New tactics being used to help tackle poaching

Stricter law enforcement and employing tactics to tackle the poaching industry are seen to be becoming more prioritized.

The world is becoming increasingly concerned about the continuously reducing numbers of endangered species that are being recorded in 2014. Over 1,100 rhinos have been poached in South Africa alone this year (Save the rhino, 2014) and in 2013, the official figure for the amount of poached elephants over Africa has been announced as 20,000 (CITES, 2014).

Although an agreement by The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in 1989 meant that its member nations banned international trade ivory, the population of elephants has been continuously declining (Lemieux and Clarke, 2009). The ineffective law enforcements drove thousands of demonstrators to get involved in large marches that were carried out across 136 cities and towns including Africa and Paris on 4^th October this year. The aim was to pressure world governments to take more action in protecting elephants and rhinos, and curbing world wildlife trade (France-Presse, 2014).

A march organizer, Dex Kotze, explains why the protest was needed: “We are protesting against the political leaders of the world, who do not have the guts and political will to make changes in their laws.” (France-Presse, 2014).

Earlier this year in April, Kenya made use of drones which provides 24 hour surveillance in a protected wildlife area and discovered it reduced poaching by almost 96%. The success of this project made it a fundamental plan of action to deploy drones in every one of its 52 national parks. (Njeru, 2014).

A spokesperson for Kenya Wildlife Service (KWSU) Paul Udoto announced that as well as deploying drones, “we are purchasing more equipment such as fire arms, bulletproof vests, and night equipment. We will also be training our rangers and recruiting new ones." (Njeru, 2014)

It has been announced that the British army have joined the fight against poaching. A team of 25 paratroopers are training and supporting Kenyan rangers in the army’s base in Nanyuki in order for them to help safeguard the animals and combat the widespread problem (Vaughan, 2013).

Other ways that the Kenyan parliament is attempting to tackle poaching is by potentially allowing some poachers to be sentenced to lifetime imprisonment as the current maximum sentence is three years imprisonment. Additionally, in September 2013, Kenya proposed the idea of microchipping all of the country’s rhinos, however, any plans to do this has not yet been confirmed. (Vaughan, 2013).

Meanwhile in South Africa, canine units at an anti-poaching academy are training dogs such as Belgian Malinois and German Shepherds to detect the scent of poachers, firearms and concealed contraband such as ivory (Torchia, 2014).

Efforts to combat poaching can often resolve in violence and conflict which is a dominant concern in current anti-poaching tactics. National park rangers have been involved in armed conflict with poachers when providing protection for the animals resulting in deaths on both sides (Lemieux and Clarke, 2009).

CITES. (2014). Elephant poaching and ivory smuggling figures released today. [Press release]. [Accessed 23^rd December 2014]. Available from: http://www.cites.org/eng/elephant_poaching_and_ivory_smuggling_figures_for_2013_released

France-Presse , A. (2014). Elephant poaching: thousands march worldwide for wildlife protection. The Guardian. 5^th October. [Accessed 23^rd December 2014]. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/05/elephant-poaching-thousands-march-worldwide-for-wildlife-protection

Jachmann, H and Billiouw, M. (1997). Elephant Poaching and Law Enforcement in the Central Luangwa Valley, Zambia, Journal of Applied Ecology. 34. pp.233-244.

Lemieux, M and Clarke, R. (2009). The International Ban on Ivory Sales and Its effects on Elephant Poaching in Africa, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. 49. pp.451-471.

Njeru, G. (2014). Kenya to deploy drones in all national parks in bid to tackle poaching. The Guardian. [Online]. 25^th April. [Accessed 23^rd December 2014]. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/apr/25/kenya-drones-national-parks-poaching

Save the Rhino. (2014). Poaching: The Statistics. [Online]. [Accessed 23^rd December 2014]. Available from: http://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/poaching_statistics

Torchia, C. (2014). South Africa Turns To New Breed Of Anti-Poaching Crime Fighters. Huffington Post. 29^th November. [Accessed 23^rd December 2014].Available from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/29/south-african-academy-tra_n_6239952.html

Voughan, A. (2013). British army joins fight against elephant and rhino poaching. The Guardian. 1^st November. [Accessed 23^rd December 2014]. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/01/british-army-elephant-rhino-poaching-kenya

The long-awaited CIA torture report has been released

The official classified CIA torture report that is over 6,000 pages long exposes the illegal abuse and torture of detainees carried out by the CIA. The unclassified 525 page summery has now been released to the public by the United States Senate.

The report is a five year review that began in March 2009 and has been constructed using around six million pages of records and documents (Taylor et al, 2014). It holds details on the torture techniques and enhanced interrogation techniques that have been used on thousands of detainees across CIA-operated prisons and detention camps in multiple countries (Gambino, 2014).

A concern that has risen about the report is the comprehensibility due to the majority of the report including redactions. Andrew Prascow from Human Rights watch says “It makes it very difficult to track the chain of knowledge…You don’t know if the same person who got memos saying this isn’t working later said everything’s fine, this guy’s talking and then decided to up the severity of the abuse. … It’s designed to obfuscate.” (Gerstein, 2014).

A main finding from the report is that ‘the CIA failed to adequately evaluate the effectiveness of its enhanced interrogation techniques’. It also found that the CIA did not keep an accurate account of detainees and out of a group of 119 detainees, 26 were wrongfully held (United States Senate, 2014).

Forms of torture that is discussed in the report and proved to be true include waterboarding, ‘rectal feeding’ and sleep deprivation. It also discusses how CIA officers often threatened detainees with harm such as sexual abuse to families (United States Senate, 2014).

Much of the treatment of prisoners of war discussed in the report has been found to profoundly violate the Geneva Conventions. A Geneva Conventions code is to provide a judicial review in a short period of time of being detained. Amnesty International (2011: 2) has since declared that “coalition and Iraqi forces detained tens of thousands of people arbitrarily, without charge or trial, for months or even years. Many were held incommunicado and without access to lawyers, leaving them vulnerable to torture and other ill-treatment.”

It has recently been confirmed that the CIA torture report will be available to buy in-store. ‘The Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture’ is due to be released on 8th of January 2015 (Gambino, 2014).

Amnesty International. (2011). Broken Bodies, Tortured Minds. Abuse and Neglect of Detainees in Iraq. New York: Global Policy.

Gambino, L. (2014). Senate report into CIA torture to be published as ebook and paperback. The Guardian. [Online]. 10th December. [Date Accessed 26th December 2014]. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/10/senate-cia-torture-report-e-book-paperback

Gerstein, J. (2014). What's not in the Senate torture report. [Online]. [Date accessed 26th December 2014]. Available from: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/cia-torture-report-redactions-113454.html#ixzz3N0vUaI8w

Senate Select Committee. (2014). Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program. USA: United States Senate.

Taylor, M et al. (2014). White House withholds thousands of documents from Senate CIA probe, despite vows of help. [Online]. [Date Accessed 26th December 2014]. Available from: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/03/12/221033/despite-vows-of-help-white-house.html