SKUKUZA – The air mobility in the fight against rhino poachers has kicked off with the acquisition of another Airbus helicopter, with night-vision and night-flying capabilities. The AS-350B3e Airbus helicopter, according to Gen (Ret) Johan Jooste, was just what was needed to lift the blanket of night-time that poachers had so far enjoyed in this scourge.
“They no longer own the night and we can proudly announce here today: Poachers beware!”
Jooste also agreed with minister of environmental affairs, Ms Edna Molewa, “Not on our watch! We will not allow this onslaught to continue”.
In March 2014 the South African National Parks (SANParks) received a grant from the Nature Conservation Trust (NCT), to assist in the fight against poaching. NCT is a charity organisation owned by the Howard G Buffet Foundation. This donation of
R254,8 million made a lot of hi-tech interventions possible.
The chairman of the SANParks board, Mr Kuseni Dlamini said, “Subsequent to the initial grant funding, the Howard G Buffet Foundation granted SANParks an additional R37,7 million to purchase this second Airbus helicopter, with night-flying capability to further increase the capacity of SANParks’ rhino anti-poaching fight operations in the Kruger National Park (KNP).”
The SANParks board member and also member of the Howard G Buffet Foundation grant-steering committee, Prof Graham Kerley, warned that the KNP was both a national and an international icon and if the country lost the rhino, huge losses would also be incurred because less tourists would come to South Africa.
“We also need to acknowledge that the criminal networks involved in rhino poaching, have access to highly sophisticated infrastructure in their pursuit of rhino horn, and we need to up our game, and that is partly what we are doing here today.”
The chief executive officer of Airbus, Mr Arnaud Montalvo, described the benefit of commissioning this new helicopter. “It has been customised to have night-flying capabilities, which gives the air and ground crew an added advantage to respond to night-time incursions. Before, poachers owned the night but this aircraft will go a long way in the effort to stop them”
KNP now boasted a fleet of three helicopters, a fixed wing as well as two light bantam aircraft operating in the fight against poaching. Montalvo also announced that Airbus would take care of all the services for this aircraft, as well as the special training for pilots, as well as the maintenance plan.
During his thank-you speech , the acting chief executive of KNP, Mr Danie Pienaar, acknowledged changes to the ranger corps in the Kruger,
“In recent years our ranger corps in KNP has undergone substantial training in order to regear their conservation work and to be skilled as a formidable and effective anti-poaching force. I want to thank Airbus for the chance to give special training to be able to use this helicopter to our pilots. This will enhance our capability to hit back much harder in this scourge, than the poachers are used to.”
Pienaar also used this opportunity to announce that three poachers: Two poachers on level 1 and one on level 3 had been apprehended on Wednesday night and that 10 guns and several rounds of ammunition, as well as other tools used in poaching, had been confiscated. He added, “We also definitely saved the lives of four rhino last night. This is such a honour for me to announce this today and to be part of this event.”
