Kenya conservation breaking news – More blood ivory nabbed in Nairobi

INTERCEPTED BLOOD IVORY COST 50 ELEPHANT LIVES

Last night did surveillance of customs and other security officers at the cargo area of Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport again prove their worth, and their courage, when they seized a suspicious shipment, allegedly from an embassy in Nairobi – providing the Foreign Ministry in Nairobi with a pronounced headache over the violation of ‘diplomatic mail’ privileges – which upon closer inspection contained around 100 tusks, representing 50 slaughtered elephant.

The shipment, which was about to be loaded was found to lack some documents, which when not forthcoming then triggered added interest from customs and security officials routinely deployed at JKIA. Undeterred by the ‘embassy origin’ of the crates, they apparently used sniffer dogs which confirmed the presence of contraband inside the sealed crates, prompting the confiscation of the cargo, and when opened revealed its bloody contents for all to see.

While the trade in ivory is banned worldwide since the late 1980’s, aimed at protecting the remaining elephant herds in Africa, more recently an upswing of demand mainly from China but also other Far and South Eastern countries, has led to a virtual skyrocketing of poaching cases in Eastern, Southern and Western Africa, of elephant and more critically even of rhinos, which horns are falsely believed to contain medicinal properties – yet known by experts that the substance of rhino horn is the same as human finger and toe nails.

Authorities in Nairobi are presently unwilling to discuss if any suspect has been arrested, but confirmed that the absence of an embassy of the country given on the shipping documents had raised their suspicion, as had indeed the intermediate destination of Lagos / Nigeria, via which main airport the cargo was arguably to reach its final destination.

Conservationists across Africa have long demanded that China take drastic action to introduce harsh legislation to prevent and outlaw ivory and rhino horn smuggling while equally asking African government to finally wake up and increase the level of fines and prison terms to such levels that it would financially ruin poachers and their middle men while putting them away for not less than 10 years and as many as 20 years, similar to prison terms for manslaughter.

Congratulations once again to the Kenyan customs and security services at JKIA whose vigilance has at least intercepted the blood ivory, while of course not able to safe the elephant’s lives.

Watch this space.

East Africa aviation news update – When, not if, will Fly Dubai spread further into East Africa

EAST AFRICA HOPING FOR FLY DUBAI INTEREST

The announcement earlier this week, that Dubai’s own low cost airline ‘Fly Dubai’ is eyeing over 40 destinations by the end of 2011, has raised hope and interest in Eastern African aviation circles, that after the recent opening of the route between Dubai to Addis Ababa other destinations like Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Entebbe could be on the airline’s drawing board. The airline is presently flying to 36 destinations from its hub in Dubai, all within a 5 hour range, and the key Eastern African airports do fall into that bracket. The success of Sharjah’s low cost airline ‘Air Arabia’ on the route to Nairobi, increasing their frequencies to daily flights at present, will also be a ‘hint’ for Fly Dubai that there is room for a lot more traffic, especially in the low cost segment of the market, which has hitherto been rather underrepresented in the traffic uplift by conventional full service airlines inspite of eye catching special offers at certain times of the year when seats are in less demand and have to be filled at almost any cost.

Fly Dubai, now just about two years in operation, is presently taking delivery of NG B737-800’s at a record pace, with a total of 50 such state of the are single aisle planes on order and due to join the fleet over the next four years.

Watch this space for the latest news and updates from East Africa’s aviation scene.

Rwanda news update – RTUC starts building new campus

RWANDA’S TOURISM UNIVERSITY COLLEGE TO GET NEW CAMPUS

Information was received overnight that the RTUC has finally been given the green light to commence the construction of a new purpose build campus. Operating until now, and since its inception, from rented premises has created issues over the full licensing as a tertiary institution of higher learning but this anomaly is expected to be rectified when the first two lecture and classroom blocks are completed.

The new facilities are expected to be open by October this year, at which time the second of several building phases will begin, until the ‘final product’ will be available in approximately 5 years time.

Watch this space for regular updates from Rwanda and in particular the country’s efforts to improve human resource development and training for personnel in the tourism and hospitality industry.

Rwanda breaking news update – Dubai World’s Gorilla Nest Lodge partially destroyed by fire

DUBAI WORLD’S ‘GORILLA NEST LODGE’ SUFFERS FIRE DAMAGE

Information reached late yesterday that a fire has yesterday partially destroyed the luxurious ‘Gorilla Nest Lodge’, which is owned by Dubai World and strategically located just outside the Volcanoes National Park, home to the prized mountain gorillas.

Information received was sketchy and efforts to get more details were futile, but it seems established that the fire started in the kitchen area of the main building before spreading further into the facility.

It is understood that guest rooms were not affected by the fire, which was however causing major damage to the public areas and facilities of the main building, hampering operations.

Management is understood to be making urgent arrangements to open a temporary dining room, bar and lounge for the clients staying at the property in coming weeks while undertaking urgent repairs following an assessment by engineers and insurance loss adjusters.

Sources in Kigali were unable to give a timeframe at this time of how long repairs would take but vaguely spoke of ‘several weeks’. As and when available an update will be provided here and when repairs are complete this too will be mentioned in this column.

The ‘Gorilla Nest Lodge’ is one of two lodges owned and operated by Dubai World, which in the aftermath of the global economic crisis scaled down their planned investments in Rwanda considerably, but completed and opened the Nyungwe Forest Lodge last year, which has immediately gained a reputation for being a very luxurious and well managed property in a relatively new park featuring the only tree top ‘walk way’ in Rwanda and in fact in Eastern Africa.

The company is however said to be monitoring demand and market developments in Rwanda and could restore some or all of their initial plans in the future.

Tanzania aviation news update – Precision Air launches e-payments

PRECISION AIR EXPANDS WEB BASED SERVICES

Tanzania’s leading privately owned airline, Precision Air, has now formally launched their web based payment engine, which allows clients to settle their ticket cost by using the leading credit and debit cards. Plans for this were advancing well and when all technical requirements about transaction security had been met the airline ‘went live’ a few days ago to offer this new option to their faithful travelers.

More and more airline passengers in East Africa are now using the internet to search for connections and ‘best deals’ before making a decision on which airline to fly with across the region, and Precision’s latest measure will ensure that passengers can book their flight, pay on line and then print their e-Ticket all in one go. Travel agents have been reluctant to discuss these latest innovations by airlines, giving passengers greater freedoms to do ‘things themselves’ and airlines in turn are equally reluctant to discuss the percentage of direct e-bookings. Going by global trends however it can be expected that ‘direct bookings on the web’ will be a fast growing segment of ticket sales from here on in East Africa too, now that secure payment mechanisms have been developed and introduced following the approval by relevant authorities.

East African conservation news update – EALA starts regionwide consultations on new Ecosystems Bill

CONSULTATIONS COMMENCE ON EAST AFRICAN ECO SYSTEMS BILL

Members of the East African Legislative Assembly have started their region wide public consultations ahead of hearings by the full assembly about the pending Trans Boundary Ecosystems Bill. The  East African Community member states share a range of ecosystems across the common borders, including several national parks but also lakes, foremost Lake Victoria and it is especially outside the protected areas where the need for joint protective measures has become a top priority.

Stakeholders in all member states are presently providing input during meetings in the respective capitals but also on selected sites the EALA committee members have proposed to visit to receive first hand information on the deteriorating status of such ecosystems, where actions on one side of the border, or no action as has been the case in the past affect the ‘other side’ of the border too. Notably the Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources Committee has a wider understanding how unchecked exploitation and pollution affect key areas of East Africa’s economy by impacting on the ability to grow food but also protect the resources for wildlife and nature based tourism, which brings by conservative estimates over 3 billion US Dollars into East Africa every year.

Lake pollution and silting up are two areas the EALA members are said to be particularly keen about, having singled out the Lake Jipe area which is shared between Kenya and Tanzania and subsequently many questions the committee members are asking are focused on the protection of water towers, unchecked extraction of water from streams and rivers reducing the inflow into lakes.

Conservation stakeholders are also expected to raise the issue of the controversial Serengeti Highway project by the Tanzanian government, which is expected to have a massive impact on the annual wildebeest migration between the Serengeti in Tanzania and the Masai Mara in Kenya but also the equally controversial soda ash project planned for Lake Natron, another ecosystem in Tanzania linked to the Kenyan Lake Magadi area. Using the region’s lawmakers appears to be a preferred option at present as the national parliament in Tanzania is dominated by the ruling CCM party, which government is behind the reckless drive to ‘modernize and industrialise’ without any apparent sensitivity or much public concern towards the impact of such major projects on the environment and the fallout for protected areas and tourism.

Consultations are due to continue until the 15^th of May after which the Committee for Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources will prepare their report of findings before the proposed bill heads for deliberations in the East African Legislative Assembly.

Watch this space.