In an announcement released on Tuesday this week by the Ministry of Tourism & Natural Resources, it was reported that the Germany government has promised to put in a million euro to assist increase efforts to battle the dreaded elephant poaching inside Selous Game Reserve.
This reserve, that covers more than 50,000 sq km and is among the biggest protected areas across the African continent, was not too long ago put on the List of international World Heritage Sites in Danger as a consequence of the prevalent wildlife poaching. The Germany government has as well called upon the international community to help establish anti-poaching within the Selous Game Reserve in the middle stage.
The World Heritage Committee that held as meeting in Doha, a week ago, Qatar as well urged the international community, like ivory transportation plus destination countries, to aid Tanzania in the battle against this criminal occurrence.
Selous Game Reserve is recognized for its large numbers of elephants, hippos, black rhinoceros, cheetah, crocodiles, giraffes as well as crocodiles, amid several other species. In addition, it has an extremely high selection of habitats such as swamps, Miombo woodlands, riverine forests plus open grasslands hence making it an important laboratory for continuing biological plus ecological processes.
Nevertheless, widespread poaching has resulted in a dramatic decrease in the number of wild animals, particularly rhinos plus elephants, whose numbers have decreased by nearly 90% ever since 1982 when this reserve was listed among the World Heritage.
This statement went on to say that the number of elephants living inside the Selous Game Reserve had decreased significantly, from 70,000 in 2006 to 13,084 in 2013.
This statement also said the reducing quantity of elephants within the reserve compelled the Tanzania government to take purposeful efforts to deal with the vice of wildlife poaching through increasing manpower as well as material assistance to fight against poachers.
Selous Game Reserve is one of the 7 Unesco World Heritage sites in Tanzania. Some of the others are Kondoa Rock Art Sites, Kilimanjaro National Park, Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani plus the Ruins of Songo Mnara, Serengeti National Park plus Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Stone Town found in Zanzibar.