ZIWANI TEAM

De – Snaring Report for July 2006

Participants

Wambua Kikwatha - team leader John Mungai Henry Lekochere Adam Abdi Justin Kiminza 2 KWS rangers

Area Covered

During the course of the month we carried out patrols at Kishushe/The park boundary along Tsavo River, Maktau, Lumo community sanctuary, Oza Community Ranches, and Taita Hills.

TOTAL SNARES COLLECTED 156 TOTAL ARRESTS 3

Findings

Kishushe Park Boundary and Tsavo River

This is the third consecutive month we have been operating in this area. The team spent a total of 11 days patrolling this area. During the first 7 days we had the Rangers from the Ziwani area patrolling with the team. The teams aim was to aggressively tackle the most problematic areas of the Tsavo River. On our patrols we came across a poached elephant, judging from the carcass we estimate it had been dead for about 2 weeks.

The elephant had been killed by armed bandits. On the same day about 2 Km from were we found the elephant carcass we arrested 4 people who were traveling with a vehicle from Tanzania who intended to search the park for mining. They were 2 Indians, and 2 locals from Kishushe. They were handed over to the Intelligence Officers. The rest of the 11 day period the Ziwani team mainly lifted snares and encountered no other major incidence.

Maktau, Lumo and Oza Community Ranches

Our overall observation of these areas is that snaring had decreased tremendously. However, night poaching has been on the increase which idicates the poachers are changing their tactics. The Ziwani team carried several ambushes with no success in terms of arrests. The poachers are now using tactics which makes them more difficult to track.

They sneak into the park at night and leave before we set the ambushes. We managed to follow some of their tracks to their homes and arrested 3 poachers in possession of 14 Dikdik and poaching equipment. They were booked at Taveta Police Station. Taita Hills, and Salt lick

At Salt Lick we lifted 28 big snares. Overall there has been a decrease in numbers of snares compared with the high amount of snare lifted during previous patrol of these regions.

Report by Wambua Kikwatha- team leader.