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Roundup: Malawi president, foreign envoys in joint anti-wildlife crime campaign

Xinhua, April 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Malawi President Peter Mutharika has launched two video clips in which he stars with over 15 foreign ambassadors to the country spreading anti-wildlife crime messages.

The video clips are part of the on-going "Stop Wildlife Crime Campaign" government initiated in February 2014.

The first clip is in English while the second clip is multilingual with the characters conveying the message in their individual mother tongue languages.

Launching the video clips at his State Residence in Lilongwe, Mutharika hailed the foreign envoys for their commitment to fighting wildlife crime in the country.

"Thank you to all the Diplomatic Missions and Lilongwe Wildlife Trust for your work in driving forward this initiative," said Mutharika.

"This is our shared planet. Wildlife and forest crime is our shared obligation. Protecting these animals is not a sentimental wish but an economic, social and environmental responsibility."

The Malawi leader said his government would prioritize protection of wildlife to ensure that the country's natural resources were not plundered for the profit of the few.

"Our own survival as humankind is based on our ability to protect our natural heritage; that is protecting everything from the most majestic of animals such as elephants and rhinos, through to the forests, birds and insects," said Mutharika.

Speaking on behalf of the diplomatic missions featured in the clips, British High Commissioner to Malawi, Michael Nevin, urged all envoys to spread the message to their citizens visiting the country that trafficking of wildlife products of any kind in Malawi is a crime.

Nevin said time had come for the fight against wildlife crime to be taken far and beyond Africa given the rate of poaching and trafficking of wildlife product around the globe.

The video clips will be circulated on local and international TVs, online through diplomatic and partner channels and social media, and on local airport TVs.

Malawi has for many years been used by criminal gangs as a conduit for illegal ivory consolidated from neighboring Mozambique and Tanzania.

In March, Malawi burned 2.6 tons of ivory that was intercepted in 2013 as a gang of traffickers tried to use the country as a conduit.

The first embassy in Malawi to join the "Stop Wildlife Crime Campaign" in October 2015 was the Chinese with the objective of sensitizing their nationals in Malawi to promote the protection of the country's wildlife.

Since then, almost all Embassies, High Commissions and Honorary Consuls to Malawi have stepped up to join the campaign. Endit