Fortifying wildlife security in borders

Lack of wildlife security in the country’s entry and exit points could be driving illegal trade in ivory and other wildlife crimes.

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At Vwaza Game Reserve, wildlife officials are lamenting about the vanishing elephant population day and night. In Mzuzu, the files of parks and wildlife regional officer George Nxumayo show that in 2014, Vwaza alone lost 19 of the endangered giants—rising from just two or three previously.

“Elephants are under siege,” says soft-spoken Nxumayo. “This cannot be the work of poachers from surrounding villages. It looks like organised crime. Nearly all the carcasses are found intact but without tusks.”

The tusks are a blessing and a curse to elephants. To ivory hunters and traders, they are trophies. But this is why Malawi needs to put in place stricter security systems to ensure the country’s roads, borders and airports do not become freeways for illegal ivory markets usually traced to Asia.

When Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) seized 781 ivory tusks between Phwezi and Bwengu in Rumphi in May 2013, talk of laxity in border security was just beginning.

At the time, the discovery of the contraband stowed under 300 bags of cement in a truck travelling from Mbeya region in Tanzania to Lilongwe was touted as the reason MRA Flexible Anti-Smuggling Team (Fast) needs to be on road all the time.

At the handover of the shipment to the Department of Parks and Wildlife in Mzuzu, MRA spokesperson public relations manager Steve Kapoloma offered damning insights: “This is smuggling at its worst and it means over 300 elephants were killed.”

The ivory tusks might have been fed into crashing machines or destroyed using other means stipulated in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), but questions still linger.

Where were security agents when the truck carrying the ivory crossed the border with Tanzania, named “the largest source of ivory in the world” by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in November.

How come the truckload was intercepted in the Henga Valley region having gone past three police roadblocks—Iponga, Ngerenge, Mwenelondo—and immigration checkpoints at Chitimba or Phwezi?

In the ensuing years, the reality has come to sink in some sectors of the Malawian society that it is time the country made parks and wildlife personnel part of security checkpoints, especially at entry and exit points like Songwe in Karonga, Mloza in Mulanje, Mwanza, Nayuchi in Machinga and Chididi in Nsanje.

At Karonga, several items—including sugar, liquor and maize—are smuggled past the fenced immigration post, making onlookers wonder what would prevent those who deal in ivory from joining the fray. While government is trying to extend the fence into the River Songwe, what meets the eye is the same old picture that parks and wildlife officials rue.

All are customs officials clearing truckloads of goods entering or leaving the country. There are also busloads of people queuing for the immigration stamp clearing them for their respective travels. Also spotted are uniformed and plain-clothed police officers on the prowl, ensuring law and order prevail on the checkpoint.

This is a widespread situation in the country’s checkpoints and workers at Vwaza Game Reserve, where elephants are being slaughtered for ivory by poachers, wonder how long parks and wildlife officers will continue being sidelined if the country is serious with its ‘Stop Wildlife Crimes’ campaign.

“As the country is battling to stop poaching, there is need for wildlife assistants at airports to reduce the smuggling of trophies,” reads part of a petition the game rangers presented to Minister of Information, Tourism and Culture Kondwani Nakhumwa last month.

In their reasoning, the “officers in green” say electronic scanners the size of those at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) help detect an array of hidden illegal substances while they have special know-how to stop smugglers of wildlife materials in their tracks.

The technological viability of scanners is unquestionable after it helped KIA security personnel arrest 23 ivory traffickers last year alone. That year’s arrests includes Chinese national Axin Shang who was slapped with a K1 million fine—the highest in the country—after KIA security on September 16 caught his unsuspecting agent Mark Nyirenda with 50kg of ivory disguised as 2 700 wooden cubes destined for China.

During Axin’s trial, prosecutor Levison Mangani narrated how two police officers—Jones Kadanike and Jane Banda—came across the illegal consignment.

“They scanned the shipment to China and noted it was ivory not wood as indicated on the waybill,” testified Mangani.

He also lamented how Axin, named the largest importer of ivory by EIA in November, was “like milking a thin cow to feed a fat one.”

He explained: “The elephants killed were Malawian’s heritage. The country is experiencing a great decline in elephant population.”

—The loss is enormous–

At the World Animal Day commemorations in October last year, director of parks and wildlife Brighton Kumchedwa said the country’s elephant population had declined from 4 000 to 20 000 in the past 10 years. This is what just Kasungu National Park had. The population in the country’s largest haven for elephants has dipped to about 200.

Kumchedwa said poaching driven by increased demand and prices of ivory in China is partly risking the future of elephants in Malawi.

He said: “We are experiencing a lot of illegal killing of our precious animals, including elephants and rhinos. The country is experiencing a good amount of illegal trade in ivory which is linked to the increase of price of ivory on the illegal market, mostly in Asian countries.

“Most of the culprits we have arrested are destined for China and countries in the Far East.”

But this is not entirely a story of how Chinese appetite for ivory crafts and carvings, which is considered a lucky charm or symbol of status, is depriving Southern Africa of its elephants. Rather, it is a story of how security gaps have left the country as a source and transit route for ivory and other wildlife materials. This is a story of how deploying wildlife personnel can help lessen wildlife crimes.

Like Tanzania and China, Malawi signed the Cites which led to the ban of ivory trade in 1989 when elephants were set aside as a protected species.

Conservationists consider Songwe Border in Karonga a major gateway of ivory due to its proximity to Dar es Salaam, a Tanzanian port with trade routes to Asia where illicit ivory trade have been uncovered.

Comet Jeremiah, spokesperson for the Department of Immigration in the North, suggests that the inclusion of parks and wildlife officials at security checkpoints would help reduce illegal wildlife practices which slip through.

“As immigration officials, our job is to check the travel documents of people coming in and going out. The police are there to detect crime and ensure law and order. Agricultural officials check the movement of crops and animals. As for the parks and wildlife assistants, their inclusion can only be passed at ministerial level. If the ministers allowed them to join in to do what they know best, it can really help.”

Elsie Tembo, principal secretary for the Ministry of Information, Tourism and Culture, agrees that the deployment of wildlife personnel in airports and borders would strengthen a crackdown on game-related crimes.

“However, there is need to grow the number of officials to ensure they are part of airport and border security like it happens in Zambia where wildlife authorities can be seen in airports,” says Tembo, whose ministry is reviewing the Wildlife Act of 2004 to ensure stiffer penalties for poaching, encroaching and other wildlife crimes.

For 11 years, Malawi and Zambia have been running a trans-frontier conservation area project to save the endangered fauna in a shared protected zone comprising Vwaza Wetlands, Nyika National Park and Kasungu National Park on Malawian side.

When asked for lessons learnt from Zambia for slightly over a decade, Nakhumwa said: “We are constantly learning from one another, but our friends are doing well in terms of conservation and security. Security is very tight and their protected areas are better than ours.”

The minister could not commit when Malawi will emulate the Zambian example, but said the simple ones will be put into use immediately while those requiring legal scrutiny will wait a little longer.

Interestingly, and a tad reassuringly for wildlife officers, Nankhumwa, who speaks for government, said: “It’s true we need wildlife assistants in exit points since people take advantage of laxity in security to turn Malawi into a source of ivory and transit route for this illicit trade.”