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Once known as the world's elephant killing fields, Tanzania appears to have halted the worst ivory poaching within its borders, making more than 2,300 arrests of poachers and traffickers over five years.

One of the world's most infamous ivory traffickers will remain in prison in Tanzania after an appeal judge sent her case back to a lower court. The high court accepted there were anomalies in the original written judgment against Yang Fenglan, but declined her attorney's application for her release. Between 2009 and 2014, poachers reduced Tanzania’s elephant population by 60%, according to a government census. In response, Tanzania developed a strategy of intelligence-led investigations.

The rampant increase in wildlife poaching has been widely acknowledged as one of the greatest threats to biodiversity conservation in Africa. The Asian demand for rhinoceros horn has seen a massive onslaught on the white rhino (Ceratotherium simum) and black rhino (Diceros bicornis) populations. Since 2008, there has been a gradual and then explosive growth in rhino poaching in South Africa and, to a lesser extent, Mozambique and Botswana.

Environment minister Pohamba Shifeta says some of the 120 suspects arrested last year for wildlife crimes were repeat offenders who were out on bail for similar crimes. “It is discouraging when a suspect is arrested for a crime today and the next day commits the same crime again. We do not want to tell justice what to do, but a repeat offender should not be let out on bail,” Shifeta said yesterday.