KNP: Selfie could lead poachers in the right direction

Kruger National Park visitors have been urged by SANParks to not geotag animals on social media.

Geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media, and according to the Kruger National Park spokesperson, Isaac Phaahla, poachers are active on social media and thus every “precaution should be taken to protect our fauna and flora”.

According to the UK Evening Standard newspaper, experts have said poachers are using the geo-tagged locations from the photos to track and kill rhinos and elephants. Moreover, Isaac Phaahla told the Phalaborwa Herald that not only are rhinos and elephants targeted but all the animals in the Kruger National Park.

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Phaahla also mentioned that visitors to the park should refrain from geotagging animals as it not only “compromises fauna and flora” but everyone that enters the park, including tour operators and lodge owners within the Kruger National Park or in the Greater Kruger National Park.

According to other reports, KNP was considering jamming phone signals so that visitors could not add locations on their photos. However, Phaahla has stated that they are still looking at grappling different considerations to fight geotagging.

Ike Phaahla told ABC News that people would be shocked to know that their tips on sightings are being monitored by poachers and he told the Herald that KNP would find a way to communicate any applications to be made by SANParks to fight this.

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Despite a decline in poaching in South Africa, KNP has lost 190 animals in the first six months of 2019. Crime statistics from the SAPS show that the overall poaching for 2018/2019 is 520, a 12% decrease from the previous year.

According to the Reuters, Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, Barbara Creecy, said in a statement on World Rhino Day that more than half of the 318 poaching incidences between January and June 2019 happened in the Kruger National Park.

This is despite extensive anti-poaching initiatives.”We will redouble our efforts to make sure that communities who live on the borders of our parks benefit from conservation and the biodiversity economy, so they are not vulnerable to recruitment by syndicated poaching operations,” said Creecy.