Chinese criminal gangs are causing Tanzania to lose more elephants to poaching than any other African country, says a report by the Environmental Investigation Agency

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Demand for ivory from China is stripping Tanzania of its elephants and causing the East African state to lose more of the giant beasts to poaching than any other African country, according to a scathing report on the country’s illegal wildlife trade.

The Selous reserve in the country’s south has been the hotspot for ivory poaching, with elephant numbers there falling from around 70,000 in 2006 to 13,000 in 2013, according to a report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

The London-based campaigning group says that seizures show more ivory is coming from Tanzania than any other African country. And it is unambiguous about who is to blame – Chinese nationals.

The report cites the case of Yu Bo, a Chinese national who was detained in December 2013 while attempting to deliver 81 elephant tusks to two officers from a Chinese naval task force on an official visit to the Dar es Salaam port in the Kurasini region. Yu was caught at a checkpoint after paying bribes totalling $20,000 (£12,500) at an earlier checkpoint, and subsequently sentenced to 20 years in jail after being unable to pay a $5.6m fine.

In November 2013, three Chinese nationals were arrested at a house in a Dar es Salaam suburb, where 706 tusks were found.

Market traders also told the EIA’s undercover investigators that during a visit by Chinesepresident Xi Jinping in March 2013 the black market price of ivory doubled to $700 per kilo.

Tanzania elephant population from 1976 to 2013: Selous and Ruaha subsets. Illustration: Environmental Investigation Agency

The group’s executive director, Mary Rice, said: “This report shows clearly that without a zero tolerance approach, the future of Tanzania’s elephants and its tourism industry are extremely precarious.

“The ivory trade must be disrupted at all levels of criminality, the entire prosecution chain needs to be systemically restructured, corruption rooted out and all stakeholders, including communities exploited by the criminal syndicates and those on the front lines of enforcement, given unequivocal support.”

The report lays the blame for the country’s ivory trade problem on “collusion between corrupt officials and criminal enterprises”, accusing rangers, police officers and revenue and customs officers of corruption.

A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry said it was “strongly dissatisfied” with the report.

“We attach importance to the protection of wild animals like elephants,” he said. “We have been cooperating with other countries in this area.”

Earlier this year the Chinese ambassador to Tanzania deplored the role Chinese nationals played in the country’s illegal wildlife trade, saying “our bad habits have followed us.” A Tanzanian government minister controversially suggested last year that poachers should executed “on the spot” to stop the slaughter of elephants.

The report also highlights underfunding for the Wildlife Division, which is tasked with protecting the Selous reserve, and says the agency saw funding drop $2.8m annually in 2005 to $0.8m in 2009 after funding raised from safari photography trips was scrapped. The agency has one ranger per 168 square kilometres rather than the recommended one per 25 sq km.