MoU has not stopped poaching
A year after the Memorandum of Understanding was signed between SA and MOZ
PRETORIA – The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Mozambican and the South African governments a year ago, has so far not saved the rhino or elephant on the South African side of the border.
Most of the 827 rhino poached in the Kruger National Park (KNP) in 2014 can be traced to incursions from Mozambique on the eastern border of the KNP.
The resurgence of elephant poaching in KNP started in 2014 with the poaching of two bulls in the Parfuri area in northern KNP. The MoU on Cooperation in the Field of Biodiversity Conservation and Management between the two governments was signed on April 17, 2014. According to the spokesman of the Department of Environmental Affairs, Albi Modise the implementation plan is being developed. “The implementation plan is being developed by officials of the two countries. The plan will facilitate the conducting of coordinated law-enforcement operations and the management and protection areas.”
A joint park management committee (JPMC) has already been established and its inaugural meeting was held earlier in April.
JPMC will facilitate collaboration between Limpopo National Park (LNP) in Mozambique and KNP on issues of protection, conservation management, community beneficiation, communication and fund-raising. The security cluster also forms part of a cross-border protocol to facilitate the movement of officials across the international border and the joint training of rangers.
The process of resettling villages out of the LNP has been accelerated.
Macavene’s 160 families and Nanguene’s 18 ave already been relocated. Resettlement of a third village, Massingir Velho is ongoing with 40 families’ relocation complete and the balance of the 300 families in the process of being moved. This process is planned to be completed by 2017.
The relocation of Mavodze’s 620 families is ongoing and this will be the last group to be relocated. House construction has started at the new location and families will move as houses are being completed from October 2015 to December 2017.
Mavodze Village is where the kingpin called Navarra, threatened the lives of a German journalists, Bartholomäus Grill and Swedish photographer, Torbjörn Selander.
The journalist, working for Der Spiegel in Germany, exposed that at least 10 teams of poachers, working for the kingpin, operated in KNP at any given day.
Grill explained that Navarra was like a “godfather” in the community.
