On the Trail - Robin des Bois

By the end of September, 16 members of the cyanide channel had been arrested. 3 are already sentenced to a 16
-year prison term each for illegal possession of ivory and dumping of toxic substances into natural environment.
Week after week the death toll from this elephant poisoning campaign rose: 41 on September 5 th , 69 on September
16 th , 87 on September 26 th , 91 on October 1 st . A global figure of several hundred is now mentioned. Lions, buffalos,
antelopes, African wild dogs, hyenas and vultures were them also found dead, poisoned from the carcasses
the water and the salt licks. Side effects on wildlife are evidently not circumscribed and the death toll is not closed.
Many dead animals won’t be found by guards (Cf. July 2013 - Elephant poaching and vulture mortality in Namibia).
The paradox is that this affair takes place in Zimbabwe, where CITES had in 1997 lifted the international embargo
on ivory and declassified the elephant populations in Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana from Appendix I to Appendix
II. The Zimbabwe government applauded an important victory that would bring forth financial resources
benefiting local communities and the fight against elephant poaching. The Campfire program for fair distribution
of the products of this legal elephant hunting, that was Zimbabwe’s main argument to obtain declassification of
the elephant, failed. Hunting actually did create important benefits that stayed in the hands of hunt concession’s
managers. A 3 week lion and buffalo safari costs US$ 52,000. Hunting an elephant can be done for US$ 30,000 plus
US$ 14,500 for the trophy. According to experts, the hunting industry in Zimbabwe brings in each year US$ 30 million.
Owners and managers of hunt domains are very rich but local communities are still in poverty and poacher
organizations use that to recruit them.
Now, Zimbabwe claims it needs US$ 30 million to reinforce means of preventing poaching. “We have only 40 rangers
equipped with archaic weapons monitoring an area almost as large as Swaziland” comments the National
Parks Chief.
Hwange Park is a contaminated chemical site. Robin des Bois has written to the United Nations Program for
the Environment requesting that technical assistance be provided on ground to decontaminate the area to
the extent possible and to dispose of the toxic carcasses.
Sodium cyanide is found in the form of white crystals, which are
odourless in their dry form. Sodium cyanide mixed with salt is
used by chemist, trapper hunters to trick and kill animals on the
spot. Sodium cyanide is highly soluble in water. All animals without
exception are poisoned by skin contact, by ingestion or by
inhaling hydrogen cyanide vapors which slowly forms in contact
with water and humidity in the air. The acute effects start by the
breaking down of mucous membranes which evolve quickly into
convulsions and finish with respiratory arrest. Nonfatal chronic
effects include dizziness, behavioural disorders, vomiting and
general fatigue. A man dies 30 minutes after the ingestion of 2g
of Sodium cyanide. The equivalent lethal dose for an elephant is
around 200g. According to certain experts the lethal dose for a
sheep would be 4mg/kg. In this case the equivalent lethal dose for
an elephant would be 20g and the 3 tonnes of cyanide hijacked by
the Zimbabwe criminal network would be, -statistically speakingenough
to kill all elephants on the African continent. Considering
the context under which the cyanide is used and the countless transportations, mixes and handlings carried
out by middlemen and locals, one cannot exclude the possibility that members of criminal networks, their
families and children, have been or will be impacted. In nature the use of cyanide, particularly in enclosed
aquatic environments such as ponds, lakes or marshes, burns the flora and intoxicates fish and other living
organisms in the long term. These aquatic environments are also likely to poison animals that use them as
water holes.
Both Sodium cyanide and potassium cyanide are used illegally in Asia to ease the capture of aquarium and
reef fish for human consumption. The cyanide is usually in the form of a pill put into a nylon «stocking”, hung
from the end of a pole or stick in coral reefs or at the entrance of underwater caves. Due to the dilution of the
cyanide with seawater the fish are simply stunned. They lose their ability to escape and are easily caught in nets
and other traps.
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On The Trail # 2. Robin des Bois