Protecting our precious rhinos
Zululand conservationist DIGS PASCOE is the CEO of the Space for Elephants Foundation.
THE concerned world has focused its attention on the careless massacre stimulated by foreigners of Africa’s major sustainable resource – our wildlife.
The rhino poaching crisis has caused millions of rands, which could have been used to create more jobs in the industry, to be spent on security, surveillance and unproductive activities.
During the last decade, Africa has wisely recognised the importance of caring for and protecting our abundance of wildlife.
Internationally the responsible world has realised that the wildlife poaching crisis in Africa is supporting the international illegal organisations causing terror and mayhem in unsuspecting African countries.
Far eastern countries have led this by encouraging support of major developments and using these opportunities to over-exploit the wildlife resources for their own gain. The naïve and trusting wildlife officials are caught unprepared for the massive onslaught taking place.
Kingsley Holgate and I have just completed an expedition through the major affected areas of East Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Mozambique. The purpose is to investigate these poaching issues at grass roots level .
We can do it
If we can deal with corrupt political criminals, create a political will to conserve all our natural resources wisely and involve our youth to be part of the solution, I believe we will win the war for Africa’s benefit. Our responsible government departments and wildlife authorities have redirected resources in a very successful way to involve our rural populations in caring for nature and our icon species of rhinos and elephants.
Since the poaching onslaught started in earnest some five years ago, KwaZulu-Natal is the leading province in achieving this with 18 non-governmental organisations in the private sector forming ‘Project Rhino KZN’.
This has enabled Zap wing aerial surveillance, intelligence, fund-raising facilitating millions of rands annually, highly qualified expertise, field training, international and local informer networks, schools and community awareness programmes. The concept of all citizens working united is the only way to win. That is the most formidable weapon. Being adjacent to Mozambique, KZN has gone through an increase in poaching, then a decrease as our counter measures begin to work. There is a prediction of an increase in poaching on private reserves. We need private rhino owners to join our organisation to boost regional security with information to lead to a proactive approach rather than a reactive one.
EKZNWL, Project Rhino KZN, Space for Elephants Foundation, Thanda Mduna Royal Reserves, African Conservation Trust, Wildlands Trust, Wessa, Ingonyama Trust, Kingsley Holgate Foundation and others have jointly agreed to work together. We have included our edge communities to become well-educated on saving the rhinos and elephants as these are our heritage species that are more valuable to Africa alive, not dead.
How do we win?
We need more feet of our proudly South African youth learning about our wildlife heritage and being in the field walking with the rhino to protect them. Our government departments have agreed to pay these youngsters a daily rate. Our growth of rhinos is approximately 5% per annum. If we lose more than 1% of the 5%, we will then need to re-strategise completely and place as many as possible into intensive security zones.
I believe South Africans will never lose. We will find a way to win the war.
For more information contact digspascoe@zulukingdom.co.za.
Just before I read your opinion, I wrote a comment to the article of Larry Bentley here in ZO, “Rhinos keep dropping”.
I copy it here below because it’s same valid.
By the way, should it not be in your first paragraph
“The rhino poaching crisis has caused millions of rands, which could have been used to create more jobs in the industry, “rather” to be spent on security, surveillance and unproductive activities.”
My previous comment (slightly corrected):
“Cut the horns of wild rhinos off and there will be no reason to kill them for muti for Chinese and Vietnamese idiots or Yemenite knife sheaths. I believe game and national parks don’t do it because they believe, it hurts its business and visitors want to see rhinos with big horns. That’s a misbeliever, visitors will get used to rhinos without horns.
In Europe, you will have a very hard time to see any cattle with horns; children may not even know that cattle have horns. And dehorning is done to protect the cows, ok, not from poachers but from “relatives”. But is there any difference to get killed from greedy peoples or your neighbour? Certainly not for the poor rhino.
Donations to any “Save the rhino” organization who wants to protect rhinos with horns, its wasted money. And look out for influential peoples who speak out against dehorning, they may have a vested interest.”
Sorry to say, in my opinion, you don’t point out a real solution to rhino poaching that means to dry up completely the horn trade, you simply ask for more money for more or less effective actions.
Where there is no horn, there is no trade. Where there is horn, as little as possible, there is a price, there is a trade and there are peoples to kill and pay for it. Simply as that, same as with drugs.
South Africans don’t want to hear and read about problems but want effective solutions to problems.
In addition to my previous comment, I want to clarify, that dehorning alone is not the absolute cure to rhino poaching and horn trade and not my brainwave.
In fact, there are many studies found on the www.
A very good article is in “Siyabona”, the Kruger National Parc’s ”Definitive Kruger Park Guide”. It’s called “Rhino Horn Dehorning Did You Know” which gives a quite good overview. But I get the impression, that there is a lot of space for more evaluation.
It’s like HIV, there is not one medicine for cure or stopping but a combination of various medicines.