Rampant poaching in the western wildlife corridor threatens Ghana's few remaining elephants. According to the Ghana News Agency, five elephants were killed in the last year. While local police make the occasional arrest, anti-poaching laws are weak and poorly enforced.
And the elephant isn't the only species suffering this onslaught. Ghana's western wildlife corridor is also home to buffalo, waterbucks, baboons, patas monkeys, and green monkeys, along with other species vulnerable to unscrupulous hunters.
Clearly, Ghana's government needs to launch a multi-faceted plan to guard this area so rich in biodiversity. Education and better local involvement in eco-tourism efforts should do their part. However, without laws and enforcement that seriously deter illegal hunting, such efforts will only go so far. Writer Samuel Adadi Akapule notes that neighboring Burka Faso has made it against the law to kill endangered species, and violators are imprisoned or pay significant fines. This law has mostly stopped poaching in Burka Faso. Tell Ghana's parliament to write an endangered species law that truly protects the country's wildlife and then make the police enforce it!
We the undersigned deplore the killing of elephants and other wildlife in your country's western wildlife corridor.
The poaching problem demands a multi-faceted solution that includes better overall education of all citizens and better promotion of eco-tourism in which small communities and villages need to take an interest. Beyond that, however, we believe you need to write better laws to protect the elephant and other endangered species and then those laws need to be rigorously enforced.
Protect Ghana's endangered species!
