Katavi National Park is the third largest park in Tanzania and home to thousands of animals. With an area of 4,471 square kilometers, it is popularly known for having more than 5,400 hippos and some big five animals. Unlike many other parks, it has a unique history of its origin and is also featured by many rivers and lakes which supply water to support wildlife.

The park hosts more than 100,000 wild animals like lions, leopards, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, antelopes, buffaloes, giraffes and zebras. Also, Katavi is home to more than 450 bird species, ranging from turkey sized group hornbill to the tiny sun birds.

These treasures make it a tourism destination for both locals and foreigners who have been visiting the park to see the variant animals, especially the hippos which make it unique.

Francis Konde, acting head of Katavi National Park, says they receive 3,800 tourists per year. “Most of the people visiting the park are Tanzanians followed by people from the USA, Germany, France and Belgium,” he says.

Konde reveals that the presence of markets for elephant tusks and other trophies in Asian countries like China and Thailand, contribute significantly to poaching.

Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA) was established in 2014 with the aim of conducting anti-poaching patrols in and outside Game Reserves and Game Control Areas.

According to information on their website, since the inception of TAWA up to September 2016, a total of 69,278 patrols were conducted that lead to the arrest of 1,563 poachers.  

On the other confiscated items are 90 pieces of elephant tusks weighing 376.33 kilograms, 29,529.5 kilograms of bush meat of different species, 141 firearms and 278 ammunition of different calibers. 

TAWA also maintains a canine unit that helps in the inspection of wildlife products at Julius Nyerere International Airport and Dar es Salaam seaport.

Ms Wamukoya notes that Tanzania’s decline in elephant poaching and trafficking can be attributed to its law enforcement efforts in dismantling some of these rings.

She attributes international cooperation as key in combating wildlife poaching and trafficking as the crime is transnational in nature. 

“We have militarized our operations. Also we have another system involving other institutions; therefore, we are good in the protection of wildlife,” Msuha says. Most of the ivory found in seizures recently tends to be six or seven years old, indicating that poaching is highly reduced compared to the years before 2014, when hundreds of elephants were killed every year.

Msuha notes that the same is done to protect rhinos, and their number is also increasing ahead of the targets.

According to the 105 wildlife crime data points collected so far in Tanzania for the #WildEye East Africa map, more than 90 percent of cases were connected to the illegal possession of ivory, elephant tusks, elephant meat and other parts of the elephant.

Poaching, a persisting problem

Despite the efforts made by the government and other stakeholders to stop wildlife poaching, it is still persisting. There are cartels that use the local people, game rangers and businessmen to obtain the ivory from the park.

Msuha says that there is still a black market in Asian countries like Vietnam, Malaysia and others in East Asia where people believe that owning ornaments made of ivory is a sign of wealth.

Kisutu Magistrate Court in Dar es Salaam has been hearing a number of cases on wildlife poaching and seizures of ivory whereby some people have been sentenced to jail and others were set free.

Also, the Dar es Salaam Special Zone Police is holding three suspects for illegal possession of 25 pieces of ivory in an operation conducted from February 25 to March 9 in Magomeni and Manzese suburbs.

Early this year, Kisutu Resident Magistrate Court sentenced Ms Haika Mgao (26) to 60 years in prison after she was found guilty in possession of ivory and hippopotamus teeth worth Shs69.5 million belonging to the United Republic of Tanzania.