countering wildlife trafficking through
Tanzania's sea ports

Maritime transport is essential to the world’s economy as over 90% of the world’s trade is carried by sea and traffickers rely heavily on this mode of transport. The vulnerabilities in transportation and customs capability are being exploited by criminal traffickers to move illicit wildlife products. African sea ports that serve regional and international trade provide traffickers with multiple smuggling routes and the container shipping industry facilitates the movement of wildlife goods. Maritime companies and their assets, wittingly or unwittingly, complicit in wildlife trafficking may be faced with legal, financial and reputational risks.

This paper provides basic information about two sea ports in Tanzania; Dar of Salaam and Zanzibar and provides evidence of their involvement in wildlife trafficking. Whilst there have been no reported seizures linked to these target sea ports since August 2015, there have been seizures of illicit wildlife products in the region of Dar es Salaam in recent years. Whilst Tanzania has made significant progress to combat wildlife trafficking in recent years, the ports and associated companies are vulnerable to exploitation by criminals operating within its borders, regionally and internationally.

The analysis within this paper provides crucial information on key trafficking routes and concealment methods that have been used to move illicit wildlife products from and via Tanzania to consumer countries.

The major sea ports of the United Republic of Tanzania (henceforth referred to as Tanzania) are Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, which were the target ports for the stakeholder workshop. Other notable sea ports in Tanzania include Tanga and Mtwara, as well as smaller ports or jetties for the three principal lakes of Victoria, Tanganyika and Nyasa.

Tanzania’s ports collectively provide a series of vital links between the Indian Ocean, the hinterland of Tanzania and the country’s landlocked neighbours of Burundi, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These ports sustain Tanzania’s national economy by facilitating trade and generating income to help the Government fund essential public services.

Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar ports are situated on key maritime routes and provide Tanzania with access to international markets. Tanzania’s main trading partner in 2017 was India (by value in USD and weight in tonnes) and other significant trading partners were Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, Viet Nam, China and Switzerland.

A range of products were exported by Tanzania to these trading partners (amongst others) in 2017 and maritime trade is possible with all of them except for the landlocked countries of Switzerland and Zambia. Furthermore, Tanzania is a member of the East African Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, these organisations promote trade between member nations as well as the EU and the United States. Trade data in relation to these organisations indicate that Kenya is Tanzania’s key regional trade partner, closely followed by Zambia, Uganda and Burundi.