The year 2003 witnessed the launching in Cameroon of a national pilot programme on effective wildlife law enforcement by bringing law offenders to justice.

This was done by the government with technical assistance from The Last Great Ape Organisation (LAGA).

So far, the programme has raised Cameroon from zero prosecution of wildlife criminals to at least one major wildlife criminal behind bars per week.

With the political support of the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC), the success story of the pilot programme is now spreading in other countries in the sub-region at the request of their governments, notably, Congo Republic, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Results

Following the successful experimentation of the pilot programme, the government of Cameroon has been hailed within international environmental fora, especially those organized by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) as a world leader in wildlife law enforcement and by implication, sustainable wildlife management.

Shortly, after the replication of the programme in the Republic of Congo, three wildlife traffickers were recently arrested in Brazzaville with 40 kilogrammes of ivory. The traffickers had crossed the river from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo with the elephant products.

Before this operation, a similar one had taken place in Bangui, resulting in the arrest and detention of ivory traffickers.

Back in Cameroon, from where these countries are drawing courage and inspiration, two wildlife traffickers were arrested in Douala for trafficking in about one ton of ivory estimated to have been obtained by killing over 100 elephants. This came shortly before the operations in Bangui.

Samples of the ivory are currently being collected for a DNA test to determine their origin, given the fact that the ivory stock was on transit from neighbouring countries to the international black market.

“The illegal ivory trade is a well organized crime of international dimension”, says Ofir Drori, Director of LAGA.

Fighting corruption

Investigation into illegal ivory trade, being fuelled by corruption has taken international dimension.

“The illegal ivory trade is a well organized crime of international dimension”, states Drori, adding that, “fighting corruption is the key to arresting and prosecuting the heads of the criminal ivory trafficking cartels”.

Like the rush for gold in America in the 19^th Century, today’s quest for wildlife resources in Central Africa is fraught with problems of lawlessness.

But the government of Cameroon, acting through the ministry of forestry and wildlife is now in a renewed alert mode to track down and sanction of those involved in ivory trade in particular and products of other protected wildlife species in general.

The government is giving no room for traffickers to deplete her wildlife heritage.

“Our country has in place strict laws on wildlife. Cameroon is seen more and more by the international community as a land of wildlife conservation and as a land where the wildlife law and poling are good and well managed,” says Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, minister of forestry and wildlife.

CITES Control Measures

Despite a long-standing international ban on ivory trade, African elephants continue to be killed in large numbers for their highly prized tusks.

The number of African elephants is reported to have decreased from 1.3 million in 1979 to 600 000 in 1989 when the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) banned ivory trade.

Between 1970 and 1989, Stephen Blake of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) talks of 700 000 elephants having been slaughtered to supply the international illegal ivory trade.

“By our estimates more than 38 000 African elephants were killed for ivory in 2006 alone”, says Samuel Wasser, University of Washington.

Since the mid 1970s, endangered wildlife species have attracted increasing interest and concern in the international community following early warning signals of their extinction.

Cameroon has been hailed within CITES circles as a world leader in wildlife law enforcement to protect her wildlife heritage from going extinct.

“Those who want to deplete our wildlife species cannot succeed,” says Ngolle Ngolle.

Looking at the rate at which Africa is loosing its wildlife population following increasing demand for ivory in Asia, Marc Kaufman of the Washington Post quotes world wildlife experts as having lamented over what they term “The exploding demand for ivory in Japan and newly rich China”, despite the 1989 CITES ban on international ivory trade.

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