German President set to visit tourist attractions in Tanzania

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

TANZANIA (eTN) – President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Joachim Gauck, arrived in Tanzania Monday evening for a five-day official tour which will take him to northern Tanzania’s famous Sereng

TANZANIA (eTN) – President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Joachim Gauck, arrived in Tanzania Monday evening for a five-day official tour which will take him to northern Tanzania’s famous Serengeti National Park.

Accompanied by his wife, Daniela Schadt, the German President is set to visit some tourist attractions in Tanzania, including the Azania Front Church, a Lutheran congregation house that was built in 1898 by early German missionaries in East Africa.

He is also being accompanied by a high-ranking business delegation including tourist business stakeholders, among others, in the gas, trade, manufacturing, and transport sectors.

The German President will also visit the historical Stone Town site in the Indian Ocean tourist island of Zanzibar and meet German volunteers and religious leaders in this Muslim-dominated part of Tanzania.

The Deputy Head of Mission of the Germany Embassy in Tanzania, John Reyels, told eTN that Mr. Gauck will fly to the northern tourist city of Arusha later this week to meet officials of the East African Community and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

President Gauck is scheduled as well to visit wildlife conservation projects in northern Tanzania’s famous Serengeti National Park, the oldest wildlife protected area in Tanzania established in 1921 and later developed into a full national park through technical and financial support from the Frankfurt Zoological Society.

While in the Serengeti, the German President will hand over the Operations Command Center for anti-poaching measures established by the Frankfurt Zoological Society (Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft) in the Seronera area inside the Serengeti National Park.

The German government has been a leading partner with Tanzania in wildlife conservation and has been working to enhance efforts to save elephants through the Frankfurt Zoological Society.

The German government is currently supporting improvements of roads, airstrips, and housing for game rangers within the Selous Game Reserve in Southern Tanzania. The German anti-poaching and wildlife conservation program in Tanzania is worth US$51 million, running from 2012 to 2016, including US$21 million for the Selous Game Reserve.

To combat the very serious threat of poaching in the Selous Game Reserve, the governments of the United States and Germany late in January of this year, transferred a significant amount of field equipment for use by Tanzanian game wardens patroling the reserve.

The equipment included small and large tents, torches, maps, binoculars, cameras, uniforms, and boots. The German government extended its support toward improvements of roads, airstrips, and housing for game rangers within the game reserve, while the US government has supplied the expertise of US marine instructors to train game wardens on patroling techniques and vehicle maintenance.

US Ambassador Mark Childress and German Ambassador Egon Kochanke emphasized the importance of coordination of anti-poaching efforts among international partners, between the public and private sectors, and within the government of Tanzania.

US equipment and services are part of a larger Tanzania-wide, anti-poaching and wildlife conservation program worth US$40 million over the next 4 years, while the German anti-poaching and wildlife conservation program in Tanzania is worth US$51 million running from 2012 to 2016.

Ambassador Childress said: “This is a big day, but no one day can turn the tide in the battle against poaching. We need a lot of days like this.”

In addition, Ambassador Childress praised the Paul Allen Foundation for funding a new Very High Frequency (VHF) system that will allow game scouts to communicate across secure channels and coordinate their anti-poaching efforts.

He also commended the Hans Jorg Wyss Foundation for its ongoing support of the Frankfurt Zoological Society’s efforts in the Selous.

German Ambassador Kochanke said: “The current poaching crisis threatens not only the survival of elephants and other wildlife in the area, but also the great potential of the Selous Game Reserve for economic development in Tanzania as a whole, and for the districts adjacent to the Selous in particular.”

Poaching is an increasingly serious threat in the Selous Game Reserve, in particular the poaching of elephants for ivory. Controlling this problem is difficult due to a number of factors including the sheer size of the Selous and lack of clear boundaries, as well as limited manpower and equipment to monitor and manage activities in the reserve.

An aerial wildlife census in 2013 funded by Germany determined elephant numbers had declined from over 39,000 in 2009 to just over 13,000 in 2013. Between 2010 and 2013, 17,797 kilograms of illegally exported Tanzanian ivory (4,692 elephant tusks) were seized at overseas ports.

Solutions to the poaching of Tanzania’s wild elephant population are challenging and complex, but the US and German governments are committed to cooperating with the government of Tanzania, the private sector, and other domestic and international partners to preserve this natural and globally important treasure.

“Foreign tourists travel at great expense to Tanzania and spend thousands of dollars to view this wildlife. This is our national commodity, and I call on every Tanzanian to protect it, because every Tanzanian has a role to play,” Mr. Bigurube from the Frankfurt Zoological Society said.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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