“Tanzanian civil society organisations (CSOs) working in the areas of human rights, natural resources accountability and wildlife conservation, call on the World Heritage Committee to stand in solidarity with CSOs by acting on protection of the World Heritage Site.
The nine NGOs state that ” … prospecting mining companies also substantially contribute to the ongoing endangering of wild animal populations by, amongst other things, building extensive access routes. … the population of elephants [in World Heritage site Selous Game Reserve] has decreased from more than 70.000 (2006) to about 13.000 due to poaching, the population of the rare black rhino has diminished by 97%.”
The NGOs, including WWF Tanzania, “Specifically, […] ask that the Committee urge the Tanzanian State Party to cancel all existing mining concessions within or overlapping Selous, and to call for the re-integration of the excluded mining area into property.”