Rhino poaching statistics worsen

MBOMBELA – The tide has not turned on rhino poaching in South Africa as yet. The latest statistic of 1 215 poaching incidents shows an increase of 211 rhino that were killed for their horns at the hands of poachers during 2014.
The total for the Kruger National Park (KNP) for the last year stands on 827 and it is still the hardest hit of all the South African National Parks (SANParks).
Lowvelder received the latest statistics from an independent source, and it has not yet been confirmed by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA).
The latest official statistic released by DEA was 1155 on 18 December. It shows that 60 rhino were poached since the 18th over the past 13 days of 2014. Of this 47 of these incidents took place in KNP.
Field rangers in Kruger confirmed that on average 3 rhino were killed in the park every day.
A senior field ranger, who does not want to be identified, said the scourge of rhino poaching was affecting the mood of all the rangers in the park negatively, but he would not confirm that rangers were becoming more and more ruthless when coming face to face with poachers.
This sinister picture becomes even darker when one looks at the total number of almost
4 000 rhino killed for their horns since 2008.
In 2010 a great national strategy for the safety and security of rhino in South Africa was developed when the National Joint Operations and Intelligence Structure was created. It seems though that in the past five years little has come of it.

Since 2010 there have been numerous calls to prioritise the issue, by:
• Creating a dedicated intelligence desk to develop strategies that a national structure can coordinate
• Having dedicated prosecutors hearing poaching cases
• Listing poaching to a level 5 offence, which will make application for bail very difficult and for repeat offenders
• Centralising legislation concerning rhino farming, hunting and the permit system
• Initiating a full forensic audit into all permits issued since 2010 in every province and maintain a database of all hunter profiles
• Setting formal written hot-pursuit agreements with neighbouring governments in place
• Signing extradition treaties to prosecute suspects in South Africa
• Reinstituting at least two South African National Defence Force personnel every 10 kilometres along the 365-kilometre border with Mozambique in the KNP.
Very little of these calls have been executed so far and various stakeholders are blaming the government.
Its call of “Together we can do more” is wearing thin, according to deputy DA shadow minister for environmental affairs, Ms Terry Stander.
“If there is political will, we will find a way to combat rhino poaching in South Africa and protect our heritage as one of the conservation capitals of the world,” she said.
Every year since 2010, the rate of poaching incidents has increased by more than a third and that trend is still continuing.
Activists and conservationists agree that time is of the essence in the battle for the protection and survival of rhino and that changes to legislation, justice, conservation and political will should be made as a matter of urgency.
If not rhino populations will show a negative growth, as seen in many many countries in the world and in Africa.
As the late Dr Ian Player said, “Let us not look back in anger, but forward with fury”.