Leading wildlife conservationist murdered in Tanzania

Prominent South African wildlife conservationist working in Tanzania, Wayne Lotter, has been murdered in Tanzania on his way from the Julius Nyerere International Airport to his hotel in the commercial capital of Dar es Salaam this week.

Aged 51, Wayne Lotter was shot on Wednesday evening in a Masaki suburb a few kilometers from the Dar es Salaam city center. The wildlife conservationist was being driven from the airport to his hotel when his taxi was stopped by another vehicle where 2 men, one armed with a gun, opened his car door and shot him.

Before his untimely death, Wayne Lotter had received numerous death threats while battling international ivory-trafficking networks in Tanzania where more than 66,000 elephants have been killed during the past 10 years.

Wayne was a director and co-founder of the Protected Area Management System (PAMS) Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that provides conservation and anti-poaching support to communities and governments across Africa.

Since starting the organization in Tanzania way back in 2009, Wayne had received numerous death threats relating to his work on protecting African elephants.

Tanzania police in Dar es Salaam had confirmed and launched an investigation into the brutal killing of Mr. Wayne.

PAMS foundation said in a statement on Thursday evening that it was “deeply saddened” by the death of one of its co-founders, saying Lotter devoted his life to protecting Africa’s wildlife.

“As a young conservationist, he’d begun his career in South Africa and then moved to Tanzania to start an anti-poaching unit,” PAMS Foundation said in its statement.

The statement added that Lotter and his co-founders worked closely with Tanzanian communities to protect wildlife against poachers.

He trained “thousands of young Tanzanians as conservationists,” and they achieved great success, especially in protecting elephants from poachers.

The PAMS Foundation funded and supported Tanzania’s elite anti-poaching National and Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit (NTSCIU) which was responsible for arrests of major ivory traffickers.

Since 2012, the unit has arrested more than 2,000 poachers and ivory traffickers and has a conviction rate of 80 percent. The NTSCIU was recently featured in the Netflix documentary, “The Ivory Game.”

Lotter said in one of his interviews that he believed PAMS work had helped to reduce poaching rates in Tanzania by at least 50 percent. He was a big figure in the international conservation community, having served on the boards of several conservation groups and was the Vice President of the International Ranger Federation.

The news of his death has sent the community into mourning. “Wayne was one of Africa’s leading and most committed conservationists.

“He had over two decades worth of experience in wildlife management and conservation, and can be credited as the driving force behind ending the unscrupulous slaughter of Tanzania’s elephants,” said Azzedine Downes, CEO of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

“Wayne devoted his life to Africa’s wildlife. From working as a ranger in his native South Africa as a young man to leading the charge against poaching in Tanzania, Wayne cared deeply about the people and animals that populate this world,” PAMS said in its statement to the media.

“Wayne’s charm, brilliance, and eccentric sense of humor gave him the unique ability to make those around him constantly laugh and smile. He died bravely fighting for the cause he was most passionate about,” the statement added.

Other than Tanzania, Wayne has been in Kenya previously in his mission to protect animals. One of his notable visits was in April 2016 when he was among the attendants of a 3-day Giants Club Summit where leaders from Kenya, Botswana, Gabon, and Uganda were present.

PAMS Foundation said in its tribute that Mr. Lotter started his service to wildlife in South Africa, his country of birth, as a ranger before he moved to Tanzania to step up his conservation efforts through the foundation that he co-founded with Krissie Clark.