Mozambique losing ground in wildlife protection

The measures taken by the Mozambican government for the protection of wildlife are not having the desired effect, ‘VOA Portugues’ reports.World Wildlife Day on March 3 saw environmentalists describing how dramatic the situation in Mozambique is, which they characterize by a lack of control over the exploitation of wildlife resources.Poaching continues to decimate wildlife all over the country with some species simply eliminated, while others are declining drastically. Biologist Carlos Bento says the black rhino is now no longer found in the country, and of the 20,000 elephants that roamed the country five years ago, only about five thousand survive.Bento believes that the white rhino is also gone, with those that are seen coming from South Africa’s Krueger Park and returning there.“And even then,” he says, “when the poachers realize it, they go there and attack.”Bento says that the elephant is also broadly at risk, indicating that the approximately five thousand remaining “may be only four thousand, because the slaughter of elephants carries on daily and is so intense”.Despite the creation by the Mozambican government of the Natural Resources and Environment Protection Police, the country continues to lose its fauna. Bento says improvements are needed in the operation and training of the police force.“We have to see if the training given to the natural resource protection police is effective or not, because I maintain this force needs different training to that of the civil police,” the biologist says.The environmental police should know more about ecology and the interaction between species, Bento says, because this would better enable them to protect wildlife resources. Bento also advocates the integration of the environmental police into the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development.