Former head of Niassa Wildlife Services detained in the case of missing elephant tusks

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Former head of Niassa Wildlife Services detained in the case of missing elephant tusks

2:45 CAT | 05 Nov 2018

Pedro Vicente, the former head of provincial wildlife services in Niassa, has been detained in connection with the alleged theft in 2017 of 85 ivory tips stored with the institution.

The prosecution says he was a fugitive, and was detained in Maputo and taken back to Niassa, where he will now go on trial. His arrest in Maputo on Thursday was announced by Francisco Albano, a spokesman for the provincial prosecutor’s office in Niassa.

In the meantime, Botswana is to offer Mozambique 500 elephants as part of a programme to repopulate Mozambican conservation areas, Botswana’s minister for International Affairs and Cooperation announced in Maputo last week.

Figures from the national conservation areas in Mozambique indicate that, since 2009, the country has lost at least 10,000 elephants. In Niassa Reserve, the country’s largest protected area, the number decreased from 12,000 to 4,400 in between 2011 and 2014.

The lack of human and material resources for monitoring the country’s extensive conservation areas is seen as the chief obstacle to elephant preservation. The main threat is posed by poachers, who kill elephant for their tusks.

Source:

RFI