Anti-Poaching

 

The nature of poaching

The face of poaching takes many forms, from that of hideous blatant greed when 30 zebra are shot in a single night and only their skins removed leaving their flesh to rot, to the tired eyes of a father setting a few snares trying to feed his children.

 

Poaching is not just limited to the illegal killing of animals.

 

Tree-Poaching: Uncontrolled harvesting of indigenous trees for timber or charcoal is a huge problem, especially in the Maasailand area where timber is already in short supply.

 

Honey-Poaching: These poachers will travel great distances to obtain a small supply of honey from hives within trees. In order to reach these beehives, the poachers cut down entire trees, and live off the land by snaring and poaching wildlife, or poisoning water sources to obtain fish for their meals.

 

Are all common practices that compromise the integrity of a natural ecosystem.

 

What we hope to achieve

Our primary objective is to reduce the incidence of poaching in our areas of operation,thereby creating a stable population of species that will be able to withstand practices of sustainable utilization.

 

In order to create long term solutions we need to develop trusting relationships with villages in and around concessions, and change the way of thinking of people who may be forced to turn to poaching in times of need.

 

Through all our actions we aim to assist the Wildlife Department of Tanzania in their task of protecting their countries wildlife  and natural areas.

________________________________________________________

 

What we are doing

A big part of anti-poaching is simply just being present in an areas. This alone is often enough to dissuade would-be poachers from entering the area. For this reason TFL has three fully equipped Toyota land-cruisers each with a six-man strong team that are deployed in the Ruaha/Rungwa  and Maasailand areas. 

 

With over 700,000 hectare to cover, these teams are in constant action. While deployed, teams conduct patrols on foot and from the  vehicle, set up observation points at strategic places were vast tracts of land can be observed, mount road blocks and gather information from villages on poaching activities.

 

In addition to the  afore-mentioned tasks, anti-poaching teams are constantly recording data on species occurrence, numbers, and sex ratios, thereby providing essential information to TFL's monitoring programs.

________________________________________________________

 

Anti poaching teams in Field

In order to keep our teams in the field we rely wholely on the generosity of sponsors to cover running costs.

 

NATRON AREA:  The Anti-poaching team patrols this area January - May each year. The months of June-December are covered by the concession lease-holder, Tanzania Wildlife Company Ltd. They continue patrols during daily hunting and/or photographic excursions with their clients.

 

RUNGWA AREA: The single TFL Anti-poaching team patrols this area April-May each season. We hope to receive donations of funds or equipment to allow us to operate even in the early months of the wet season. Tanzania Wildlife Company Ltd. patrols the area during June-December.

 

Hunting clients of Tanzania Wildlife Company help subsidize the anti-poaching budget by paying a "conservation fee" as part of their overall trophy fee for each animal they take during safari.

 

For more information on budget and equipment needs of our Anti-poaching teams, click here.