Kailen talks conservation and wildlife crime
While snare poaching is not as widely known as rhino or elephant poaching it is the most destructive form of poaching and the most common form of poaching throughout Africa and Asia. Snare poaching is the most common form of poaching throughout the world. It's practiced everywhere.
A conservation biologist by trade, Kailen Padayachee founded the KaiNav Conservation Foundation in the hopes of not only helping reduce snare poaching but also educating landowners and community members on how to deal with snare poaching.
“Conservation is a very broad term, right? So it’s a term for everything wildlife management oriented. So I started as a student in nature conservation, with my undergrad in Pretoria, at the University of Technology [TUT] back in 2007,” explained Kailen.
Kailen got his diploma in nature conservation and then took up a position with the Walt Disney World company in the United States, as a Savannah guide.
“And so basically we were brought over as a cultural representative program to teach the guests that visit the park, the Animal Kingdom park and lodge, about African wildlife conservation in Africa, and also bring in the cultural aspect of South Africa. So that’s why I was part of the team from South Africa, teaching about South African conservation.
“And then when I got back to South Africa, I furthered my academic work by getting my postgraduate studies done. So that was the honours and masters, all in nature conservation at TUT. My Master’s was finished in 2017 I believe it was. And then in 2019, I started my Ph.D. at Cape Town University, in conservation biology, specialising in birds of prey specifically environmental contamination,” he added.
In 2010, beginning in 2011 was when the foundation started.
“I started the Foundation with my twin brother, unfortunately, he passed away in 2016. Which was a bit of a tough one. But we started this foundation together. And it was all conservation, research, conservation education, and wildlife management. That was what the foundation was about,” he elaborated.
“I’m about to finish off the Ph.D. at the moment in conservation biology, but I sit on conservation-oriented boards I’ve got many roles in conservation, the conservation industry, I sit on the board of the Magaliesburg Biosphere Reserve Board, the national lead task team that looks at lead contamination in the environment and wildlife. We look at how we can minimise lead poisoning in wildlife,” explained Kailen.
He’s also a part-time lecturer at TUT focusing specifically on wildlife crime legislation, as part of the nature conservation diploma, or the nature conservation course and the wildlife management course, w
The Foundation started working on environmental education programs, and research projects as soon as it was registered. It also specifically focused on snare-related projects.
“That’s the main program that we run, although we’re involved in many other things. That’s one of our Keystone projects that we’ve been running for just over 13 years now in South Africa.
The snare program that the Foundation runs is called SNARE – it’s an acronym that stands for Snare Neutralization Awareness and Removal Effort.
“And that’s what we’ve been running for the last 13 years as a removal program, basically taking people out into the field, letting people experience what the removal is, and also learning from the data collection. So when we go out, we remove the snares and we also collect a lot of data because it’s great removing these snares, but if we don’t have the information behind it, all we’re doing is removing the snares. They’ll be back next week. The idea behind it is to gather this information so that we can start approaching the problem from a scientific standpoint, and it’s also information that we can share with law enforcement, we can share with landowners we can share with conservation authorities that can make informed decisions when it comes to this type of law enforcement,” Kailen explained.
While snare poaching is not as widely known as rhino or elephant poaching it is the most destructive form of poaching and the most common form of poaching throughout Africa and Asia. Snare poaching is the most common form of poaching throughout the world. It’s practiced everywhere.
“Snare poaching by far more often impacts biodiversity in general and at large a lot more than what your rhino poaching an elephant poaching does. This is because of how unselective it is. So, for example, as a rhino poacher you know you want that Rhino, you go out you shoot that Rhino, and that Rhino dies,” explained Kailen, “Yeah, it’s tragic. But it is that individual animal. With snares, we’ve seen people put out 100 snares at a time. It can kill hundreds of animals over and over again because an animal dies in that snare, it decomposes, rots away and then another animal comes to investigate it and gets caught in the snare.
“So it’s a much more destructive form of poaching than an elephant or rhino poaching and is equally as illegal. South Africa does have specific legislation when it comes to hunting. Our legislation is very good. The problem is the implementation of that legislation. It’s not illegal to walk around with wire. It’s not illegal to walk around with shoelaces, but it’s what we use them for.”
During his Wildlife Crime Talk at the Foresight Church on Wednesday, March 8, Kailen, along with members of the Green Scorpions aimed at educating landowners and law enforcement on the various legislations against snare poaching as well as using your dog to hunt animals illegally – which has been prevalent in Muldersdrift/ Honeydew area.
For more information on the KaiNav Conservation Foundation and to get involved with their projects visit their Facebook page.
