Born Free

Category: Born Free Kenya | Date: Jan 12 2009 | By: bornfree

In the latter part of 2008, a marked increase in poaching had been seen within the southern part of Taita Ranch and Rukinga Ranch (whose anti-poaching work has been supported by Born Free Foundation), within the corridor between Tsavo East and West in South Eastern Kenya.  This increase indicated that poachers were actually residing in the bush in large numbers and that they were poaching on a large ‘commercial’ scale. 

Therefore, in November 2008, a co-ordinated effort to remove these poachers was put into action.  Rangers and vehicles from Wildlife Works Ltd / Rukinga Ranch, KWS and ANAW carried out an operation, backed up by an aircraft provided by the Kenyan Wildlife Service, to find and arrest the poachers.  Several large and well established charcoaling and poaching camps were identified and raided simultaneously during the operation.  Bicycles and shoes were discarded as the poachers ran to try and escape arrest showing how established the camps had been.

During the raids 11 people were arrested and dozens of carcasses including dik diks, impala and kudu confiscated, several which were found drying in a tree – the meat is sold but the heads are boiled up and eaten by the poachers. Snares, hunting torches, and bangi were also confiscated.  The meat which was confiscated in the raid would have been transported on charcoal lorries to small towns or villages along the Mombasa Road where it would have been sold in small ‘informal butcheries’ and drinking dens.

Some of the largest charcoal kilns ever seen were also found on Kambanga Ranch - literally thousands of trees had been cut in the last months of 2008. 

Rob Dodson of Wildlife Works Ltd. / Rukinga Ranch met with the Directors of Kambanga Ranch directors, showing them the pictures resulting from the raid.  They were quite shocked at the extent of the problem that they have and an offer has been made that should the Ranch Directors be able to pay and equip a couple of rangers, then Wildlife Works will co-ordinate them to work within the network under their management.

Special thanks go to Isaac Maina and his team from ANAW and to the KWS who provided excellent back up to the rangers.

Rob explains to Born Free Foundation the issues that are facing Kenya’s wildlife and environment in the light of the current global economic downturn:

“Last year was a seriously bad year for conservation all over Kenya, for quite a few reasons. The year started badly with chaos and violence after the election fiasco and then continued to get harder as the ’short rains’ failed and the world economic slow-down halted new investment and development funding. It’s been hard enough for people in the ‘developed world’ to make ends meet lately; for people here, it’s been impossible.

With the tourism industry in ruins and food and fuel prices nearly doubled, those people (and there are millions here) who tread the fine line between surviving and not, have had to find a way of subsidising their existence. In an area like Tsavo, the bush is expected to provide, be it from the meat of the animals or charcoal made from the trees; it’s basically a return to our hunting and gathering beginnings as a race of people.

But this dry and fragile environment cannot sustain this sudden onslaught, and left unchecked, the land might well be left barren and shattered, unable to produce food crops and now unable to sustain eco-tourism or other conservation projects. Even in these most difficult of times, it is absolutely essential that we protect our wildlife and natural ecosystems, because they are our future and they are our most precious natural resource. Kenya doesn’t have gold or oil or coal or sands full of diamonds and our unreliable dry equatorial climate will never produce an abundance of food even in a good year. But what we do have is incredible wildlife, this is our natural resource and this we must protect.”

For more information on the projects Born Free Foundation supports, please visit www.bornfree.org.uk.

Tags: bushmeat, charcoal, Kenya, KWS, poaching, Wildlife Works Ltd

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