinction.

Since the moratorium, 14 countries have burned or crushed over 130 tons of contraband ivory. In the past three years alone, 11 countries have destroyed 80 tonnes, according to the global conservation group WWF.

The destruction ensures that stockpiles of seized ivory will never again be sold and demonstrates that a country will not tolerate wildlife crime.

Kumchedwa said that maintaining the security of the seized ivory has been a drain on the public purse as the government has had to deploy officers and police to ensure its safety.

"Now that we have torched the consignment, what it means is that we can go to sleep in peace without considering what will happen to the stockpile. More importantly it sends a strong message that we are committed to fight the vice,” Kumchedwa said after the burn.

According to the Illegal Wildlife Trade Review in Malawi, a 2015 comprehensive report, wildlife crime is serious, and the political awareness of wildlife crime has reached unprecedented levels.

There is widespread high level political will to combat the illegal wildlife trade across national boundaries. The establishment of international law enforcement agencies and the development of collaborative international strategies, action plans and enforcement measures to block illegal wildlife trade reflect this growing will.

In 2013 the German government, through the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, committed to make available €500 million annually to conserve forests and other ecosystems worldwide.

This biodiversity commitment included the commissioning of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit to manage a dedicated fund for cross-cutting political cooperation. Known as the Polifund, it is tasked with implementing concrete measures to combat poaching and illegal wildlife trading in ivory and rhino horn in Africa and Asia on a cross-sectoral, cross-border and transcontinental level.

In February 2014, the London Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade recognized that "The illegal wildlife trade robs states and communities of their natural capital and cultural heritage. It undermines the livelihoods of natural resource dependent communities. It damages the health of the ecosystems they depend on, undermining sustainable economic development.”

In February 2015 the European Union announced the near-term publication of an EU Strategic Approach to Wildlife Conservation in Africa and an EU Action Plan for Wildlife Trafficking.

All of these strategies and action plans aim to strengthen the implementation of international agreements and arrangements that protect wildlife, including, among others, CITES, the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the UN Convention against Corruption.

Malawi's elephant population is listed on Appendix I of CITES, a classification which prohibits all international trade. Therefore, it would be illegal to sell Malawi's ivory on international markets. To do so would break international law and the repercussions for any country doing so would be catastrophic.

African elephant populations are on Appendix I except elephants in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe, which are listed on Appendix II, which includes species not threatened with extinction, but in which trade must be controlled to avoid utilization that threatens their survival.

Yet the killing continues. The African elephant, Loxodonta africana, occurs in 37 countries in sub-Saharan Africa numbering an estimated 420,000 to 650,000 animals across the continent, with Southern Africa possessing the majority of the population, according to the wildlife monitoring network TRAFFIC.

An estimated 30,000 elephants were illegally killed per year in Africa in the early 2010s. In Tanzania elephant numbers dropped from an estimated 109,050 in 2009 to 43,330 in 2014 due to poaching for ivory. The raw ivory is usually smuggled to Asia where it is carved into ornamental objects.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2016. All rights reserved.

Woman caught with 3Kg of cocaine at Beitbridge

Limpopo - A 24-year-old woman was caught with three kilogrammes of cocaine mixed with rice, police said on Sunday.

The woman was found with the rice parcel wrapped in newspaper at the Beit Bridge border gate, Musina in the Limpopo province on Friday night.

The cocaine was worth R1.6m.

Major Robert Netshiunda said this followed a joint operation by the Hawks and the SA Revenue Services in Limpopo.

Netshiunda said officers had stopped a bus which had entered the country from Malawi.

He said that a narcotics dog led the officers to a bag that belonged to the woman.

"When the Hawks searched the bag, they found a white powder mixed with rice which was wrapped in newspaper," he said.

Netshiunda said cocaine was found in the powder.

The woman has been charged with dealing in drugs and will appear in Musina Magistrate's court on Monday.  

Source: http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/woman-arrested-with-r16m-cocaine-mixed-with-rice-20160313

R17m tusk raid shrouded in secrecy

NEWS/CRIME-COURTS / 

03 March 2016 at 13:34pm

By: SAKHILE NDLAZI

Pretoria - Elephant tusks believed to be worth more than R17 million were seized at a business premises in Derdepoort, north of Pretoria, on Wednesday afternoon.

The items were taken during an operation conducted jointly by the Hawks and Paul O'Sullivan & Associates, at Big Buck Taxidermy - albeit under mysterious circumstances.

Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said he was not yet aware of the operation and could not shed more light on the matter.

The officers carrying out the raid, however, wore T-shirts with "Hawks Johannesburg” branding on them and loaded 23 tusks into two unmarked vehicles. The owner of the business refused to speak to the Pretoria News.

Big Buck Taxidermy specialises in preparing, stuffing and mounting skins of animals for display like hunting trophies or museum displays, among others.

The officers from the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation loaded the tusks into the two vans and drove off with them.

It was still unclear where the tusks originated from and why they had been kept on the premises.

Hawks officers who could not be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media, indicated the tusks had been seized because the company no longer had a permit to keep them on the premises. The permit had expired, they said. No one was arrested after the seizure.

In a mysterious turn-around, however, affidavits leaked by undercover agents implicated the company in the apparent selling of the tusks for R17m.

The information was given to Paul O'Sullivan & Associates and later the Hawks, sparking a series of events and meetings as part of the investigation.

It was stated in the affidavit that a meeting was arranged after the buyer insisted on seeing the tusks before completing the transaction.

The business premises listed in the affidavits is the same one from where the tusks were seized.

Upon entering the premises, they were met by a person who went to the back room and grabbed a zebra skin and "quickly threw it over some things that were lying on the floor”, which later turned out to be the tusks.

They took pictures of the tusks, and these were attached to the affidavit. The Pretoria News has seen both the affidavits and the photos.

The photos of some of the tusks, held up by two men, were taken in front of what appears to be a safe.

The affidavits also included a series of text messages where requests for payment were being made subsequent to the meeting. Also attached was a list of the tusks, with a description of each, its condition as well as weight.

Big demand

Ivory poaching for tusks is the main reason that elephants have been so heavily hunted and why their numbers are being depleted in certain countries across the globe.

Elephant ivory is highly expensive and has been used in huge amounts to make billiard balls, piano keys, identification chips and many other sought-after items.

Although international trade in Asian elephant ivory has been banned since 1975, elephant tusks are used all over the world.

The biggest market for ivory is in East Asia.

sakhile.ndlazi@inl.co.za

Pretoria News

Six of the tusks seemed to have been recently removed from elephants, while the others appeared to be much older.

The identity of the owner of the 26 elephant tusks confiscated at a business premises in Derdepoort, north of Pretoria, remains unknown.

The tusks are worth an estimated R17 million, Rekord East reported.

The company, Big Buck Taxidermy, was raided by police on Wednesday.

Hawkas spokesperson Major Robert Netshiunda said: "We are continuing investigations to establish who the tusks belong to and where the business got them from.”

Paul O'Sullivan, a forensic investigator at O'Sullivan and Associates, said six of the tusks seemed to have been recently removed from elephants, while the others appeared to be much older.

SANParks spokesperson Reynold Thakhuli said he would not speculate on whether or not the discovery was linked to the recent killing of an elephant which was smeared with poison, seemingly to kill scavengers.

He said two lions and hundreds of vultures have died from feeding on the poisoned carcass.

"Poaching is a war that we'll never win alone in the bush. We're calling on all citizens to contact law enforcement agencies when they have any information on illegal poaching activities,” added Thakuli.

He said this was the second time an elephant had died as a result of poaching since December last year.

No arrests have been made.

- Caxton News Service

Record numbers of rhinos were poached in Africa in 2015: Wildlife body reveals 1,330 were killed last year - the highest since 2008

• Figures come from the International Union for Conservation of Nature
• It revealed at least 1,338 rhinos were murdered across Africa in 2015
• It is the highest it has been since 2008 when trade in horns was banned
• Slaughter has been driven by demand for the horn in China and Vietnam

By VICTORIA WOOLLASTON FOR MAILONLINE PUBLISHED: UPDATED: 15:06 GMT, 10 March 2016

The number of African rhinos killed by poachers in 2015 increased for the sixth year in a row. A report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) revealed that at least 1,338 rhinos were murdered across the continent in the past year. This is the highest its been since 2008 when South Africa banned trade in rhino horns, leading conservation body IUCN said on Wednesday.


A report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) revealed that at least 1,338 rhinos (stock image) were murdered across Africa in the past year. This is the highest it has been since 2008 when South Africa banned trade in rhino horns, leading conservation body IUCN said The slaughter has been driven by demand for their horn in countries such as China and Vietnam, where they are prized for their purported medicinal properties. The horn is composed mainly of keratin, the same component as in human nails, but it is sold in powdered form as a supposed cure for cancer and other diseases. Trade in rhino horns was banned in 1977 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

BANNING SALE OF RHINO HORNS

Trade in rhino horns was banned in 1977 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites). The international treaty was set up in 1973 to protect wildlife against over-exploitation, and ensure that trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. However, the practice was only banned in 2008 in South Africa, which is said to be home to 20,000 rhinos or 80 per cent of the world's rhino population. The international treaty was set up in 1973 to protect wildlife against over-exploitation, and ensure that trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. However, the practice was only banned in 2008 in South Africa, which is said to be home to 20,000 rhinos or 80 per cent of the world's rhino population. IUCN Director General Inger Andersen said despite stepped up surveillance by field rangers there had been 'alarming increases in poaching over the past year in other vitally important range states, such as Namibia and Zimbabwe' both of which adjoin South Africa. Demand for rhino horn from South East Asia is being illegally supplied by sophisticated transnational organised crime networks, the IUCN said.



Demand for rhino horn from South East Asia is being illegally supplied by sophisticated transnational organised crime networks. They are sold for about $60,000 a kilo on the black market, making it more expensive than cocaine. Stock image pictured They are sold for about $60,000 a kilo on the black market, making it more expensive than cocaine. 'The extensive poaching for the illegal trade in horn continues to undermine the rhino conservation successes made in Africa over the last two decades,' said IUCN expert Mike Knight. On the plus side, poaching in Kenya decreased over the past two years and went down for the first time in South Africa in 2015. According to experts, there were between 19,000 and 21,000 white rhinos in Africa last year and between 5,000 and 5,500 black ones.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3484764/Record-1-300-rhinos-poached-Africa-2015-wildlife-body.html#ixzz42rcOeFIj

A former government employee, David William, who was charged with 38 counts of stealing by a person employed in the public service and ordered to pay back money amounting to P1.9million has challenged the magistrate court's decision.

William, who was charged in 2014, says the magistrate court that presided over his case had no jurisdiction to entertain the matter.

He is challenging for a stay of execution pending an order issued against him by Broadhurst Principal Magistrate, Munashe Ndlovu on November 9, 2015 to pay back the money.

According to the documents filed before court, in 2015 the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) brought civil proceedings against him demanding that he should pay the government a civil penalty in the amount of P1,912,582.00 as assessed by the court.

Through his lawyer, Othusitse Mbeha, he has made an urgent application challenging the magistrate's decision to preside over such a matter and he wants a stay of execution.

Mbeha argued that the magistrate had no jurisdiction over the matter especially that it sought a final liquid claim running into millions of Pulas, way above the maximum liquid claim of P40,000 that even a regional magistrate can entertain.

He argued that the DPP also had no authority to bring a civil application against his client on behalf of the government as their mandate exclusively deals with institutions of criminal proceedings.

"In terms of the constitution, the attorney general is the only authorised person to bring civil applications on behalf of the government unless if she delegates her constitutional responsibility to another and in this case she did not.”

Mbeha submitted that the DPP gesture amounts to usurping the AG's constitutional powers.

However, the DPP has argued that the application is not urgent and also that it would effectively erode the principle of finality in litigation, which is the cornerstone of the legal system.

"If the applicant is dissatisfied with a civil penalty order granted by this court, then he cannot make such an application in the same court,” he said.

The DPP said the current proceedings were an instruction from the government to its attorney. Therefore, DPP had every right to bring a civil proceedings, DPP said.

"In most, if not all legal proceedings, either civil or criminal, are a preserve of the client and in the same token issues of law are the purview of the attorney.

Consequently , should the need arise for an affidavit to be disposed relating to the facts of any application, the rightful person to dispose of such would more often than not be the prescribed investigator on behalf of the state for purposes of clarity,” reads the replying affidavits.

The DPP submitted that as such, it had the powers to bring an application to court though it was a civil one, arguing that the application ensued from a criminal activity and was investigated by the DCEC then handed to the DPP.

- See more at: http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?aid=57176&dir=2016/january/22#stha

We beat the ivory trade once. Now we must beat it once and for all!

The Giants Club summit, which Kenya is hosting, will help stop the scourge of poaching

Friday 26 February 2016

Five tons of ivory worth around $14 million waiting to be burnt in Libreville, Gabon Getty

I am delighted to host the inaugural Giants Club Summit in Kenya at the end of April. Alongside other African heads of state, we will use this opportunity to underline the global intent to put an end, once again, to the butchering of elephants and rhinos by selfish criminal gangs.

I say once again because we have done it before. In 1990, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) banned the international ivory trade after a decade in which the population of African elephants halved from 1.3 million to 600,000 animals.

In parallel with Kenya's own aggressive anti-poaching strategy, we successfully brought poaching of elephants under control and animal numbers recovered.

The sale of ivory was re-permitted in 1997 and later again in 2008 under the CITES framework, as an experiment and to allow for disposal of the ivory stocks of four countries in Southern Africa to Asia. But these sales served simply to reinvigorate the illegal trade and once again we face a decimation of our African elephant populations.  

According to recent scientific reports, between 2010 and 2012 some 100,000 elephants were lost to poaching across Africa, and there is no evidence to suggest that number has diminished in the years since. It is also estimated that more than 1,000 rhinos were poached last year in South Africa alone.

The trade is simple. Markets for illegal products attract traffickers and traffickers create poachers. A combined approach of aggressive law enforcement, effective elephant ivory and rhino horn movement control and influential market disincentivisation is now required.

In Kenya, Dr Richard Leakey is back at the helm of Kenya Wildlife Service, where he was so effective in the 1990s, and working directly with our inspirational environment cabinet secretary, Prof Judi Wakhungu, to stop the poachers and the illegal trafficking of wildlife products. Our ports are actively seeking and intercepting movement of any ivory and rhino horn. Trafficking gangs are being tracked and arrested.

However, initiatives such as the Giants Club play a massive role in influencing opinion and ensuring these successes can be repeated and replicated across Africa and the globe. Only by standing together can we make the desire for ivory and rhino horn an embarrassment. The selfish few must be made to touch and feel the weight of international concern.

Kenya and Africa depend upon our natural resources for our tourism industry and a stable economy that prevents the lure of the criminal gangs. To think of Kenya is to think of the majestic animals on the Maasai Mara, the Great Tuskers of Tsavo, and the northern bush country of Samburu and Laikipia, to say nothing of the white sands of our Swahili coast.

Kenya's role in the international endeavour to stabilise Somalia has resulted in some terrible headlines in recent times. We have been affected by the same threat of extremist terrorism that has hit Tunisia, Turkey, France, and many other countries. But with the enduring support of the international community, including the UK, US and European Union, we have quickly learnt some critical lessons and come back stronger and more unified.

Tourism to Kenya is beginning to recover after a difficult few years but business investment has grown year on year. You can help directly by visiting Kenya and other countries in Africa. Every pound you spend underpins the critical work of our Kenya Wildlife Service and every other national level wildlife conservation effort.

Kenya is safe and, for those of you yet to visit, Kenya will greet you with breath-taking beauty and an eternal smile. That is why we welcome the Giants Club Summit. Together we will all play our part in preserving the planet's greatest animals.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/author/uhuru-kenyatta

Zimbabwe: Zim's U.S $2billion Capital Flight Migraine

AT a time when Zimbabwe is desperately in need of a huge cash injection to escape current illiquid conditions, authorities have been left dumbfounded by the scale of illicit financial flows (IFFs).

Recently, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) revealed that the country is losing US$2 billion through IFFs annually.

To understand the gravity of this, a few statistics will help.

Zimbabwe has a small economy, whose Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is under US$10 billion.

Its 2016 National Budget is under US$5 billion, a figure that pales into insignificance when compared to that of South Africa.

Annually, the country has been realising foreign direct investment (FDI) at the scale of about US$400 million.

Now if US$2 billion is lost annually, it means money is flying out of the country faster than it's coming in.

This, in itself, helps explain the liquidity crisis confronting the country's economy.

Even though Zimbabweans based outside the country are sending US$1 billion back home in Diaspora remittances annually, their efforts fall far short of what is required to close the gap.

And by the way, there are over three million Zimbabweans in the Diaspora; the bulk of them in South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.

What is making the country's situation tricky is that a huge portion of liquidity circulating locally is doing so outside the formal channels.

The now dominant informal sector is said to be holding onto an unverified US$7 billion.

Not helping the situation is the fact that the country's productive capacity has given in to economic pressures.

In other words, the country is now a net importer. Even small things like hairpins and shoelaces are being imported, worsening the hard currency outflows.

For the authorities, it is a double headache.

Theirs is need to find a solution that can plug IFFs as well as encourage the formalisation of the informal sector.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201602250692.html

Roger Gower: Five arrested in Tanzania after helicopter pilot shot dead while tracking poachers

• Paul Peachey Crime Correspondent
• @peachey_paul
• Sunday 31 January 2016
• 
  

Roger Gower, the pilot who was shot down, moved to Africa in 2006 and was keen to help to secure the survival of Tanzania's elephants

Murdered Parks Official Remembered For Anti-Poaching Efforts

 

By Maraya Cornell
PUBLISHED THU FEB 04 13:59:00 EST 2016

In December, in the midst of Tanzania's ongoing war against poaching, a man some describe as one of Africa's finest wildlife defenders was murdered. Emily Stephen Kisamo, protection manager for Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA), was found dead in the trunk of his car, his throat slit.
Initially, Kisamo's family lawyer, Coleman Ngalo, told reporters that Kisamo's death was ordered by poaching ringleaders, and several TANAPA employees expressed concerned about their own safety. But police have since reported that Kisamo's gardener confessed to killing Kisamo in his house in order to steal his money. At last report, three others, including Kisamo's wife, were being held in connection with the murder.
During his 28-year career with the park service, Emily Kisamo helped rural children plant trees to prevent erosion, mediated conflicts between rangers and Maasai warriors, coordinated numerous cross-border investigations into wildlife crimes, collaborated with scientists to map poaching hot spots using ivory DNA forensics, and headed up intelligence in the agency. At the end of his life, he was overseeing all of TANAPA's anti-poaching efforts.
His friends ranged from respected wildlife managers and law enforcement officials to researchers and conservationists as far afield as Seattle and Cape Town. (Read a tribute to Kisamo by a friend and colleague).

Kisamo (front right) and his team open crates of seized ivory that underwent DNA analysis in 2006. This was the first time anyone tracked the origin of elephant ivory from a seizure, and Kisamo played an instrumental role in making it happen. 
Markus Borner, who headed up the Frankfurt Zoological Society's Africa program for more than 20 years, knew Kisamo professionally since 1996. "I considered him one of the most outstanding, honest, dedicated conservation professionals that Tanzania ever had,” he said.

LION

Kisamo was born in 1964 in Marangu, a leafy town surrounded by streams and waterfalls in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro.
After finishing secondary school and his required year in the National Service, Kisamo was hired as a trainee park warden. Between various posts in TANAPA, he earned a diploma from the College of Wildlife Management and a bachelor's degree in Zoology and Wildlife Ecology from the University of Dar es Salaam.
Kisamo was in his mid-30s when he enrolled in the FitzPatrick Institute's Masters in Conservation Biology (MSc) program at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
The students formed a lasting bond during the program--"like a new close-knit family,” says Catherine Hughes. Now far-flung researchers and conservation professionals, they shared their grief, remembering Kisamo as "gentle,” "kind,” and exceptionally respectful and caring, one who "took other people's worst problems as his own.”
Wendy Foden, a senior researcher at the University of Stellenbosch, in South Africa, recalls that the group enjoyed debating which animal each of them most resembled.

In 2014, Kisamo spoke at an international training session in Tanzania devoted to interview and interrogation techniques.
Achieving consensus usually required many hours, "but for Kisamo, it was quick and unanimous,” says Foden. "Kisamo was a lion. A great Serengeti male. Calm, regal, watching, powerful.”

Humanitarian

Kisamo was keenly interested in the problems faced by Tanzania's growing rural populations.
In his master's thesis, which evaluates the impact of community conservation initiatives in villages around the Udzungwa Mountains National Park, he wrote about conservation in a way that considered the welfare of both humans and wildlife.
Before joining the master's program, Kisamo was in charge of community conservation for Serengeti National Park, where he had the challenging task of establishing rapport with the herding communities in Loliondo, an area plagued by chronic controversy over land rights.
Retired TANAPA General Director Gerald Bigurube praised Kisamo's successes in building "very good relations” with these communities in a letter of recommendation he wrote for Kisamo years later. Kisamo even negotiated the peaceful return of an AK-47 captured from park officials by a group of Maasai warriors--a task Bigurube said had seemed impossible.
Kisamo's discussions with communities about erosion control inspired tree-planting projects all around the Serengeti, according to a 2001 issue of the East African Wild Life Society magazine.

Kisamo (second row from the back in the middle) poses with classmates from the FitzPatrick Institute at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Kisamo graduated from the conservation biology masters program in 2002. 

Parents in the area began naming their children after him.

"I think it was this deep understanding of the needs of people as well the needs of the speechless creatures in the wild that made him such a great champion of conservation,” says Markus Borner.

Wildlife Crime Fighter

Shortly after earning his master's degree, Kisamo was swept into the world of international crime-fighting when he was appointed director of the Nairobi-based Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF).
During his six years as director, he worked closely with Interpol's Bill Clark on multiple law enforcement sweeps. Kisamo's "efforts contributed enormously in making these operations successful,” says Clark, "and we measured success in the hundreds of ivory traffickers arrested, scores of illegal firearms recovered, and tons of contraband ivory seized.”
Clark, who has worked in African wildlife law enforcement for more than 35 years, describes Kisamo as "one of the finest wildlife law enforcement officers to accept the enormous challenge of fighting poachers and traffickers in Africa.”
In 2006, Kisamo coordinated the return of a record haul of contraband ivory--6.5 tons that had been seized in Singapore in 2002--back to the LATF's headquarters in Nairobi for investigation.

A candid snapshot of Kisamo, who Interpol's Bill Clark described as "one of the finest wildlife law enforcement officers to accept the enormous challenge of fighting poachers and traffickers in Africa.”
According to Karl Karugaba, a field officer in the task force at the time, "Getting such a quantity of ivory back to Africa was unprecedented.” Kisamo even persuaded Singapore to pay for the freight.
He then collaborated with University of Washington researcher Samuel Wasser to sample DNA from the Singapore ivory and compare it to DNA from elephant dung samples collected from around Africa, pioneering a new means of using ivory seizures to identify poaching hotspots. They worked together on the analysis of several other seizures, coauthoring two papers on ivory DNA forensics.
"Kisamo was pivotal in helping us launch and apply this methodology,” Wasser says. "I will always remember his warm smile and positive demeanor, while fighting the hard fight.”

Exacting Boss

According Gerald Bigurube, Kisamo transformed the task force from a poorly performing organization "into a very modern, credible institution.”
Retired Zambian Wildlife Authority Officer Clement Mwale served as an intelligence officer in LATF while Kisamo was in charge. He agreed. Kisamo "wanted the job done, and he wanted it done properly,” Mwale said.
It was no different after Kisamo returned to Tanzania National Parks in 2009.
Fidelis Kapalata, who had been working as Kisamo's assistant protection manager since last May, recalls, "When I became his assistant, right away he started giving me a lot of responsibility, encouraging me to be confident.”
But, Kapalata says, Kisamo did not tolerate late or sloppy work. "I can give myself as an example. So I learned--and I changed myself to work hard like him.”
Demanding though he was, Kisamo was loved and respected. "The organization itself is missing his efforts to combat poaching,” Kapalata says. "But also, people individually are missing him.”
Dedicated Conservationist
At the University of Cape Town, Benis Egoh often studied with Kisamo. She believes he saw his master's degree as a small part of a lifetime of conservation work. "While most of us were thinking about doing a PhD and going forward with studies,” she says, "he was focused on going back to work and stopping species extinction.”
I asked Clement Mwale, who kept up with Kisamo after they both left LATF, how he thought Kisamo would have wanted to be remembered.
At first, Mwale demurred, not wishing to guess at his friend's private thoughts. But after a pause he said, speaking carefully, "I think he wanted to be seen as one of the people who contributed to the conservation of wildlife.”
Emily Kisamo was 51 when he died. He is survived by a wife, two children, and a grandchild.

Maraya Cornell is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles. Follow her on Twitter.

35 years in jail for Zim rhino poacher

Zimbabwe - Conservationists in Zimbabwe on Friday welcomed reports that a poacher who was part of a gang that killed two rhinos in the south of the country has been sentenced to 35 years in jail.

The state-controlled Chronicle newspaper reports that the unusually heavy sentence was handed down to Tawengwa Machona on New Year's Eve by a magistrate in the city of Masvingo.

Zimbabwe is battling to save its few hundred remaining black and white rhino amid an upsurge in poaching in 2015.

Convicted poachers don't often get sentences of more than nine years in Zimbabwe.

Machona's sentence will only be reduced if he manages to pay back 480 000 US dollars - the estimated value of the rhinos - within the next five years, the newspaper says. If he does, he will serve 20 years in jail.

The Tikki Hywood Trust, which is well-known for its work rehabilitating endangered pangolins, described the sentence as "a great victory for Zimbabwe".

"Congratulations to all departments involved from the ZRP (Zimbabwe Republic Police), to Parks, the magistrates together with the public prosecutors who were involved in ensuring that justice was served," the trust said in a post to Facebook.

The two rhinos were killed in 2014 and 2015 in the Save Valley Conservancy near the southern sugar cane-growing town of Chiredzi.

Two of Machona's accomplices are being charged separately. The alleged ringleader is an assistant officer in Zimbabwe's secret service. Two more members of the gang are reportedly on the run.

"You deserve a deterrent sentence so that you can be a reformed person when you come out of prison," Magistrate Langton Ndokera was quoted as saying.

Four rhinos were poached in Zimbabwe's Lowveld region during a three-week period towards the end of the year.

Rhinos are killed for their horns, which are used in traditional medicine, mainly in Asia. They're so valuable that even rhino calves are targeted.