Tanzania has lost half of its elephants to ivory poachingin the last five years claims the non-profit Environmental Investigation Agency. Chinese criminal syndicates are conspiring with corrupt Tanzanian officials to feed the resurgent ivory market in China. The east African country is the largest source of illegal ivory in the world. Last year a visit by a Chinese naval force to Dar es Salaam caused the local price of ivory to soar. A Chinese national was caught trying to deliver 81 illegal tusks to two Chinese naval officers.
An EIS report claims that its undercover investigators received an offer to sell tusks from a Tanzanian wildlife department official who had access to the government's storeroom of confiscated ivory. The official also offered to connect the investigators with a dealer providing ivory from elephants in the Selous Game Reserve
[photo]. There is a 67% drop in the elephant population there. According to EIS's
Vanishing Point report politicians of Tanzania's ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party and connected business people use their influence to protect ivory traffickers. In 2012 a secret list of perpetrators behind the trafficking crisis was handed to the country's president by intelligence sources. This inlcuded prominent members of the CCM and their business associates. Former Natural Resources Minister Khamis Kagasheki named four CCM MPs involved in elephant poaching. None of those named have been investigated or arrested. EIS released its report on the eve of an international summit hosted by Tanzania in Arusha to discuss wildlife crime and conservation.
Interpol announced in October that it is forming a unit dedicated to trafficking and environmental crimes located in Nairobi. The team is supposed to increase intelligence gathering and sharing and assist national investigations focused on wildlife crime. With powerful officials deeply involved in a sophisticated network of illegal trade with an expanding market in China, it will take concerted international effort and funding to stop the slaughter.
