/ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN 9/ ZAIRE: Poaching by Refugees from Sudanese Civil War Returns to Garamba National Park

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Apr 13 1996 (IPS) - For close to a decade, Garamba National Park in north-eastern Zaire had been safe from poachers. Now, thanks to the automatic weapons pouring in from strife-torn Sudan along with hungry refugees, all that is changing.

The park, close to the Sudanese border, is a Unesco World Heritage Site of 4,900 sq kms with the last known wild population of just 30 white northern rhino. It is also home to Zaire’s densest elephant population (11,000) and its only herds of giraffe.

“The park has faced increasing pressure from poaching, as the effects of the 12-year civil war in neighbouring southern Sudan spill over into Zaire, and the Zairean economy continues to deteriorate,” says Dr. Jean-Pierre d’Haurt, regional representative of the Nairobi-based World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) for eastern Africa.

With an estimated 80,000 refugees settled around the park in the three reserves of Mondo Misa, Gangala na Bodio and Azande, arms are easily available with the result that both local people and Sudanese refugees are poaching wildlife for ‘bushmeat’ for sale in the local market.

“Despite the local poaching activities, the greatest threat is from across the border, where rebel armies need food. Men armed with automatic weapons, hand grenades and equipment that attest to their origin are systematically poaching within the park,” says d’Huart.

According to the WWF, buffaloes, whose numbers have dropped from about 53,000 in 1976 to 25,000 in 1995, are the main target for food. But elephants are also being shot for ivory and in January, tusks from 26 elephants were recovered in the park.

And now, for the first time in 12-years, two of the remaining white rhinos have been killed. The first was a male called ‘Bawesi’ that was shot in February, followed by a 10-year-old pregnant female known as ‘Juliet’. The poachers hacked off the horns of the two animals which in Middle Eastern markets fetch prices of up to 1,200 dollars a kilogramme.

“This is a tragic loss,” says WWF-Director General Claude Martin. “With less than 30 individuals left, each animal poached is a severe blow to the chances of survival of this species. The government of Zaire has to do everything in its power to stop poaching that is pushing this species to the edge of extinction.”

Martin says he is sending a letter to Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko appealing for his personal intervention.

WWF and other conservation partners have been supporting the Institut Zaireois pour la Conservation de la Nature (IZCN) to combat poaching and preserve the Garamba ecosystem through an international conservation aid development programme.

The project was established in 1984, after heavy poaching had drastically reduced elephant populations and had practically wiped out the white rhino.

Anti-poaching measures were vastly improved including regular reconnaissance flights, the building of roads, river crossings and hilltop observation posts. The IZCN staff were equipped with radios, vehicles, patrol rations and provided with bonuses.

“But poaching escalated again in 1991, following the capture of Maridi by the Sudan people’s Liberation Army and the subsequent influx of refugees to Zaire. The pressure has since been steadily building up with the result that the first of the northern white rhinoceros has now fallen victim,” says Fraser Smith, WWF project executive for the Garamba Conservation and Development Programme.

“Garamba urgently needs help to survive this upsurge in poaching. Its unique ecosystem offers great potential for the revival of this region’s economy. But without adequate resources and political will, it will only be a question of time before Zaire loses the last population of one of the rarest animals on earth, the northern white rhinoceros.”

Stopping poaching however does not come without risks. From 1993 to 1995 there have been 121 shoot-outs with poachers. Three guards have been injured, one killed and project aircraft have been shot at. Since 1991, more than 900 weapons have been recovered from the park and surrounding areas.

The anti-poaching squad has recovered “refugee registration, Sudanese identity cards and Sudanese money…further proof of the poachers’ origin,” says d’Huart.

“It is time for the international community to look at the impact of the civil war in Sudan and on this unique ecosystem. If not, by the time the refugees return to their homeland, Zaire will have lost one of the jewels of its natural heritage,” he warns.

Responding to the claims, an SPLA spokesperson here says it’s against the movement’s code of conduct to poach. “That’s not our objective. We respect international borders. We don’t cross into Zaire. And we don’t poach there,” he told IPS.