Poachers up for $216 000 tusks

2006-10-18 14:46

Harare - Zimbabwean game rangers have seized 22 tusks worth $216 000 and arrested two suspected elephant poachers after a dramatic cross-border gunfight with the gang, says an official.

Edward Mbewe, spokesperson for the department of parks and wildlife said: "There was an exchange of gunfire and with the aerial support by helicopter, we forced the poachers to flee to Botswana, then north to Zambia.

"Two suspected poachers have been arrested and they are assisting us with investigations to gather more details about the other guys."

Mbewe said one of the poachers had been injured during the gunfight and left behind a rifle and an empty magazine, adding that parks staff also recovered three elephant tails and game meat in addition to the tusks.

Two help for trafficking in ivory

He said the tusks could have been smuggled from Botswana. The same group of poachers was also suspected to have killed a rhinoceros for its horn at the Hwange National Park.

In July last year, Zimbabwean authorities arrested two Chinese nationals for trafficking in ivory after 72 tusks valued at $55 000 were discovered. Ivory was in great demand in illegal markets in China, Taiwan and Singapore.

Zimbabwe had been grappling with a ballooning elephant population with 100 000 elephants inhabiting forests that could accommodate 45 000.

The ivory trade in Zimbabwe was controlled under a 1997 United Nations convention on trade in endangered species (CITES), which allowed for trade in ivory obtained from elephants that died from natural causes.

Under the CITES agreement, Zimbabwe was only allowed to sell ivory worth a maximum of $500 to a local carver.

Trade in ivory was banned in 1989 in an effort to protect elephant herds, which had been ravaged by the demand for tusks, particularly from Asia's ivory-carving industry.

- AFP