Kenya, Tanzania enhance wildlife protection partnership

Robust partnership between wildlife conservationists in Kenya and Tanzania has led to a dramatic slump in poaching of iconic mammals like elephants and rhinos, experts said Thursday.

The experts and campaigners said this while attending the Kilimanjaro Landscape Cross-border Wildlife Security Forum, organized by Africa Wildlife Foundation (AWF) to discuss innovative strategies to strengthen regional response to wildlife threats.

"We have successfully contained poaching across our shared wildlife habitats in the last four years thanks to vibrant cross-border partnership," remarked Peter Kapingwa, the Game Warden of Longido District in Tanzania.

Kapingwa however noted the biting drought in the expansive Amboseli and west Kilimanjaro ecosystems presented new threats to wildlife species in both Kenya and Tanzania.

Conservationists have intensified efforts to save the remaining herd of elephants and rhinos in the Kilimanjaro landscape that straddles southern parts of Kenya and northern Tanzania.

The AWF in partnership with Kenyan and Tanzanian wildlife agencies have in the last 16 years concentrated their activities on securing corridors along this vital ecosystem to minimize human-wildlife conflicts.

Nelly Palmeris, a senior warden at Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), said vibrant transboundary collaboration is critical to boost protection of herbivores, carnivores, reptiles and birds that roam protected areas in the region.

"Wildlife does not recognize boundaries hence the need to improve regional collaboration to protect them from multiple threats," said Palmeris.

She noted that inadequate manpower coupled with sluggish technology uptake have constrained sound management of wildlife species in the region. Endit