Sub-regional Ministers of Defence, Forestry and External Relations met in Yaounde on Saturday March 23, 2013. Ministers of Defence, Forestry and External Relations of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) have adopted an emergency combat plan for growing poaching of protected and endangered animal species , especially elephant massacre that is disturbingly gaining grounds in the sub-region. The emergency combat strategies are fruit of a two-day intense brainwork of sub-regional experts in the sector which preceded the Ministers conclave at the Yaounde Conference Centre on Saturday March 23. The Yaounde meeting sought to federate efforts and harmonise rules of these countries and organisations so as to eclipse the scourge and its well-planted and functional network.

The Strategies

According to the emergency anti-poaching plan (PEXULAB) contained in the Yaounde meeting, “Declaration of the fight against illegal poaching in Central Africa,” member countries of ECCAS created an inter-State coordination mechanism for the fight against poaching and urged individual countries to create national units involving all the administrations involved in wildlife criminality. Member countries were also invited to put in place legal bilateral and multilateral dispositions in the fight against illegal poaching.

The governments of Cameroon, Central African Republic and Chad, recently hardest hit by the scourge, were enjoined to sign as fast as possible, a tripartite accord adopted in N’Djamena in June and December 2012 in view of putting in place a mixed operation unit for the fight against illegal poaching. Countries that receive ivory, the brain behind the growing elephant massacre, were urged to adopt measures that could reduce or wholly prohibit the demand of ivory. Thailand, which has reportedly banned trade in ivory, would serve as an example. Participants at the Yaounde conclave also resolved and prayed Cameroon’s Head of State to accept to champion the course of the sub-regional effort to preserve its animal endangered species for posterity. They equally agreed to integrate the fight against illegal poaching on the menu of ECCAS Heads of State meeting.

The Means

ECCAS prayed development partners to help fund the initiative for desired fruit to be visible soon. The call was well heeded to by the Ambassadors of USA, France and representatives of international non-governmental organisations like the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) who in separate declarations pledged to stand by the sub-region, technically and financially to surmount the challenge. The meeting was chaired by the Vice Minister, Amadou Ali, who promised Cameroon’s readiness to partner with others in making elephant slaughter a thing of the past.