KENYA: Food Vendors Want Ban On Game Meat Lifted

Kenya is seeking to reintroduce selling of game meat at restaurants and hotels to boost competitiveness of the facilities on the global culinary landscape.

Tourism secretary for tourism Najib Balala said his ministry will undertake research over the next year on farming of game ahead of the re-introduction.

We must benefit from game resource, my team is working on it and definitely we will encourage the farming of wildlife and then we will have availability of game meat being sold in our restaurants and our hotels, he said during the opening of Tamarind Tree Hotel in Nairobi.

Restaurants, including the Carnivore, have been lobbying the government to allow for the re-introduction since the 2004 ban, which only allows for sale of ostrich and crocodile.

Carnivore had been selling game meat since it was established in the early 1980s, but what it had been associated with for over two decades stopped abruptly, cutting out game meat enthusiasts from its customer base.

It has now become more of an events-hosting entertainment facility rather than the game meat haven it was famed for.

Killing of wildlife for sport was introduced in Kenya in 1910, but was banned in 1977 when the number of certain species fell drastically.

The poaching concern led to the ban on the sale or import of game meat despite constant lobbying by restaurants.

Since then, visitors expecting to sample game meat of antelopes, gazelles, zebras, wildebeests among other wild animals have had to bear with whetting their appetites with ostrich and crocodile.

Wildlife species that have significantly declined and are critically threatened in Kenya include elephants, rhinos, Grevy Zebra, bongos, lions and cheetahs, among others. Some are hunted in conflict, for game meat and trophies.

There are only 30 Sable antelopes in Kenya currently, 3,765 Grevy zebras and less than 2,000 lions, according to KWS data submitted to Parliament.

The numbers are set to keep dropping if these animals are not protected.

Licensed game meat sellers in Kenya are rethinking their business models following a continued sales ban and refusal by the government to allow imports from South Africa.

A restaurant such as the Carnivore which has been selling game meat since the early 1980s has now become more of an events-hosting entertainment facility rather than a game meat haven it has been known for.

Sale of any game meat was banned in Kenya in 2004 because of concerns over poaching, forcing game meat outlets to restrict themselves to selling crocodile and ostrich meat whose sale remains open.

“Our customers have become disappointed over the last few years because the government won’t even allow us to import game meat from South Africa,” said Martin Dunford, the chairman of the Tamarind Group, which owns the Carnivore Restaurant.

Carnivore has been selling game meat since it was established in the early 1980s, but what is has been associated with for over two decades stopped abruptly, cutting out game meat enthusiasts from its customer base.

Since then, visitors expecting to sample game meat of antelopes, gazelles, zebras, wildebeests among other wild animals have to bear with the only two types on offer ; the ostrich and the crocodile.

“We shall continue lobbying the government to lift the ban or allow us to import from South Africa because it is an added advantage to the restaurant and the tourism industry,” said Mr Dunford, whose company also operated a game meat restaurant in South Africa.

“Our business has been under severe attack because we have specialised and associated with the game meat for many years.”

Kenya currently cannot sell game meat as one of the delicacies visitors can find in the country, letting the opportunity slip to South Africa, where game meat industry thrives.

Statistics indicate that South Africa has 11,000 private game ranches that supply to the game meat outlets across the country. Kenya has 17 private and group game ranches.

The ban has also affected ranchers like the Delamare, which supplied game meat outlets.

The trade offered them alternative income stream from culling the animals in their ranches.

Forestry and Wildlife Minister Noah Wekesa said that despite requests from game meat sellers, the ban will stay in place to check on poaching, a crime that has been rising in the country.

“I have said the ban will stay to safeguard the wildlife,” said the minister, without giving indications whether the lifting of the ban for game meaty sellers will be considered.

Game meat sellers urge that allowing controlled sale of the delicacy helps to put more value to animals in an addition to the value derived from tourism, as long as that animal is not classified as an endangered species.

Because more than 50 per cent of wildlife in Kenya live in unprotected areas, it is argued the policy of restricting consumption of game meat by the hosts mostly farmers and pastoralists, worsens the human-wildlife conflict to the detriment of the animals.

Despite the ban on sale of game meat, trends of poaching in Kenya over the last three years have been rising, with the number of elephant deaths in that period growing by five times.

Data from various sources show that while 47 elephants died in 2007 due to poaching, the number rose to 145 in 2008 and to 216 in 2009.

Bonaventure Ebayi, the director of the Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF), a regional anti-poaching initiative, said poachers are using technology to increase attacks against food and non-food wildlife.


Tourism Observer

TANZANIA: Katavi National Park Is A Promising Holiday Destination

Seldom visited, Katavi National Park is a true wilderness, providing few intrepid souls who make it here with a thrilling taste of Africa, as it shoukd have been a century ago.

The park was created in 1974, now located in Katavi region in the remote southwest, covering 4,471 square kilometers, which makes it the third largest national park in Tanzania. It encompasses the Katuma River, the seasonal Lake Katavi and Lake Chada floodplains.

The park provides tourists with walking, driving and camping safaris. Near Lake Katavi, people can visit the tamarind tree inhabited by the spirit of the legendary hunter Katabi, for whom the park is named, and offerings are still left there by locals seeking the spirit's blessings.

Acting Chief Park Warden, Mr Frederick Mofulu says the park that is within a truncated arm of the Rift Valley has a lot to offer to tourists, but faces enormous challenges in conserving it and getting rid of poachers.

Warden Mofulu says the park authority has intensified patrols using airplane to track and control poachers and use of arms by individuals and groups in the area. He says that the park in collaboration with the police has been running operations to ensure no arms proliferation in the area and also see to it that they bring an end to poaching.

Mr Mofulu says by using airplane to patrol the park now the situation is good. He says it is believed that some refugees in the district from Burundi have firearms and use them for poaching. "We use intelligence to track the firearms outside and within the park.

We cooperate with police outside the park so as to preempt poaching missions and we are succeeding and no elephant has been killed for a while now. We have successfully got some from the people," says the chief.

He notes that they collaborate also with traditional leaders, encouraging good neighborhood and raise awareness to their people of importance of conserving the park and avoid intruding the park that is famous for having hippopotamus.

The Chief Park Warden says patrol against grazing cattle in the park has been successful, highlighting that since March this year people have been charged fines for entering about 4,000 cattle in the park.

Mr Mofulu notes that the situation in Burundi before and after the general election has caused number of refugees to go down. He says that most foreign tourists come from the country that shares a boarder with the park.

In 2014/15 there were a total of 4,335 tourists in the park but the trend shows that in 2015/16 the number will not reach that, attributing the fall to Burundi political crisis. Mr Mofulu calls upon Tanzanians to make internal tourism in the park.

A special committee has been formed to find a solution to water problem as at times Lake Katavi is found with little water while hippos, crocodiles and other animals and birds rely on it for their survival.

He notes that people have been using water from Katuma River, diverting it from going to the lake, hence causing huge concern to park authority and that a research is being carried out on better water management from the river.

Katavi Region is a home to two refugee camps, which are Katumba and Mishamo and sometimes refugees mix themselves with citizens. Mr Mofulu says that Katavi National Park's most singular wildlife spectacle is provided by it hippos.

Towards the end of the dry season, up to 200 individuals might flop up together in one place, so does male rivalry heat up. "Bloody territorial flights are an everyday occurrence, with the vanquished male forced to lurk hapless on the open plains until it gathers sufficient confidence to mount another challenge and such thing are for tourists to enjoy," he notes.

The bulk of Katavi supports a hypnotically featureless cover of tangled brachystegia woodland, home for substantial but elusive populations of the localized eland, sable and roan antelopes.

But the main focus for game viewing within the park is the Katuma River and associated floodplains such as the seasonal lakes Katavi and Chada. During the rainy season, the lush, marshy lakes are a haven for myriad water birds, and they support Tanzania's densest concentration of hippos and crocodiles. It is during the dry season when the floodwaters retreat that Katavi truly comes into its own.

The Katuma, reduced to a shallow, muddy trickle, forms the only source of drinking water for miles around, and the flanking floodplains that support game concentration that defy belief.

A huge number of elephants might converge on the area, together with several herds of 1,000 plus buffalo, while abundance of giraffe, zebra, impala and reedbuck provide easy pickings for the numerous lion prides and spotted hyena clans whose territories converge on the floodplains. Mr Mofulu the park that is on the east of Lake Tanganyika can be reached by charter flights from Dar es Salaam or Arusha or by road.

"A tough but spectacular day's drive from Mbeya (550 kilometers) or in the dry season from Kigoma (some 390 kilometers). It is also possible to reach Mpanda by rail from Dar es Salaam via Tabora then catch public transport to Sitalike, where game drives can be arranged. If travelling overland, one must allow plenty of time to get at the park and back," he says.

The best time is the dry season, that is May to October as roads within the park as always flooded during rainy season. Wildlife features include large animal herds, such as buffaloes, zebras, wildebeests, giraffes, and elephants.

Along the Katuma River there are many crocodiles and hippos, which upon annual dry seasons results in mud-holes that can be packed with hundreds of hippos. Carnivorous animals that roam the park are cheetahs, wild dogs, hyenas, leopards, and lions. Some sources claim a very high biodiversity in the park.

There were reports of wildlife decline due to illegal hunting and poaching, but according to Mofulu, the situation is all but contained. Katavi National parks is the core of the western Tanzanian wildlife reserves and one of the biggest and richest wildlife areas in Tanzania with concentration of diverse habitat mammals and bird species in the parks wetlands, lakes, woodlands and shrub lands holding dear some endangered and unusual species.

TANZANIA: Lake Manyara National Park

Plains zebras in Lake Manyara National Park

Lake Manyara National Park is a Tanzanian national park located both in Arusha Region and Manyara Region, Tanzania. The two administrative regions have no jurisdiction over the parks. The park is governed by the Tanzania National Parks Authority. The majority of the land area of the park is a narrow strip running between the Gregory Rift wall to the west and Lake Manyara, an alkaline or soda-lake, to the east.

The park consists of 330 km2 (130 sq mi) of arid land, forest, and a soda-lake which covers as much as 200 km2 (77 sq mi) of land during the wet season but is nearly nonexistent during the dry season.

Lake Manyara National Park is known for the flamingos that inhabit the lake. During the wet season they inhabit the edges of the lake in flocks of thousands but they are not so present during the dry season.

More than 400 species of birds inhabit the park and many remain throughout the year. Because of this Lake Manyara National Park is a good spot for bird watching. Visitors to the park can expect to see upwards of 100 different species of bird on any day.

Leopards, Masai lions, cheetahs, elephants, blue monkeys, dik-dik, gazelles, hippopotami, Masai giraffe, impala, zebras and many more wild animals inhabit this park and many can be seen throughout the year. There is a hippo pond at one end of the park where visitors can get out of their cars and observe from a safe distance. The leopards and lions are both known to lounge in the trees while not hunting for prey.

Lake Manyara National Park is located 126 km (78 mi) south west of Arusha and can be reached by car in an hour and a half. The park can also be reached easily from Babati the capital of Manyara Region. The park is also very close to Tarangire National Park There is also an airport, Lake Manyara Airport (LKY), located at the top of the rift wall.

UGANDA: Ostriches, Uganda Kobs, Lions And Zebras Poached

A new audit of wildlife populations in game parks shows that the number of animals is on a sharp decline, raising fears of a possible extinction of some rare species.
Last year alone, 25 elephants were killed in Murchison Falls, which is the worst scenario ever reported in a single conservation area, considering that Uganda was previously losing around three elephants only to poaching every year.

“The population of some wild animals is declining,” the Auditor General said.
“Mostly affected are the lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park, whose population has reduced by 81 per cent, followed by ostriches (79 per cent), Zebras (74 per cent) and Uganda Kobs (69 per cent), among others”.

Currently, tourism contributes about 5.7 per cent of the national Gross Domestic Product per annum. The World Travel and Tourism Council figures further show that the total contribution of travel and tourism to Uganda’s GDP, including its wider economic impacts, is forecast to rise by 5.9 per cent per annum from Shs3.3 trillion, which is 7.6 per cent of GDP this year, to Shs5.8 trillion and 7.4 per cent GDP contribution by 2021.

With limited research, Auditor General John Muwanga said it is difficult to fully understand the range of factors that affect wildlife populations and habitats and the relationship between them.
“Catastrophic death and reduction in numbers of animals such as the Uganda Kob in Queen Elizabeth National Park and similar incidences in other parks has occurred without finding the root cause,” Mr Muwanga said.

In attempting to understand why wild animals were declining, the audit found that for the last three years, illegal activities inside the protected areas such as encroachment, especially in East Madi Wildlife Reserve and Mt. Elgon National Park, poaching and illegal harvesting of resources have significantly increased. This in a way affected the natural habitat of wildlife.
“Some species such as the black and white rhino, Derbys and Oryx have since become extinct in Uganda.” Mr Muwanga said.

The Roan and Bridget’s gazelle are some of the animals that are listed as endangered, with low populations from the last count in 1998. “These species, both combined, are less than 110 in number,” he said.

The latest findings contained in the value for money audit by the Auditor General provide further evidence that Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), a statutory body mandated to protect flora and fauna across the country, is failing to accomplish the task of preserving the remnant of the country’s endangered species.

UWA derives its mandate from the Uganda Wildlife Act 2000. The Act mandates UWA to manage all the country’s wildlife and wildlife-protected areas, which include 10 national parks and 12 wildlife reserves.

UWA is also responsible for ensuring the coordination, monitoring and supervision of the activities related to wildlife management in the country. In his defence, UWA Executive Director Andrew Sseguya told auditors that there was need for government to increase funding to UWA and create an independent wildlife research body to compliment and support its functions as is the case in other countries.

Protection plans
Currently, UWA requires about 3,300 rangers to adequately cover the entire wildlife estate in the country but at the moment has about 1,200 rangers. “UWA is currently overwhelmed by other wildlife management issues resulting in limited concentration on research as a function of management,” Dr Sseguya said.

“The Wildlife Policy under review has already identified this need and is providing for the creation of a Uganda Wildlife Research and Training Institute to address the wildlife research and training gaps in the sector.”

To ensure wildlife protection, UWA was to develop fire management plans for each protected area, have an effective ranger density to counter threats of game poaching and illegal activities in and around the protected areas, develop and maintain relevant infrastructure within the areas, protect the wildlife habitat, reduce the threat of invasive species, and enlist the support of the communities surrounding the game parks.

However, the audit established that UWA was not effectively protecting the wildlife in and around the protected areas. UWA said the total encroached area in Mt. Elgon is only 6,000 hectares and most of this is under contention with court cases and injunctions that make it difficult for UWA to address.

Once the court process is completed, UWA said all encroached areas will be reclaimed.
Meanwhile, the Auditor General observed that the animals have also become a nuisance to the local populace.

They destroy crops, kill humans and livestock. As a result, this has created conflict between the communities neighbouring the park and wildlife officials, thus hurting UWA’s community conservation initiatives.