Rhino poaching in KNP decreases

This is attributed to the hefty sentences imposed on rhino poachers and the collaboration between the police and justice departments to get rhino poaching under control. “As part of the government’s poverty relief programme, fence monitors from communities neighbouring the KNP have been employed to patrol the KNP’s western boundary and report fence breakages, illegal tracks of people entering the KNP as well as animals escaping from the KNP,” said the Minister of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy.

The minister also commended the work performed by the Hawks in several regional and transnational engagements to enhance the government’s integrated approach to combat wildlife trafficking. She said partnerships between the public and private sectors, and the financial and transport sectors, remain critical in combating international wildlife trafficking.

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“The approach is not exclusive to South Africa but is followed within the region and transnationally working with transit and end-user countries in Southeast Asia, especially China, Singapore, Qatar, Malaysia and Vietnam.” She said increased prosecutions also contributed to a decline in rhino poaching. Verdicts were handed down in 36 cases of which 35 resulted in guilty findings and one in a not guilty verdict.

The cases resulted in the conviction of 45 rhino poachers and rhino horn traffickers with a conviction rate of 97%. The integrated work between the SAPS, Hawks, SANParks, Environmental Enforcement Fusion Centre, Green Scorpions, customs officials, provincial park authorities, and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) resulted in successful prosecutions. In one such case a former field ranger in the KNP was arrested after he killed a rhino with his R1 rifle and failed to report the incident.

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He initially denied that he discharged his firearm, and replaced the ammunition with non-issued ammunition, but ballistic evidence linked his issued firearm with the crime scene. During the trial, he alleged that the rhino charged him. His claim that the rhino charged him, was not accepted by the court. He was convicted for carrying out restricted activities with endangered or protected species and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment.