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News 2002-2004
July 2004:
In a joint operation of the W.A.G. with the Department
of National Parks and Wildlife, the scouts, assisted by a ranger of the
Department, have arrested a local poacher who had caught a juvenile elephant in
a snare that was set for buffalo. The poacher is handed over to the Salima
police and is due to be charged under the Wildlife Act soon. Hopefully the
message will go around that the anti-poaching efforts of the W.A.G. have to be
taken seriously: prevention is the best protection.
November 2002-April 2003:
The Dutch volunteer Albert Schenk stayed in
Thuma Forest Reserve as field manager and gave additional training to the scouts. On average they were out on patrol 6 out of 7 days. In this half year
they found and confiscated 131 snares, closed several pit traps and had to arrest
68 'small and big' poachers, among them 4 professional illegal woodcutters and
two gun poachers.
They also managed to do several 3-days patrols to the far West of Thuma where
locals illegally cut down trees to make charcoal on a large scale. This was the
first time the W.A.G. could show regular presence in the West.
The road network was extended with several kilometers and quite a lot of time
was needed to keep the electric fence free of all vegetation, popping out of the
ground during the rainy season.
The elephants were regularly seen, often close to the main camp.
Volunteer Claudia
Biese stayed for 7 weeks in Thuma and did very useful surveys (with GPS) of the
streams running through Thuma.
September 2002:
The almost 14 km of electric
fence are up and working in Thuma Forest Reserve and the elephants
haven't crossed the eastern boundary anymore. Volunteer Claudia
Biese has been surveying and checking the fence line together
with the WAG scouts for the last seven weeks.
July 2002:
The German Embassy in Malawi,
the organization "Rettet die Elefanten Afrikas e.V."
from Germany and DIMON Malawi have co-financed 10 km of
electric fence for the eastern boundary of Thuma Forest Reserve,
where elephants used to raid crop and are under threat by the
local community. The material for the fence has already arrived
from South Africa and the fence-line is being cleared at the
moment. We hope that the fence will be up in about 4 weeks. The
surrounding community is welcoming and supporting this action.
The Wildlife Action Group
would like to thank the donors of the electric fence very much
for their support and quick response.
June 2002:
Hippopotamus along the shores
of Lake Malawi are under tremendous pressure due to
habitat loss. They are threatened by increasing human
settlement, fishermen and agricultural development that
has destroyed much of the wetland habitat on which Hippos
rely on. In
January 2002 the Wildlife Action Group has been
contacted by Mr. Ramet Chinyama who owns land with
two big water pools in Senga Bay, a popular tourist
destination for local and overseas tourists, to help him
creating a little private Nature Reserve, which could
earn him an income from tourism.
W.A.G. worked out a development plan which includes
infrastructural development for tourists like walkways,
viewing platforms but also emphasises on training in
management skills, knowledge of flora and fauna by
training professional tourist guides, employed by
Mr. Chinyama.
As soon
as the hippos are settled in and got to know Mr. Chinyama
and the people working at the sanctuary and they have
learned that they are absolutely save there, small groups
of visitors will be allowed in so the wildlife gets used
to them.
With
the financial assistance just arrived from COMPASS we
hope that the sanctuary can open its doors by the end of
August 2002.
This is probably the first ever project of its kind in Malawi,
which, we hope, will inspire other Malawians to
set land aside to establish a
income-generating eco-tourism venture, which will promote
the sustainable use of natural resources by the
community.
May 2002:
With
great pleasure we would like to inform you, that the Wildlife
Action Group and the Malawi Department of Forestry have signed a
Memorandum of Understanding for the Co-management of Thuma Forest
Reserve over a period of 15 years, on 16 April 2002. After years
of uncertainty and a lot of struggle with the Department of
Forestry, we finally complaint to the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Environmental Affairs, which resulted in the above
Memorandum of Understanding, signed by the Principal Secretary of
the Ministry. In the MoU the Malawi Government and the
Wildlife Action Group agreed the following: WAG will...:
- have the
exclusive management rights of Thuma Forest Reserve for 15 years,
- produce a
Management Plan for the rehabilitation of the eco-system and
execute all management operations,
- extend the roads, tracks and
hiking-trails in Thuma,
- plan and facilitate eco-tourism
operations,
- do law enforcement,
- avoid crop
damage by animals in neighbouring communities (fencing),
- control
sustainable forest produce off take, like bamboo,
- reintroduce
extinct plant and wildlife species,
- monitor flora and fauna,
- replant
damaged forest areas,
- arrange for benefits for the
surrounding community from the Forest Reserve (beekeeping, herb
collection),
- make Thuma a self sustainable, self-financing Forest Reserve.
This is the first time ever,
Malawi Government signed an agreement of such nature, which puts
a lot of pressure on us to make Thuma work. Our aim is to
make Thuma the crown pearl of Malawi's conservation efforts within
a few years. And we are confident that we
can do it with your highly
appreciated help and
support.
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