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Environment: Poaching in the Serengeti

The number of arrests for poaching in the Serengeti national park increased from 959 cases in 2002 to 1028 in 2009, according to an article in the Arusha Times.

During a recent visit of a parliamentary committee to Tanzania’s most famous national park the chief warden explained that 450,000 traps had also been inactivated during that period so avoiding a major tragedy to wildlife in the area; each trap is capable of killing about 40 animals.

At present there are nearly 700 illegal hunting cases before the courts but most of the accused are likely to be acquitted, said the chief warden, as poaching is not considered a serious crime. One of the possible solutions would be to train special prosecutors for such cases.

The Serengeti was first established as a game reserve in 1929. It was then protected from hunting in 1940 and became a national park in 1951. It was designated as a World Heritage site in 1981.

The park, which is the largest in Tanzania’s northern circuit, stretches north from Arusha to Kenya and west to Lake Victoria. It is estimated that about 280,000 people visit the Serengeti each year. It is most famous for its bi-annual migration of wildebeestie (there are about 2 million in the park), Thomson’s gazelle (900,000) and zebra (300,000), and for its main predators, lions (4,000) and leopards (1,000).

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