The African Wildlife Foundation is urging South Sudan government to stop fighting to protect the natural resources and the wild animals in the Country.

Yesterday, the body held a consultative workshop with official from the Ministry of wildlife conservation to map historical and heritage sites and parks in the country.

The African Wildlife Foundation vice president Kathleen Fitzgerald told Eye Radio that continued fighting will affect the growth of tourist industry in the country.

“It is having an impact suddenly, because right now poaching is the highest so when you have a conflict situation in general it increases in poaching because resources are harder to come by so bush meat poaching increases as well as poaching for ivory and other resources.” Fitzgerald said.

“So the fact that South Sudan is now in a state of military crises it is putting additional pressure on natural resources, people are moving to natural areas and it just add pressure to an already pressured system.” She added.

Kathleen said that South Sudan is blessed with abundant natural resource that needs special attention to boost its economy.

“South Sudan has it all and the challenge like in many places, they just have to protect that and we believe you can protect while simultaneously developing.” She said.

The African Wildlife foundation is a Kenyan based organization that works to protect and develop wildlife in Africa.