Tanzania has lifted its ban on the export of wild animals, in place for six years to protect mammals and birds from this East African country.
“
The government has conducted an assessment of live wildlife exports since the ban and has lifted the ban.
»
Traders will have six months, from June 6 to December 5, to “
export animal stocks
” that they could not sell for six years.
The ban was decided in 2016, when John Magufuli presided over the country with an iron fist, earning him the nickname "
bulldozer
".
The government then justified the ban by “
irregularities
” observed in the trade of wild animals, including the sending of protected species abroad.
The new president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, elected last year after the sudden death of her predecessor, has since been trying to reverse the policy he pursued.
The WWF warned that this lifting of the ban must not jeopardize the progress made in terms of the protection of wild animals, in particular against poaching, which is now in decline.
“
Good quality monitoring procedures are necessary to support these types of decisions
,” Amani Ngusaru, director of WWF Tanzania, told AFP.
Famous for its Zanzibar archipelago, its safaris and Kilimanjaro, Tanzania attracts many tourists.
In 2010, 116 mammals and 16 birds, some of which are protected species, were illegally exported from the country on a Qatari plane.
