Two new Husky A-1C aircraft boost-anti poaching surveillance capacity for TANAPA

Germany’s Foreign Minister Steinmeier, while on an official visit to Tanzania over the weekend, handed over two Husky A-1C aircraft to Tanzania National Parks to assist the organization in their fight against poaching. The two single-engine aircraft, said to be ideally suited to carry out aerial surveillance and monitoring, are the latest support from the German government to Tanzania National Parks, which goes back into the early days of the newly-independent United Republic, when founder President Julius Mwalimu Nyerere was a close friend of Prof. Grzimek, who immortalized the Serengeti with his books, films, and TV series “Serengeti Must Not Die.”

Grzimek’s remains, as are those of his son Michael who died in a plane crash when filming sequences for a new production from the air, are interred in Tanzania at the rim of Ngorongoro Crater, a permanent reminder of their efforts and sacrifices made to protect one of mankind’s best known ecosystems for future generations.

The Director General of TANAPA, Mr. Allan Kijazi, said when receiving the donation, that the aircrafts would take the joint approach by the Germany government implemented through the Frankfurt Zoological Society, TANAPA, and TAWA to the next level to tackle poaching in the protected areas.

The Husky A-1C operates at low heights and slow speeds – similar to that of a helicopter and has a proven long-term success rate for its use in finding poacher camps and recording GPS positions for follow-up actions by both airborne intervention units as well as for the antipoaching teams on the grounds.

The two new aircraft will be used to monitor key Tanzanian elephant hotspots in the Selous Game Reserve and the Serengeti National Park.

This correspondent in fact is heading to the Serengeti following the Swahili Fashion Week in two weeks’ time and hopes to hear from TANAPA personnel on the ground about their various challenges and also their successes in keeping poachers at bay. Should a photo opportunity arise, the new aircraft deployed to the Serengeti, if already on the ground, will be featured together with the TANAPA pilots who are on daily missions over the national park.