Poaching in Kenya may increase because of crisis: NGO

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

NAIROBI (AFP) — The crisis in Kenya's tourism industry caused by the post-election violence there and the subsequent collapse in tourism could mean more people turn to poaching, conservationists warned Thursday.

Environmental NGO WildlifeDirect.org warned that the world-renowned Maasai Mara Game Reserve "is under severe threat from widespread poaching following the collapse of tourism in Kenya's post-election crisis."

"Wildlife is going to be hit hard," Brian Heath, head of the Mara Conservancy Trust, was quoted as saying in the statement.

Since the December 27 presidential election deteriorated into violence, close to 800 people have been killed across Kenya.

Images of people hacking each other to death and reports of women and children being burned...