23/11/2018
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Tanzania is one of the African countries that hosts more biodiversity and is a refuge for some of the most endangered emblematic species on the planet.
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The country is at the same time one of the nations that has suffered the most from the scourge of illegal trafficking and poaching of wild species.
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The Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO) has collaborated in the training of guards of local communities in Tanzania to improve their training in techniques to combat poaching and environmental awareness.
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The course, which has been developed in coordination with the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA) and the Tanzania Hunting Operators Association (TAHOA), within the framework of the Spanish Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking and International Poaching.
Tanzania is one of the African countries that hosts more biodiversity and is a refuge for some of the most threatened emblematic species on the planet, such as the African elephant or lion, which has in this country the largest population of the world. In fact, the country has approximately 40% of protected areas in its territory, both in National Parks, as in Community Wildlife Management Areas and Game Reserves dedicated to conservation. Many of the protected areas are managed by local communities and private concessionaires, using guards of these communities, called "game-scouts" or "village-scouts", for their surveillance.
This Spanish initiative is part of the strategic approach of the European Union for the conservation of wildlife in Africa, called "Larger than elephants", which puts emphasis on providing stability and creation of employment opportunities in local communities associated with the surveillance, promotion and conservation of wildlife.
Taking into account the experience of Spain in wildlife guard training to combat poaching in our country and the possibility to transmit this knowledge to the new generations of young African scouts, a team of Spanish instructors, including staff from MITECO and the Council of Andalusia, traveled to Tanzania to train in situ the first group of 20 scouts.
The program, which lasts 12 days, includes training to track poachers, monitoring of wildlife and patrolling in target areas, as well as the provision of tools to improve the working conditions for the development of these tasks in the different natural environments of Africa. For example, in arid conditions, drinking water is a limiting factor for the surveillance patrols to travel long distances and this course will provide skills to locate, clean and purify water in different environments.
The training course has a strong practical component, as it creates real learning situations in wild environments and puts an emphasis on personal attitudes towards the defense of the natural heritage and on the improvement of the wildlife-human relations with local communities through awareness and education actions.
This training will allow scouts to use state-of-the-art technological equipment to gain essential on the ground tactical advantages that favors them in their fight against poaching. It means that this body of scouts will acquire a high degree of professionalism through this training course.
This pilot course has also provided a key experience to the training team in order to replicate this type of courses in other African countries that also suffer from the scourge of poaching and wildlife trafficking.