Last week my family took a trip from Gaborone to Kasane. Along the road I discovered the magic of Botswana’s Chobe District and had some truly special encounters with the elephant population. It was a wonderful trip but my investigations and discussions with members of the Kasane anti-poaching unit led to my concerns for Botswana’s magnificent elephant and to the writing of this article. I was fortunate enough to visit the Caracal Diversity Centre where they are doing great rehabilitation work with minimal funding, and to make contact with Grant Nel of Enviro911 who was able to furnish me with a solid overall picture of poaching in Botswana as well as his NPO’s research into possible poaching solutions which include the strengthening of law enforcement capabilities and the upliftment and education of impoverished communities in the region.
THE CURRENT SITUATION
With the high price and increased demand for elephant ivory, primarily as an investment commodity in the far-east, in particular China, poaching of elephants across Africa has reached an all time high. As many as 2500 elephants a month are falling victim to the insatiable Asian hunger for ‘white gold’. Much of this poaching is still to the north of our borders and is increasingly involving militant and terrorist groups who use the income to fund their wars, jihads and other terrorist activities. Northern Botswana’s Chobe and Ngamiland Districts make up the core range for the last remaining mega-population of elephant in Africa estimated at approximately 200,000.
Our good management practices, political stability, and a resilient economy have meant that these elephants enjoy a protection not always afforded other fragmented populations dotted across the continent. However, we are not immune to the greed, and the covetous gaze of the poachers and criminal syndicates is squarely upon Botswana. In mid 2010, following a spate of elephant poaching incidences in and around Chobe National Park (as many as 19 elephants shot in one rampage), and prompted by senior officers in the Botswana Defence Force, Grant Nel and Dr. Mark Vandewalle started a voluntary community vigilance initiative ÔÇô ‘Enviro911′.
ENVIRO911
The initial objective of Enviro911 was merely to provide a passive conduit of information between a vigilant community and the law enforcers involved in the district’s anti-poaching efforts. As this informal intelligence network developed so anti-poaching activities could become better strategized and better informed. However, this passive approach has been less effective than envisaged and Enviro911 has increasingly been involved in a more active manner.
It has also become progressively more obvious that anti-poaching efforts need to extend way beyond the direct strategies employed by law enforcement. There are a multitude of enabling factors that create and drive elements in community’s to become poachers, or support poaching syndicates, and these need mitigation. As a consequence of this, and due to the urgency imposed by the severity and prevalence of all poaching activities (i.e. not limited to ivory) and other illegal environmental practices in the Chobe District, the co-founders have formally registered Enviro911 as a Not for Profit Organisation and are begining to tackle the issues from a permanent base of operations in Kasane.
Grant Nel points out that Northern Botswana as a target for transnational and local ivory poaching cannot be underestimated. Chobe District is particularly attractive to poaching syndicates because of its proximity to Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Angola and the ability to ship contraband across borders that are porous or manned by corruptible officials. He indicated that, “at Enviro911 we believe that addressing the problem head on through strict law enforcement procedures is an obvious necessity, but we also believe that the problem’s roots are more deep seated within our communities and need to be addressed to ultimately make the environment less attractive to wildlife traffickers and poachers. It is the enabling factors previously alluded to that are responsible for the easy recruitment of the so called subsistence or ‘secondary’ poachers. These individuals seek to supplement a paltry income and have the skills sought by the syndicate bosses. The consequent risk is that these individuals become full time or ‘primary’ poachers when the benefits far outweigh the consequences. We also believe that individuals or groups that routinely break any environmental law are at a higher risk of entering, or already being part of, a poaching fraternity that views all environmental protection with disdain.”
The enabling factors that drive the evolution of a law abiding citizen to become a poacher are varied, and in isolation provide plenty of incentive, but in combination they are powerful motivators and include.
Poverty
Chobe District has a high incidence of residents living at or below the poverty line, particularly in the outlying communities that don’t always have access to the high income tourism economy. This incentivizes individuals to participate in illegal activities that provide an illicit income. The prevalence of wildlife in these rural settings is an easy accessible source of income, whether it be in commercial bush-meat, lion bones, live animals, hides or ivory. This probably provides syndicate kingpins with the greatest leverage to entice individuals to become part of trafficking networks.
Wildlife Conflict
Those individuals that attempt to combat poverty legitimately through subsistence and informal commercial agricultural practices have to deal with high incidences of wildlife conflict. This conflict not only exacerbates the negative view of wildlife as a menace but also increases legitimate wildlife culling through problem animal control measures. The laws dictating Problem Animal Control (PAC) measures provide large loopholes for individuals to gain legal and illegal possession of wildlife parts that potentially can enter the illicit trafficking network. Such PAC culling practices become entrenched as the norm with no other solutions being sought, further fuelling a kill first attitude.
Traditional Views
Rural traditions dictate that wildlife’s value is measured only as a consumable resource. In the same vein as tax evasion, there is also an inherent opinion that it is the ‘right’ of an individual to have access to this consumption and not the government’s right to claim ‘ownership’ of all wildlife. Our rural communities cling on to their hunter-gather or pastoralist roots where for centuries they have used wildlife consumptively and consequently believe it is impossible to deplete the resource. The fact that current use has outstripped renewal, because of the export nature of the consumption, is not a concept they are presently willing to entertain or perhaps even understand.
Poor land use planning
Agencies involved in land use planning and land allocation frequently operate in isolation of each other and/or reach decisions that do not factor in the potential for wildlife conflict and thereby exacerbate the foregoing enabling factors. Corruption and mismanagement within these agencies have also led to many dubious land allocations. The controversial cessation of all hunting in 2014 has led to vast tracts of land essentially being vacant and open to increased poaching pressure due to the absence of vigilant and concerned tenants. Cattle posts have pushed deeper and deeper into these vacant areas in just one year which is further cementing the traditional views and causing more wildlife/human conflict.
The Robin Hood Syndrome
In communities where wildlife is considered a menace, the populace see the ‘poacher’ as their Robin Hood. He stands up against the authorities and spreads his ill gotten gains amongst the poor. This is where the criminal syndicates currently have the ‘hearts and minds’ battle won. Our law enforcers are shunned and held in disdain by the majority of the rural residents because they represent the evil ‘Sheriff of Nottingham’ who seeks to keep them oppressed. Consequently, any attempt to gain intelligence information within these communities for law enforcement becomes nigh impossible.
WHAT ARE THE SOLUTIONS?
So, understanding that there is no such thing as one size fits all, what are possible solutions?
Firstly Enviro911 believe that models that have worked elsewhere in Africa need to be considered, even if it means a change in national legislature and attitude. In Namibia, the government has devolved ownership of wildlife and natural resources to the communities that live there. Many of these community conservancies are flourishing and wildlife numbers have increased substantially. Our CBNRM programs are flawed and have, for the most part, not worked because the Orwellian principle, where a select few benefit, is the predominant scenario. Ownership and self management is the key here.
In the absence of ownership (or even in combination) there needs to be some sort of Payments to Encourage Co-Existence (PEC) for people who reside in the areas where wildlife affect their lives. This must be a monetary, ‘in the pocket’ benefit so that it truly offsets the impacts ÔÇô perhaps a social benefit drawn from the taxes and levies that are imposed on the tourism industry. Checks and balances can be implemented, again from models that have worked elsewhere in Africa.
Wildlife conflict is inevitable and probably unavoidable. However, current methods of mitigation are outdated and new methods are generally poorly implemented. Traditional farming practices, both arable and pastoral, need to be revolutionised into cooperative and holistic associations. Much success has been achieved with this method elsewhere, particularly near Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. With conflict decreasing, and income increasing, the next steps become easier to achieve.
Traditional views are a real challenge, but in any culture traditions are subject to evolution. One only needs to look at how Pope Francis is evolving the traditional Catholic faithful to understand that anything is possible. Enviro911 believe that current environmental education practices lack the ability to drive such an evolution. What is required is a national propaganda campaign that pulls our citizens together along a road of national pride in our wildlife and wilderness heritage. As the nation’s second biggest economic resource it stands to reason that our leaders should endorse and fund such a campaign. However, this only becomes possible if poverty and wildlife conflict in the wilderness areas is adequately addressed.
Land allocation in Chobe District is a highly emotive and controversial issue, and this is why it is so open to corruption (both passive and active) and abuse. Those responsible for land allocation should only do so in coordination with all stakeholder agencies and with the understanding that the District’s primary economic benefits are derived through wildlife. Any land use that conflicts with this is ultimately detrimental to the economy. Politically driven land boards are notoriously hard to manage, but once the communities are reaping true rewards from wildlife, the politicians will quickly see the benifits and become vociferous conservationists.
Now envisage the result should a poaching recruiter enter a community that is earning substantial benefits through all the above mechanisms and started trying to enlist poachers. Suddenly he becomes the “Sheriff of Nottingham” and wildlife is the Robin Hood with BDF, DWNP, Police, NGO’s and the Business community his “Merry Men”. How attractive would our elephants be to him then, when the risk of being caught suddenly increases exponentially, because, the community won’t tolerate the violation?
According to Grant Nel, Enviro911 intends to continue its primary function of assisting law enforcement authorities directly by providing intelligence and information on any illegal environmental activity, but without addressing the enabling factors and limitations of the current anti-poaching efforts, this information is hard to access and limits the efficacy of Enviro911 and all anti-poaching stakeholders. Enviro911’s mandate in this fight to protect Chobe District’s considerable (but shrinking!) natural wildlife resources can be summarised in the two pronged strategy outlined hereunder.
Law Enforcement
i) Provide a data repository and qualified analysts that can quantify any incoming information on any illegal environmental act into user friendly tools for efficient and accurate strategizing.
ii) This repository and analyses can be extended to general environmental concerns that may affect conservation management and law enforcement decisions.
iii) Use multiple resources, including technology in use for current research projects, and vigilant community members to provide ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ intelligence on illegal environmental acts.
iv) Research and implement alternate surveillance techniques and technologies.
v) Provide consultation services and training services that bring the best contemporary skills into environmental protection and prosecution.
vi) Provide a rewards program for information leading to arrests or prosecution of environmental transgressors.
vii) Lobby our nation’s decision makers to review policies and laws that hobble our law enforcers’ effectiveness.
viii) Develop a primary forensic facility that can provide enforcement agencies with the skills and technology to strengthen the prosecutorial process.
Community Upliftment
i) Develop, and implement, working models of Payments to Encourage Co-existence. Filter these PEC’s into the worst affected communities so that the benefits of co-existing with wildlife are felt directly by the individual households.
ii) Promulgate and implement established models that truly mitigate legitimate wildlife conflict in a non-lethal manner. Such measures need to provide a monetary benefit to the affected individual so as to help in the alleviation of poverty.
iii) Coordinate with various agencies on land use planning and other conflict mitigation measures so as to minimise the potential for conflict.
iv) Provide education and opportunities, in conjunction with other organisations, to change traditional consumptive views of communities.
v) Facilitate the coordination of agencies when dealing with land use planning.
vi) Become an informed community stakeholder in land use planning.
vii) Explore alternatives and lobby for sustainable (including consumptive) land use planning for the dormant hunting concessions in Chobe District.
Although Enviro911 realise that this mandate is ambitious, they believe it is achievable with the help of all the dedicated individuals in the community and sufficient funding. Having achieved their registration as a Not for Profit Organisation they can now actively seek the financial endorsements and donations needed to begin implementation
Next time you are in Chobe National Park enjoying the antics of a herd of elephants, remember that their existence hangs in the balance; a balance that is held delicately by our law enforcers in one hand and our local communities in the other. If that balances tips one way or the other then those who seek to exploit what is ours for their own selfish benefit gain the advantage.
If you would like to contribute or make a donation to Enviro911 they are contactable on [email protected]. They are also contactable on a 24 hour hotline number (+267) 76879731 to report any suspicious activity or wildlife emergencies needing immediate response.
I am available to assist in any criminal matters. Expert Profiling is contactable on Tel: 390 9957 email – [email protected] or [email protected] or on Twitter @LauriePieters.
