Huge Haul of Tusks Raises Spectre of Poaching Revival

The seizure of more than 1,000 elephant tusks in Tanzania, together with the first poaching of Kenyan rhinos in a decade, have raised fears in east Africa of a repeat of the killing sprees which almost wiped out both species from the region in the late 1980s.

At the same time the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), which in the past led the fight against poaching under the celebrated conservationist Richard Leakey, is facing a financial crisis. Its problems are being blamed on a fall in tourist revenues after the September 11 attacks on the US.

"We're seeing a resurgence in elephant and rhino poaching," said Mr Leakey, who is now the vice-chairman of the KWS board. "But it has not been recognised, and no means of dealing with it has been put in place."

Tanzanian police said they did not know the origin of 1,255 tusks found recently in two houses in the capital, Dar es Salaam.

Some of the haul probably came from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where poaching resumed during its civil war. But of greater concern to conservationists, KWS also reported an increase in elephant poaching in Kenya last year, with 38 carcasses found in the north of the country alone.

Conservation sources said yesterday that a rare black rhino had been poached for its valuable horn in the Tsavo national park in Kenya. The killing came despite a KWS pledge to improve park security after four rhinos were poached late last year.

"This is an indication that rhino security has broken down. There has been a lot of complacency over rhinos, and that is of great concern to me," said Mr Leakey. "What worries me is that there could have been complicity by some of the officials involved."

Sources say all five rhinos were killed within earshot of park guards - themselves Kenya's most prolific poachers before they were retrained under Mr Leakey.

The KWS acting director, Joe Kioko, said last week that the service had fewer than half the rangers it needed to patrol more than a dozen parks and reserves, but was "facing serious revenue problems" because of the collapse of Kenya's tourist industry.

Staff said morale was already low after the recent sacking of KWS director Nehemiah Rotich, Mr Leakey's well-respected successor, following a series of rows with government officials over the allocation of park revenues.

Kenya has around 20,000 elephants and 420 black rhinos - less than 5% of the herds of 1970.

A global ban on ivory trading in 1989, leading to the collapse of the world market, saw a virtual end to poaching.

But conservationists fear the ban could be lifted under pressure from South African ivory traders at a review in November.

"The current poaching is due to speculation that the ban on ivory trade could be lifted soon," Shariff Nassir, the cabinet minister responsible for the KWS, said.

The elephant expert Ian Douglas-Hamilton said: "Overturning the ban would be extremely dangerous. It could trigger a renewal of demand for ivory in the Far East and another holocaust amongst elephants."