Tanzania conservation breaking news – TANAPA gets slapped with injunction, arbitrary fee increases halted by court

HAT OBTAINS INJUNCTION AGAINST TANAPA – BATTLE OF FEES GOES TO NEXT LEVEL

Information was just received that after a week of arguments, submissions and deliberations has the High Court in Tanzania granted an injunction to the Hotel Association of Tanzania, and their members, to prevent TANAPA from collecting unilaterally introduced fees, after discarding a negotiated and signed agreement reached earlier in the year.

As reported here did TANAPA then in a case of ‘attempted business suicide’ try to offload the burden on individual tourist and tour operators bringing tourists to the parks, when a few weeks ago they stranded nearly 1.000 tourists at their respective park gates for much of that Monday and Tuesday. This triggered an avalanche of complaints and threats to sue from in particular American tourists for being illegally detained at park gates and blackmailed to part with additional money after having fully paid for their safari vacations. While more level headed personnel of TANAPA then prompted a compromise, whereby tour and safari operators had to sign ‘bills’ and commit themselves to pay for the illegally raised fees, this at least helped the tourists who could get on with their tours, while safari operators immediately dismissed the ‘bills’ as ‘documents forced upon us under duress’ and vowed never to pay.

Court now ruled in favour of the applicant ‘HAT’ and in fact ordered TANAPA to bear the cost for the proceedings, and further determined that the main suit will be heard within 6 months. The injunction is valid from the 01^st of August, effectively denying TANAPA any option to unilaterally raise their fees, or else illegally attempt to offload the burden of collection on individual tourists or on tour and safari operators.

The decision prompted jubilant comments from the tourism fraternity in Tanzania, also restoring confidence in the court system which in the past often served as a tool to the executive rather than finding honest judgments.

Watch this space as the main court battle will soon go underway, and how this turns out for the plaintiff ‘HAT’ and their members and the respondent TANAPA.

Tanzania aviation news – Government pays for ATCL’s Q300 heavy maintenance

TANZANIAN GOVERNMENT PAYS FOR AIR TANZANIA’S Q300 MAINTENANCE

Information was finally confirmed that the government of Tanzania has indeed used some of their sparse cash to pay for major aircraft maintenance for Air Tanzania’s sole aircraft, a Bombardier Q300. The plane was early this year withdrawn from service, effectively shutting down the operations of the airline, and flown to South Africa for a C-check. Short of cash however ATCL was unable to pay for the repairs carried out and the aircraft was subsequently kept by the maintenance facility in lieu of payment. It is understood that only threats that the aircraft would be auctioned off to recover the very substantial capital outlay incurred by the maintenance firm prompted Dar es Salaam to finally ‘find’ money and pay up.

Airworthiness inspectors from the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority will be proceeding to Johannesburg now and establish if they can, following the required overhaul according to airworthiness directives from the manufacturers, re-issue a certificate of airworthiness before the plane can return to Dar es Salaam and eventually resume service.

A source close to ATCL also spoke about the possible lease acquisition of two CRJ200 aircraft, a 50 seater jet in all economy configuration, now operating in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania and said to offer, even as an older model, excellent operating economics vis a vis the cost of acquisition,

Jetlink in Kenya was the first airline in East Africa to introduce the Bombardier CRJ into the East African skies, followed by RwandAir, which first leased two aircraft from Jetlink before purchasing their current two ‘birds’ from Lufthansa. Air Uganda eventually also acquired two of these sleek jets to avoid a financial crash caused by their inexplicable use of aged MD 87, before Fly540 too then added several of these jets to their fleet, now operating from Kenya into the entire region, including to Tanzania and within Tanzania between Dar and Kilimanjaro.

Said a regular aviation source from Arusha / Kilimanjaro to this correspondent: ‘I think someone at last has absorbed lessons about financial prudence and about keeping operations within financially affordable levels. Thanks God they are now abandoning their notion that they have to fly Boeing 737 aircraft, which are now simply too big for them. Precision and Fly540 have now taken over the local and regional market and to claw their way back ATCL will need to be reliable, affordable and efficient. They have to shed unproductive workers, cut down on operating cost for their aircraft and the use of the cost efficient Q300 and maybe later of CRJ’s is a step in the right direction. Let them show the travelling public that they still can manage somehow and compete with KQ, Precision, Fly 540 or Air Uganda or RwandAir, and then we will see. Personally I feel that reviving ATCL is not in the best interest of the country. We go Precision now and they are doing very well. Why government should spend much money on ATCL when we lack medicines in hospitals, TTB is short of funds to promote the country abroad and anti poaching units lack fuel to drive their donated cars around the parks, those should be priorities, not reviving a symbol of national shame which ATCL has become over all the scandals.’

None of the executives asked to comment from airlines in the region were willing to speculate on the fate of ATCL, all claiming that they had not heard about the latest developments and that they would need time to find out what exactly was going on with ATCL.

Hence, watch this space for future updates and breaking news. 

 

African conservation news – CITES under growing pressure to act, live up to its mandate

CONSERVATIONISTS DEMAND THAT CITES REMOVE CHINA’S‘IVORY TRADING STATUS’

The growing greed and hunger for Africa’s ‘White Gold’, aka ivory in China has been largely blamed on the rocketing cases of poaching across the continent’s national parks and game reserves over the past two years, but too little action has been taken by CITES or other global bodies, allegedly of fear of ‘upsetting’ the Chinese leadership and risking lucrative trading contracts and investments in particular for African countries. The discovery of what has now been described as one of East Africa’s largest illicit blood ivory hauls in Zanzibar, authorities have now given the figure of 1.041 tusks which have been recovered, has prompted another outcry amongst the conservation fraternity.

Wrote one source overnight to this correspondent: ‘CITES is now under pressure like never before. Last week the executive committee, arguably following pressure from the most notorious importer nations of ivory, tried to exclude NGO’s and civil society and only when realizing the folly of their dictate they reversed their vote quickly to avoid a lot more negative press. But it was also apparent in their meetings, in particular on ivory trading, the relationship between their past one – off grants to sell off ivory stocks and increase in poaching on a phenomenal scale across Africa was speaking a very clear language. You allow countries to sell what they call ‘legal stocks’ and poaching immediately rockets. Then there is the issue of rhino horn smuggling and the virtual war declared on the species, especially in South Africa by money greedy poachers using automatic weapons, at times even helicopters and sophisticated communications equipment, besieging national parks and private game reserves where only last week a gruesome attack on several rhinos left at least three dead and the nation in uproar over their government’s seeming inaction. In 2008 CITES gave China the status of ‘ivory trading partner’ alongside Japan, but my fellow activists want that decision reviewed immediately with the aim of suspending it until China provides stiff laws internally over possession and processing ivory. They must show that they support the survival of Africa’s wildlife for real and we do not care how powerful China now is, what is wrong is wrong and we must be able to say so’.

Other sources from within Tanzania in fact demanded that the country drop any further attempt to seek an exception on the ivory trade rule during the next global CITES meeting in 2013 as well as renounce any other measures like ‘auctioning’ processed and semi-processed ivory seized at airports and sea ports, as was attempted last year by the customs department in a clear violation of the spirit of the respective global conventions. Zambia too is coming under pressure to forego any future attempts to sell her ivory stocks as that country had applied for an exemption alongside Tanzania, but hosting the CITES Secretariat in Lusaka actually makes discussions between the Secretariat not any easier, as the Secretariat works under the direction of the tri-annual global congress and in between with the Executive Committee, which has shown no haste nor keen interest to once and for all make ALL sales in ivory stocks illegal, and gently pushing governments in the direction of Kenya’s action, where recently over 5 tons of blood ivory were burned.

Whichever way those discussions go and wherever China’s status is heading, one thing has become clear that the sheer volume of tusks, 1.041 in total, confiscated earlier in the week in Zanzibar, has shocked and rocked the conservation fraternity which undoubtedly will become much more vocal and outspoken in their demands to protect Africa’s wildlife and in the process safeguard the tourism industries in the safari park countries of Eastern and Southern Africa, which depend on wildlife actually being alive to be photographed by tourists and not carcasses upon which they stumble during their game drives.

Watch this space. 

 

Kenya tourism news – First half arrivals give hope to new record year

KENYA TOURISM ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT LATEST ARRIVAL FIGURES

‘We have it in our hands now to make this another record breaking year’ was the comment of a regular contributor and source from Nairobi, when discussing the latest arrival data for the first half of 2011.

549.083 foreign visitors were recorded to have arrived in Kenya during the first six months of the year, traditionally the ‘slower’ time as it includes the traditional ‘low season’, while the second half of the year is normally the ‘stronger half’. The trend at present is a strong 13.6 percent up compared with the previous record year of 2010 and should the Kenya Shilling stay in the 90 range vis a vis the US Dollar, earnings could race deep into the 90 billion Shillings range and under best circumstances even exceed 100 billion Kenya Shillings for the first time ever and reclaiming the top spot from the tea industry, which had in the recent past overtaken earnings from tourism.

Sources in both Mombasa and Nairobi were cautiously optimistic over the prospects for 2011 but almost everyone ‘polled’ was conscious of factors beyond their or Kenya’s control, like global economic developments, the cost of fuel, economic recovery and stability in the Euro Zone, a key market place for Kenya, before equally agreeing that ‘if all goes well and without hick ups we will indeed have a new record year for Kenya Tourism.’

Rwanda in the context of East Africa is leading the pack with a nearly 30 percent increase in arrivals over the first half of 2011. No current half year figures are available as yet from Uganda, while Tanzania is said to be slightly ahead of last year’s arrivals. Burundi is trailing and no figures, as usual one sadly has to add, are available on tourist arrivals for the EAC’s smallest economy.