Akagera National Park to have lions by March 2015, says RDB

Local and foreign tourists visiting Akagera National Park will be able to catch a glimpse of lions by March next year, officials at the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) have said. They were speaking yesterday before the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), to explain financial mismatches reported by the Auditor General in his 2012/13 annual audit report. PAC members expressed concerns regarding the delay in importing lions yet RDB had in the previous year said the plan was in its final stages. “The plan is to import lions whose DNA can easily adjust to the local environment. To get those breeds, we need to source from the region. We had made significant progress toward importing lions from Kenya but conservation NGOs there raised an alarm which affected the whole deal,” RDB’s Head of Tourism and Conservation, Amb. Yamina Karitanyi, told PAC. She added that the complaints in Kenya followed increased poaching which compelled the conservationists to protect the remaining wildlife. “We decided to source from other countries and there is significant progress. We expect to have them in the park not later than March 2015,” she said. RDB Conservation Division manager Telesphore Ngoga said the idea was to have the lions in the park in 2012 but this could not be possible because there was need to build a fence around the park. “Actually, we had planned to have lions in the park by August this year but following the issues in Kenya, we were forced to consider other alternatives. We are now in talks with Uganda and Botswana,” he said. RDB Chief Executive Officer Francis Gatare told lawmakers that moving animals from one country to another is difficult but added that they will work closely with concerned governments to make sure the deal succeeds. “We will do everything possible to have them in the park even if it means buying them from individuals,” he said. Although it is not clear how much government will spend on purchasing the lions, the government, in 2010, installed a 5-meter high metallic mesh with three horizontally electrified cables, over a distance of 120 kilometres, at a cost of $2.7 million (Rwf1.8 billion) with a plan to accommodate buffaloes, leopards, elephants, black rhinos and lions. The objective is to boost tourism around the park that had almost lost its attraction. Available information indicates that the park once had about 230 lions but, after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, returnees encroached on the park pushing the lions out and killing others. The park was reduced from 2,500 to 1,200 square kilometers until when government intervened to reclaim some parts. By the year 2000, lions were no more in the park. When government decided to purchase lions they had to build a fence to avoid animal-human conflict. Brazzaville meat deal gone sour Meanwhile, PAC faulted RDB for failing to see through an export deal between Rwanda and Republic of Congo. Rwandan exporters, facilitated by RDB and RwandAir, had planned to export meat to Brazzaville. PAC members (L-R); Theoneste Karenzi, Chairman Juvenal Nkusi, Annonciata Mukarugwiza and Mediatrice Izabiriza during their meeting with RDB yesterday. (John Mbanda) The deal fell apart after the first consignment had gone bad by the time it arrived in Brazzaville resulting into a huge loss. Prior to that, in April last year, RDB had signed an MoU with RwandAir to support and promote exports from Rwanda to Brazzaville through the provision of transport subsidy at a cost of US$180,000 (US$ 7,500 per shipment up to a maximum of 24 shipments). The MoU was valid for a period not exceeding six months or up to a maximum of 24 shipments.In line with the terms of the MoU, RDB transferred Rwf115, 560,000 to RwandAir’s bank account. RwandAir would then release $7,500 from the subsidy for each shipment made by exporters selected by Private Sector Federation (PSF) and upon confirmation that exporters had transferred the other portion of the transport costs amounting of $44,000 to its bank account. The plan was that RwandAir would ensure the security and safety of Rwandan exporters’ products from the moment they are logged into the airport cold room to the final destination in Brazzaville. “We had given investors a subsidy of $0.25 cents per kilogramme on transportation but when the contract collapsed, RwandAir returned the money to the government coffers,” said RDB’s Chief Finance Officer Mark Nkurunziza. RDB’s Head of Trade and Manufacturing, Eusebe Muhikira, told PAC that after realising that the consignment sent to Congo got spoilt, RDB immediately sent $17,000 to Brazzaville to properly dispose of the spoilt meat. “We held a meeting with all stakeholders and we realised that mistakes were done by all the parties involved. We then embarked on re-planning the whole deal…the main problem was about packaging but also the distance from the slaughterhouse to the airport cold room affected the quality of meat but Rwanda Agriculture Board has since set standards and we are now ready to work with any investor who meets the requirements,” Muhikira said. Gatare told lawmakers that the errors made affected other export deals although his office is currently working hard to correct them since Brazzaville remains a priority export market for Rwanda.

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Akagera National Park to have lions by March 2015, says RDB