Hunters Hunting Hunters

 
Focus Media (Kigali)
2 October 2008
Timothy Kisambira

To get rid of poachers, give them a new life and join forces to trace their colleagues. "Why do poachers hunt? For most of them, it is a question of survival."

Robert Komire, the chief warden at Akagera National Park, says it was this insight that led the Rwandan Office for Tourism and National Parks (ORTPN) to change tactics in 2003, and instead of hunting the poachers, to show them that they could benefit more from living wildlife and to help them change their profession.

Pascal Ntaganira is a typical example. Born in Tanzania, he went into the poaching business there in 1996.

"I was a soldier in the army of Julius Nyerere in the 70s," he says. "I fought in the 1979 war to topple Idi Amin's regime, and after the war I kept my gun. Because I was neither Tanzanian nor Ugandan, it was very difficult to find a job in those countries. So the only option to survive was to use the gun to hunt. I went after zebras, buffalos and hippopotami."

It was quite a lucrative business, he explains, with a kilogram of zebra or hippopotamus meat fetching 500 Tanzanian shillings on the local market. After hunting for one year in Tanzania, Ntaganira decided to come back to Rwanda where he continued his business.

He has been in prison several times for poaching, he says. One day, after attending an ORTPN sensitization campaign, the father of seven decided to give up the business and join hands with the tourism office to track down other poachers.

"I realized that in the end, hunting is nothing but destroying animals. I don't regret giving up the business, because I am now rearing goats given by ORTPN," Ntaganira says.

"There are those who give up, but there are also some stubborn ones who do not want to leave poaching," says ORTPN's Robert Komire. "We arrest them, but because we want them to stop poaching, we soon release them.

"This method has convinced many of them, all the more so since we also help them to reintegrate in society and set up income-generating projects. So slowly by slowly the number of poachers decreases, and we hope that soon we will have no more poachers in Akagera," he says.

He recognizes, however, that poachers don't care about borders, which is why Rwanda and Tanzania are working together to stop the business.

No beer in the bush

In a show of strength, but also an occasion to appeal to poachers, ORTPN recently held a public burning of confiscated snares and other items used by poachers to trap wildlife. The event, which took place in Rwinkwavu, was the second of its kind, the first one happening in 2006.

Yet the tourism office does more than show its muscle. They have helped some 200 former poachers to form six associations in sectors around Akagera, and in Volcanoes National Park there are now nine groups who are involved in agriculture, tourism activities, bee keeping and goat rearing, amongst others.

"Thanks to ORTPN, we are once again respected by society; the people who disliked us because we were poachers now accept us. Life has really changed: we used to sleep in ramshackle houses, but now we have brick walls and iron sheets over our heads. And God, did I miss beer in the bush!"

Jean Pierre Bigirimana is indeed living proof of the benefits of abandoning poaching. He began poaching in 1999 in Kanyinya, Kayonza district, and has hunted in Luzizi and Magashi near the park.

His main prey was hippo, because the meat was more in demand than others. His market places were in Kabale, in Kayonza district, and Gisenyi. A stick of hippopotamus meat, which weighs 12 kilograms, sold at 3000 francs.

"Hunting was the only way to survive, and it was cheap. You do not need a lot of money-we used electric cables, pangas and nets. We would hunt in a group of ten people, and many times we would collaborate with colleagues in Tanzania," Bigirimana says.

Yet, as the lack of beer shows, it was not an easy life. "On many occasions we would walk long distances and spend many nights without getting anything, yet we had a family to look after. Most of us hunted not because we enjoy the game but because it was the only way to earn some money."

However, today Jean Pierre Bigirimana has joined Pascal Ntaganira's association and, just like the latter, has converted to goat breeding. And he enjoys his daily beer. He now sees that the poaching business is an empty shell, in which you risk your life and get isolated from society.

Article at:  http://allafrica.com/stories/200810021077.html