CONSERVATION OF WILD LIFE IN AFRICA : PAGOLIN KILLING BY OMOTOSHO DAMILOLA MARVELLOUS, OSADUGBA MARVELLOUS AJIJOLAJESU & NABBUYE DOREEN MERCY

INTRODUCTION

Conservation is the prevention of wastage of resources. It is the careful preservation and protection of something. It’s the preservation of injury,decay, waste or loss of a particular thing. Conservation can also be known as preservation, conservancy, sustentation; It is the protection of natural things such as animals, plants, Forests e.t.c. to protect them from being spoilt or destroyed.

Furthermore, there are  various types of conservation. The four main types of conservation are: Environmental conservation(Forest), Animal conservation, Marine conservation and Human conservation. Our main focus in this article is about conservation of wildlife which falls under the Animal conservation.

What is wildlife? : Wildlife can also be known as wild animal. They're animals living in their natural environment. They're undomesticated animal specie but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife can be found in all ecosystems ( desert, forest, rainforest, plains, grassland, and other areas) including the most developed Urban areas, all have distinct forms of wildlife. Some wildlife threatened human safety, health, property, and quality of life. However, many wildlife, even the most dangerous ones, has value to human beings. The value might be economic, educational or emotional in nature. Humans have historically tended to separate civilization from wildlife in a number of ways including the legal, social, and moral senses.

However, to ascertain the conversation of wildlife, Laws has to be in place for it’s safeguard, for reasons stated above. Below is the historical development of conversation of wildlife in Africa: NIGERIA AND UGANDA AS A CASE STUDY

 

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF CONVERSATION OF WILDLIFE IN AFRICA

The first international agreement to conserve African wildlife was signed in London on 19 May 1900 and was called the Convention for the Preservation of Wild Animals, Birds and Fish in Africa. It was signed by the colonial powers then governing much of Africa – France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Portugal and Spain – and its objective was ‘to prevent the uncontrolled massacre and to ensure the conservation of diverse wild animal species in their African possessions which are useful to man or inoffensive’. The teeming herds of African wild animals were already starting to diminish, and the primary goal of the Convention was to preserve a good supply of game for trophy hunters, ivory traders and skin dealers.

The 1900 Convention prohibited the killing of all specimens of species listed in Schedule 1 of the Convention and ‘any other animals whose protection, owing to their usefulness or to their rarity and threatened extermination, may be considered necessary by each Local Government’. Schedule 1 was divided into Series A (‘useful animals’) and Series B (‘animals that are rare and in danger of disappearance’). Series A contained the secretary bird and all vultures, owls and oxpeckers. Series B consisted of ‘giraffe, gorillas, chimpanzee, mountain zebra, wild asses, white tailed gnu, elands and pygmy hippopotamus’. The Convention also prohibited the killing of non-adults and females ‘when accompanied by their young’ of ‘elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, zebra other than mountain zebra, buffalo, antelope and gazelles, ibex and mouse deer’.

Prior to 1900,  strict adherence to customary law systems that imposed controls on the collection of animal and plant products were in force. Some animals and plants were also worshiped, which leads to mythical superstitions and taboos that prohibited the killing of culturally and spiritually important animals, as well as totem species that bond families and villages together. Customary laws also created Africa’s first protected areas, such as royal hunting grounds (areas where kings and traditional chiefs had exclusive hunting rights) and areas of spiritual significance , where access and harvesting of natural resources were restricted. For example, custody of the forest of the city of Abomey is the responsibility of traditional chief Dah Djagba, whose ancestors were installed near the sacred spring Didonou by King Houegbadja of Abomey in the 17th century. 

However, in  1925, Africa’s first national park, the Albertine Rift’s Albert National Park (today divided into the DRC’s Virunga and Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Parks) was proclaimed. The following year, South Africa’s Sabie Game Reserve (which was originally gazetted in 1898) was renamed and expanded as Kruger National Park. Although most early laws focused on protecting rare and ‘valuable’ mammals, birds, tortoises, and timber forests, the welwitschia (Welwitschia mirabilis-  was the first African plant to enjoy formal protection after colonial powers ratified the 1933 Convention Relative to the Preservation of Fauna and Flora in the Natural State (often referred to as the London Convention).

Following World War II (1939–1945), after which many African countries regained independence, there was an urgent need for new conservation treaties that also addressed the needs of local peoples.Tanzania’s first president, Julius Nyerere, most vividly expressed this at the 1961 Pan-African Symposium on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in Modern African States (Watterson, 1963), in a speech that became known as the Arusha Manifesto:

“The survival of our wildlife is a matter of grave concern to all of us in Africa. These wild creatures amid the wild places they inhabit are not only important as a source of wonder and inspiration, but are an integral part of our natural resources and our future livelihood and well-being. In accepting the trusteeship of our wildlife we solemnly declare that we will do everything in our power to make sure that our children’s grandchildren will be able to enjoy this rich and precious inheritance. The conservation of wildlife and wild places calls for specialist knowledge, trained manpower, and money, and we look to other nations to cooperate with us in this important task – the success or failure of which not only affects the continent of Africa but the rest of the world as well.

The impact of African Wildlife Foundation was felt especially in the establishment of African Wildlife Leadership Foundation in 1961 ,aimed at training Africans in conservation of wildlife.

Soon after the Arusha Manifesto, the African Charter for the Protection and Conservation of Nature was established in 1963. This was followed by the African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (Algiers Convention in short), which was adopted by member states of the Organisation of African Unity (which preceded the African Union) in 1968.The Algiers Convention provided a major break from colonial conservation models by acknowledging the principle that environmental management is a common responsibility among all Africans, while it also called for conservation of soil and water, and for environmental research and conservation (IUCN, 2004).Despite the progress and extended scope of the Algiers Convention, conservation policies implemented by early post-colonial governments unfortunately continued to resemble those of colonial governments, notably the centralized and authoritarian style of decision-making. Similarly, the visions of well-funded international conservation organizations operating in the region generally reflected the perceptions and policies of developed nations, and thus lacked adequate consideration of local cultures (Abrams et al., 2009). Consequently, in the years following Africa’s decolonisation, conservation largely remained a polarizing endeavour that continued to uproot the lives of tens of millions of conservation refugees over time (Geisler and de Sousa, 2001). Perhaps the first true step to conservation reform came at the 1975 World Parks Congress hosted in the DRC, when the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) adopted its first resolution that recognized the rights and needs of traditional peoples. Over the next few decades, conservation policies of national governments followed, many of which included local people in very explicit terms. One example is Namibia’s Constitution, passed in 1990, stating that:

 “The State shall actively promote and maintain the welfare of the people by adopting, inter alia, policies aimed at the following: maintenance of ecosystems, essential ecological processes and biological diversity of Namibia and utilisation of living natural resources on a sustainable basis for the benefit of all Namibians, both present and future”.

As the previous centralized and authoritarian style of conservation policy making has made way for more inclusive conservation activities (Abrams et al., 2009), an increasing number of local communities have become active participants in environmental programmes and policy development inside and on the periphery of protected areas. Two notable examples are biosphere reserves  and transfrontier conservation areas , both pioneering strategies in promoting human-wildlife coexistence. Several governments are also expanding their protected areas networks by experimenting with private ownership of protected areas  and co-management partnerships; a land tenure model in which local people share the decision-making and other responsibilities of protected areas management with public institutions (Borrini-Feyerabend et al., 2004). In recent years, integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs, Section 14.3) have also emerged as viable options to link conservation and socioeconomic development.

 

IN NIGERIA

Wildlife conservation in Nigeria from 1914 to the present day is reviewed, and both the historical and socio-economic reasons for the lack of effective conservation measures are outlined. These include: official apathy during the colonial times; the low priority rating of wildlife as reflected in inadequate funding and administrative arrangements; weak enforcement of, and inadequacies in, existing wildlife laws; excessive demand for land, bush meat and fuelwood by a rapidly expanding human population, and a traditional lack of concern for the welfare of wild animals. The most significant developments in the last decade include the creation of the Kainji Lake National Park (area 5341 km2) at New Bussa (1975), the signing of agreement with the Republics of Chad, Niger and Cameroon for the joint control of the fauna and flora of the Lake Chad basin (1977), the launching of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, a private conservation lobby affiliated to the WWF (1982), the promulgation of a law to control international traffic in endangered species (1985), the drawing-up of a draft national conservation strategy (1985) and the creation of a rain forest sanctuary in Bendal State (1985).Since these measures in themselves do not guarantee the preservation of wildlife, it is suggested that more funds be provided for recruitment of manpower, procurement of anti-poaching equipment and infrastructures, and conservation education, while modern farming methods should be encouraged in order to combat habitat destruction through slash-and-burn agriculture.

The laws covering the preservation and conservation of wildlife in Nigeria are largely enshrined in two sets of Acts, namely: The Nigerian Endangered Species Act (Control of International Trade and Traffic) Act, Decree 11 of the 1985 Constitution and Section 20 of the National Parks Service Act.These extant laws in principle regulate the hunting, raring and trade of animals, as well as set up the various game reserves we currently have in Nigeria including the Yankari, and Borgu Game Reserves, Okomu and Old oyo National Parks etc.

 

IN UGANDA

Wild life conservation  in Africa is the practice of protecting plant and animal species and their habitats. In Uganda wildlife is conserved and protected under the Uganda Wildlife Act 2019.There are over 60 Conservation Protected Areas in Uganda that shelter a number of endangered, critically endangered, threatened and endemic species. There are so far 10 National Parks in Uganda that include Murchison falls, Kidepo Valley, Queen Elizabeth, Mount Elgon, Semliki Valley, Kibale Forest, Mgahinga Gorilla, Lake Mburo, Rwenzori Mountains and Bwindi Impenetrable National Parks while Wildlife Reserves in the country are Aswa-Lolim, Bokora Corridor, Ajai, Toro-Semliki, Matheniko, Pian Upe, Katonga and Bugungu Wildlife Reserves and Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary being one of the most popular Sanctuaries in the country.

In Uganda, the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) is responsible for conserving the country’s rich natural heritages that ranges from plants, animals, natural features to their overall ecosystems. Uganda Wildlife Authority applies several approaches in the Conservation and sustainable management of Uganda’s wildlife species which include Conservation education and awareness, Problem animal management, involving communities in wildlife management, wildlife use rights, collaborative management of resources and revenue sharing Schemes among others. In so doing, the main conservation challenges including illegal grazing, poaching and encroachment are addressed.

Popularly known “Entebbe Zoo”, was opened in 1952, by the Colonial Government in Uganda, as a reception Centre for wild animals that were found as casualties (sick, injured, orphaned, confiscated from illegal trade e.t.c).Wild life Conservation Society WCS has been supporting conservation in Uganda since 1957 and we have supported conservation projects almost every year since this time, making WCS the oldest organization supporting conservation in Uganda. Much of our support has been to Ugandan scientists for conservation research.We supported conservation of Kibale Forest for many years during the insecurity of the 1970s and 1980s and established the Makerere University Biological Field Station in that forest. Our knowledge about the biodiversity of that forest and surveys we funded of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest led to the creation of both areas as National Parks in the early 1990s.

 

 

PANGOLIN AND ITS USEFULNESS TO MAN

Pangolin  is an  African and Asian mammal that has a body covered with horny overlapping scales, a small head, with an enlongated  snout, a long sticky tongue for catching ants and termites, and a tapering tail. Pangolin extant family are: manidea, which has three genera: Manis, phataginus, and  smutsia. Manis comprises of four species which is found in Asia, while phataginus and smutsia include two species which is found in sub Saharan Africa. These species range in the size from 30_100cm.

Pangolins also have large protective kertain scales, similar in material to fingernails and toenails, covering their skin, they're the known mammals with this features. They live in hollow trees or burrows, depending on the species. Pangolins are nocturnal and their diet consist of mainly ants and termites, which they capture using their long tongues. They tend to be solitary animals, meeting only to mate and produce a litter of one to three offsprings, which they raise for about two years.

The word pangolin comes from "pengguling", the malay word for roller  the action a pangolin takes in self defense.  A startled pangolin will cover it's head with it's front legs, exposing it's scale to any potential predator. If touched or grabbed it will roll up completely bin a ball, while the sharp scales on the tail can be used to lash out.   Pangolins are also referred to as ' scaly anteater'  because of their preferred diet 'ants'.

In total, there are eight species of pangolin which are: black bellied pangolin ( phataginus tedactyla), white bellied pangolin ( phataginus  tricuspis) , giant ground pangolin ( smustsia gigante),  Germminck's ground pangolin ( smustsia temmine) . This first four listed above can be found in Africa. Which the next four that would be listed below can be found in Asia. India pangolin ( Manis crassicaudata), Philippine pangolin ( manis cullionensis), sunda pangolin ( Manis jovanica) , Chinese pangolin ( Manis pentadactyla).They wear heavy armor; the pangolin scales makes up 20 percent of it's total body weight.

They are toothless: they have no teeth, instead they rely on gizzard like stomach that is adopted for grinding food. Their scales are dangerous weapons: pangolins use their scales as tools for self defense. If threatened, the pangolin will perform a cutting motion with it's scale if anything is inserted between them.Their tongue maybe longer than their bodies. The pangolin's tongue can be up to 16 inches in length. They use these extraordinary long tongues to reach out to inserts burrowed underground’s.

However, Pangolin scales like rhino horn, have  not proven medical value, yet they are used in traditional Chinese medium to help with aliments ranging from lactation difficulties to arthritis. The scale is  typically dried and grounded up into powder. Which maybe turned into a pill. Pangolins are known as guardians of the forest because they protect forest from termite destruction, maintaining a balanced ecosystem.

Economic importance of pangolin:

 it serves as food, it serves as medicine and it also serve as source of income.In china and Vietnam, pangolin are highly prised by customers for their meat and their unique scales. While they are pontent defense against predator, their scales are useless against poaches and all eight species in Asia and Africa are now under threat over past decade, over a million pangolins have been illegally taken from the wild to feed their  demand in china and Vietnam. Their meat is considered a delicacy, while their scales are used in traditional Chinese medicine as they are believed to treat a range of aliments from asthma or rheumatism and arthritis.

 

ILLEGAL KILLINGS  AND TRADING OF PANGOLINS IN AFRICA

Illegal wildlife trade (or wildlife trafficking) is poorly monitored and regulated (Phelps and Webb, 2015), mainly because of its clandestine, dynamic, and multifaceted nature (Phelps et al., 2016; 't Sas-Rolfes et al., 2019).

 In Africa ,we have what we call the pangolin trade and this is the illegal poaching, trafficking, and sale of pangolins, parts of pangolins, or pangolin-derived products on the black market. Pangolins are believed to be the world's most trafficked mammal, accounting for as much as 20% of all illegal wildlife trade. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), more than a million pangolins were poached in the decade prior to 2014.The animals are trafficked mainly for their scales, which are believed to treat a variety of health conditions in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and as a luxury food in Vietnam and China. In Africa, pangolins are sold as a form of bush meat, for ritual or spiritual purposes, and use in traditional African medicine. Many times the animal is trafficked just for clothing and fashion.

In enforcement of law as an instrument in the conservation of wild life national parks will continue to help with efforts to conserve our native wildlife with regard to pangolins some of these activities include safeguarding their current habitats in nature reserves and restricting the level of night activities in the nature reserves, as pangolins are shy nocturnal animals. In addition National parks and the  AVA Agri-Food Veterinary Authority  cooperate with the public for return of stray pangolins back to the reserves..

PENALTIES

 African countries with several and diverse penalties for illegal. Killings and trading of Pangolin ; The question is to what extent has these diverse law deterred this unscrupulous act? For instance:

Nigeria’s Endangered Species (Control of International Trade and Traffic) Act outlaws trade in pangolins. It was amended in 2016 to allow a maximum fine of 5 million naira ($13,000) or one year in prison for offenders.

Section 63 of the Uganda  wildlife act provides that ;

Subsection1 provides for the restriction on import ,export , re-export and transit of wildlife species and subsection 2 provides that if any one is found doing what is provided for under subsection I commits an offence and is liable for improvement for 4yrs

 

CONCLUSION

A raft of new initiatives, including workshops for Nigeria’s enforcement officers and international exchange meetings, has been implemented by conservation groups since 2017 to improve capacity for detection, interception and intelligence sharing. For instance, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has organized workshops for Nigerian customs officials to help them search and thoroughly inspect consignments to improve detection rates for illegal wildlife products such as pangolin scales and ivory, thanks to funding from the U.K. Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund. Customs officials currently prioritize efforts to intercept contraband like rice, imports of which via land border posts have been banned since 2016.WCS says it hopes the officers who received training will be better able to prevent trafficking of pangolin scales. In September 2019, WCS also facilitated a visit to Nigeria by top Chinese customs officials to share intelligence about Chinese nationals and others identified as part of organized networks involved in the seized pangolin scales originating from Nigeria. This meeting, Dunn said, will help both countries better coordinate efforts to tackle trafficking of pangolins and other wildlife. There are plans for a similar visit by Vietnamese customs officials in the first half of 2020.

With additional support from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, WCS is also working with Nigeria’s National Environmental Standards and Regulations Agency (NESREA) and the NCS to ensure that all seized wildlife products, such as pangolin scales and ivory, are properly catalogued in an online database and stored in secure locations around the country.One of the WCS staff works directly with the NESREA in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, to keep reliable inventory of all seizures, improve security of the stockpile to ensure that intercepted contraband does not slip back into the market, and make the data readily available for policymakers to improve planning.

Comparatively, as an environmental lawyers in equity ,it is our legal opinion that penalties provided by Endangered Species (control of International Trade and Traffic)Act as compared to Uganda wildlife Act isn’t a sufficient detterant and as such very weak  in the enforcement of environmental law. Very few people have been convicted for wildlife trafficking offenses, despite occasional in-country seizures of large shipments of scales. Thirty-one seizures of illegal wildlife between March 2010 and August 2018 are recorded in a September 2018 submission to CITES, the global wildlife trade authority, from Nigeria’s environment ministry. But only eight of these cases were prosecuted, with three convictions: in each case, the court handed offenders a six-month jail sentence with the option to pay a fine of 100,000 naira ($260)… Also,  Section 3 of Endangered Species (control of International trade and traffic)Act provides for  minister to grant permits and certificate, it won’t work well in a corrupt system because of the benefits attached to the trade. Agencies must be put in charge must act as a watch dog in order to check the excesses and lapses of such minister. After series of observations, it is our Consensus , that , Since Pangolin is getting to the extent of going into defunctness it  should be conserved since it also contributes to the economic growth of countries through tourism that generates revenue.

WE ARE ENVIRONMENTAL LAWYERS, WE PROMOTE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

 

 

REFERENCE

-The pangolin trade explained ; situation in Nigeria (punch newspaper)

-The African Convention on the conservation of nature and natural resources

-Mustafa nsubuga @ WCS

Wildlife trafficking harms animals and human health: the case of Pangolins-

- Wikipedia

- Endangered Species (control of International trade and traffic)

-Uganda Wildlife Act

 

OMOTOSHO DAMILOLA MARVELLOUS & OSADUGBA MARVELLOUS AJIJOLAJESU are noble students of the prestigious Faculty of law ,Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko in Ondo state. He is a Fervid article writer on Law encompassing Scientific fields, for instance SPACE LAW, ENVIRONMENTAL LAW, ELECTRICITY LAW, ENERGY LAW AND SO ON. They can be reached respectively via omotoshomarvellous57@gmail.com & osadugbamarvellous31@hotmail.com

NABBUYE DOREEN  MERCY is a student at Uganda Christian University pursuing a Bachelor in Law, he can be reached via nabbuyedoreenmercy@gmail.com