Eastern, Southern Africa to introduce joint anti-poaching policies

Eastern, Southern Africa to introduce joint anti-poaching policies
Countries in the Eastern and Southern Africa region is planning to harmonize policies in tourism and wildlife management in fresh attempts to fight poaching, local media reported on Wednesday.

Tanzanian Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Ezekiel Maige said the joint efforts were necessary to curb rising illegal trade in wildlife in the Eastern and Southern Africa region.

"We are now discussing how we can possibly harmonize our wildlife laws so as to add to our collaborative efforts to combat illegal trading of fauna and flora," he was quoted by The Citizen daily as saying.

More coordinated efforts to fight poaching could also increase the support of other countries in the region to the bid of Tanzania and Zambia to sell the ivory stockpiles that were seized from poachers over the years.

Early last year, Tanzania was asking to sell almost 90 tons of ivory that would have generated as much as 20 million U.S. dollars. However, the UN conservation meeting in Qatar ruled in favor of the proposal by such countries as Kenya that wanted the stockpiles to be destroyed to discourage poaching and related activities.

The minister, who was speaking at the 10th governing council meeting of parties on the Lusaka Agreement over the weekend, also urged member states to honor their financial commitment to the task force to facilitate the war against poaching.

The Lusaka Agreement on protection of wildlife is a multilateral environmental agreement signed in 1994 in the Zambian capital city under the auspices of the UN Environment Program. The Agreement came into force on Dec. 10, 1996 with the ratification, or formal acceptance, by four signatories.

Currently, there are seven member states to the agreement, which include Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Uganda, Zambia and Tanzania. Ethiopia, South Africa and Swaziland are signatories.

Editor: Yang Lina

English.news.cn   2011-11-16 17:44:11 FeedbackPrintRSS
DAR ES SALAAM, Nov. 16 (Xinhua)