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>> Wildlife and narcotic trafficking are serious crimes
with devastating consequences for Tanzania's natural resources,
economy and security,
and one of Tanzania's most visible resources,
its elephants, are in danger of being wiped out,
victims of poaching for their ivory.
>> When you look at the elephant population in Tanzania
in 2009,
there were 109,000 elephants,here,
in Tanzania, five years later it's under 43,000,
and those numbers are just devastating and you could easily see a scenario
in which there will be no more elephants in Tanzania.
>> The joint effort between US Customs
and Border Protection, the US Department of State,
and the Republic of Tanzania arrived at a unique solution to the problem,
using animals to protect animals.
>> The Ambassador worked in the White House
as the Deputy Chief of Staff
when President Obama came here three years ago
and presented the Executive Order on wildlife trafficking.
>> The idea for the program
was presented to Commissioner Kerlikowske
on his trip last year
and it snowballed into the great program we have today.
>> In 2015,
four Tanzania police officers
were specially selected from Tanzanian Police's Dog
and Horse Unit to travel to the US
to train as canine handlers
at CBP's world-class canine training facility
in El Paso, Texas.
>> This is the first ivory detection program
ever created by the CBP Canine program,
we had to also custom-tailor this particular curriculum
to meet the needs of our students,
and then to meet the needs of their operational environments.
All four students are going to be working at the seaport
and in airport operations,
and these dogs have to be specifically trained
to be able to be deployed under those environments.
>> The officers and their detector dogs,
four Belgian Malinois,
underwent ten weeks of intensive training,
learning to work together to detect ivory, narcotics
and other banned substances.
>> The Belgian Malinois is a very particular breed
that we really like utilizing.
Just like on the southwest border we have a lot of areas
where the hot weather and really rough terrain,
this Belgian Malinois has been able to naturally surmount a lot
of these obstacles based on their genetic lineage.
>> The ten weeks were vigorous,
but at the end the Tanzania handlers were certified and returned home,
while the canines continued their intensive training
at the CBP Canine Center in Front Royal, Virginia.
Finally in February, the four detector dogs,
along with two of their CBP Canine Center trainers,
journeyed to Tanzania to reunite with their Tanzanian handlers.
Now it was time for five more weeks
of rigorous training together
and bonding in the very environments
they will be working in,
the seaport at Dar es Salaam and the cargo facility
at Julius Nyerere International Airport.
>> Up.
>> Being out here we were able to adapt based
on what we're seeing as challenges, resources,
and adapt and create a four phase,
in-country training
that would allow us to accomplish the final mission.
>> Finally in March, at the end of the five weeks,
the Republic of Tanzania and the US government held a ceremony
to recognize the achievement of the four Tanzania officers,
the formal reception of the canines into service,
but just as importantly, the ability of the two governments
to work together to increase Tanzania's capacity to combat poaching
and illegal smuggling.
>> I want to record here
that we deeply appreciate the efforts
that the United States government
is taking to cooperate with our government
to ensure the survival of these big populations
of wildlife
that are still available in the wild.
>> The one thing that we've understood
since we've been in the country is this is not a one man's fight,
this is truly a team effort,
there are multiple agencies, multiple entities
out there joined together as a team
trying to make this work.
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