Zambian Government looking to increase and stiffen penalties against wildlife crimes to enhance deterrence

GOVERNMENT is implementing legislative reforms to increase and stiffen penalties against wildlife crimes and enhance deterrence, Ministry of Tourism and Arts Permanent Secretary Amos Malupenga has said.

Amos Malupenga

Mr Malupenga said Zambia has embarked on the review of the Wildlife Act of 2015 and hopes to have a revised one by next year.

Speaking when he officiated at a two-day awareness workshop on available tools to support law enforcement in preventing and combating wildlife crime in the Kavango Zambezi Trans-frontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) region in Livingstone yesterday, Mr Malupenga said Zambia takes seriously biodiversity conservation.

“Wildlife crime is becoming increasingly recognised as a multifaceted global and specialised threat to many plant and animal species being poached and threatened to the brink of extinction.

“It appears that illegal wildlife trade is seen as a low risk activity, mainly due to inconsistent and ineffective prosecution and relatively low penalties,” he said.

He said partner states in the KAZA TFCA region have realised the impact wildlife crime has in decimating wildlife populations and efforts are being made to combat the scourge.

Mr Malupenga said Zambia is accelerating efforts in collaborating with other local law enforcement agencies and cross border collaboration with neighbouring countries in sharing intelligence information and joint operations in detecting and countering poaching and trafficking incidents.

A poached elephant

“Zambia has embraced the use of technology such as drones, and dogs for detection of wildlife crimes owing to the fact that wildlife crimes have become sophisticated and transnational in nature,” he said.

Speaking earlier, Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) director Paul Zyambo said the only way poaching can reduce is by making it expensive and very risky for the poachers by employing effective detection and deterrence systems.

“We, who are enforcing the law must make it very difficult for the poacher so that they do not consider it at all,” he said.

KAZA TFCA executive director Nyambe Nyambe bemoaned the levels of sophistication in wildlife crimes.

“We have a duty to up our game to keep up with this sophistication being employed by not only poachers, but also traffickers,” said Dr Nyambe.

And United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) global chief Jorge Rios said the organisation is available to offer assistance to KAZA TFCA to curb wildlife crimes.