Counter Poaching Efforts

[Lisbeth]

Black rhinos moved to new home by helicopter

Watch the video!

http://www.wwf.org.za/what_we_do/species/black_rhino/

[iNdlovu]

Constructive stuff. I don't see Dr Mabunda doing anything like this, no wonder Kruger looses so many Rhino compared to the other parks. Oh I forgot, he doesn't think there's a problem

[mposthumus]

Now this is moving makes me want to jump for joy and cry at the same time

Thanks for posting Lis

[Lisbeth]

WWF-South Africa announces a five-point plan to save South Africa’s rhinos

[Toko]

DEA Media Release

The Department of Environmental Affairs updates on the work of the Rhino Issue Manager and the way forward
04 October 2012


The Department of Environmental Affairs wishes to update South Africans on the work of the Rhino Issue Manager appointed by the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Minister Edna Molewa.

The Rhino Issue Manager was appointed in May this year with the responsibility of conducting research and convening a series of stakeholder dialogues with all interested parties to facilitate wide-ranging and expert input into policy thinking. In the course of the work of the RIM, a total of 12 stakeholder meetings have been held in Gauteng, Durban and Cape Town, with presentations being conducted in Bloemfontein and Cape Town.

Participants in the RIM dialogues included, among others, government departments, national and provincial, state agencies, safety and security agencies, parks authorities, economists, resource economists, and technology suppliers. Virtually all elements of civil society participated in the RIM dialogues including NGO’s, interested individuals, farmers, hunters, local communities, private rhino owners, conservation bodies, scientific and academic communities and social media based organisations (international and local). The media were invited to and attended each of the RIM dialogues and were provided with a dedicated media briefing in August.

Over the past five months, the RIM has conducted some 400 one-on-one consultations with the entire spectrum of stakeholders, all of which will be considered and fed into the report of the RIM which is expected to be submitted on the 31st October this year. Minister Molewa would like to express her appreciation to all those who have given of their time to make input into the RIM process to date.

The report will reflect and synthesise all expert input, research, interests, viewpoints and opinions expressed during the RIM process and will make a series of recommendations to the Minister with respect to issues ranging from rhino conservation, to security and trade.

Once received, the RIM report will be presented to DEA, before being considered by the Minister. The findings and recommendations of the RIM report will be considered entirely at the discretion of the Minister. It is worth noting, however, that the RIM was an initiative of Minister Molewa, and signifies the importance with which the Department of Environmental Affairs and the South African government view rhino conservation and the seriousness with which it is tackling the scourge of rhino poaching.

It is worth noting that the government has increased patrols by Protected Area authorities, involved the security cluster in the anti-poaching campaign, including deploying the SANDF in the Kruger National Park, the Hawks have implemented fast-track investigations of anti-rhino/endangered species crimes, the NPA has imposed stiffer sentences without the option of a fine and SARS is on constant lookout for smugglers of CITES-banned species. There has also been seizure of poachers and criminals assets by the Asset Forfeiture Unit.

The South African government is determined to win the war against rhino poaching and calls on all South Africans to do their part to assist. Any incidents of rhino poaching or tip-offs that can prevent illegal killings, or lead to arrests can be reported to 0800 205 005.

For media enquiries

Albi Modise
Cell: 083 490 2871

[Sprocky]

2012-10-15 11:28

Durban - Thirteen black rhino have been moved from the Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife reserve to a new home in the province to prevent poaching, the Mercury reported on Monday.

The rhino were moved as part of the World Wildlife Fund's Black Rhino Range Expansion project, which helps increase their numbers.

Project head Jacques Flamand said the rhino were sedated and flown by helicopter to their new home.

"We believe this is the best way to move rhinos as it does not compromise their breathing and reduces the distance and time they have to travel by truck over difficult terrain," he said.

According to the World Wildlife Fund SA, there are about 5 000 black rhino left in the wild.

This year more than 400 black and white rhino have been killed and dehorned in the country to feed a market in the East where their horns are believed to have healing properties.


- SAPA

[Toko]

Here is another article Business Day Live: Link

Project has created eight new black rhino populations
BY SUE BLAINE, 15 OKTOBER 2012, 10:41


EIGHT new black rhino populations have been created in KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo since 2003 in a bid to save the pachyderm from extinction, Jacques Flamand, head of the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa’s (WWF-SA’s) Black Rhino Range Expansion Programme, said on Monday.

Despite rhinos being under attack from poachers seeking their horns, sought after in East Asia, Africa’s black rhino population has increased from a low point of about 2,500 in 1991 to just under 5,000 in the wild across Africa, according to statistics from South African National Parks.

Dr Flamand said a further 13 black rhinos had recently been translocated from Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife’s reserves to another KwaZulu-Natal property. Since 2003 WWF-SA’s black rhino expansion project had helped to create eight new black rhino populations in an effort to increase the numbers of this critically endangered animal in South Africa.

The animal’s range had, through the project, increased by 160,000ha. They exist in South Africa’s iconic, 2-million hectare Kruger National Park, which has borne the brunt of the poachers’ onslaught. Of the 430 rhinos killed by poachers in South Africa since the start of the year, 271 have been killed in the Kruger National Park.

Dr Flamand said more than 130 black rhinos had been translocated and more than 40 calves had been born through the project.

Black rhinos’ greatest threat was poaching, he said, followed by habitat loss, although more white rhinos had been killed by poachers simply because there were more of them, about 20,000 in the wild.

Black rhinos were more solitary, elusive and aggressive than white rhinos. They also had smaller horns.

[Richprins]

Good news! Although not necessarily to prevent poaching, as it seems to be a long-term project!

Sounds expensive!

[Flutterby]

At least it's something positive!!

[Toko]

No MoU for cooperation towards decreasing or eliminating the demand

Vietnam snubs SA on key rhino poaching agreement

Vietnam snubs SA on key rhino poaching agreement
18 OCT 2012 14:04 - JULIAN RADEMEYER

Vietnam has failed to sign a law-enforcement and biodiversity agreement with South Africa aimed at curbing escalating levels of rhino poaching.

The memorandum of understanding – which has been under discussion between to the two countries since September last year – was due to be signed during an international biodiversity conference which ends on Friday in Hyderabad, India.

But South Africa's department of environmental affairs confirmed to the Mail & Guardian this week the signing had been called off, with spokesperson Roopa Singh claiming Vietnam's relevant government minister was "not available" to sign it.

Singh said discussions with Vietnam would continue in the hope the memorandum could be signed before the end of the year.

The news came as South Africa announced that poaching levels had reached a record high, with 455 rhinos killed since the beginning of the year, eclipsing last year's figure of 448.

Dr Jo Shaw – rhino coordinator for WWF South Africa – said "political support from the highest level in South Africa" was needed to ensure that the agreement was finally signed and that "these words are put into action via joint law enforcement".

'A new level'
For months, South Africa's department of environmental affairs pinned its hopes – some say, naively – on the memorandum with Vietnam.

In September this year, the department announced the memorandum would be signed in Hyderabad during a conference of signatories to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, which the department claimed would take South Africa's efforts to crack down on the illegal trade in horn "to a new level".

But Vietnam – considered the primary consumer country for rhino horn – appears reluctant to cooperate on any level with South Africa.

In April this year environment minister Edna Molewa said her department asked Vietnam's ministry of agriculture and rural development to "conduct inspections and verify that white rhinoceros trophies exported from South Africa to Vietnam are still in the possession of the hunters".

This week, Singh said Vietnam's authorities had yet to provide South Africa with any evidence that trophies exported to Vietnam were still in the possession of the original hunters. "The Vietnamese authorities [have] indicated that they would only be able to conduct inspections late in 2012," she said.

South Africa and Swaziland are the only countries in the world where rhinos can be legally hunted for sport. "Personal" hunting trophies can also be legally exported, but only the hunter in whose name the hunting and export permits were issued can legally possess the trophy.

'Sports hunters'
The first Vietnamese "sports hunters" arrived in South Africa in 2003. By 2007, Vietnamese hunters dominated a large proportion of the country's rhino hunting market. The flow of horns only stopped in early 2012 after South Africa began refusing to issue permits to Vietnamese hunters pending the outcome of Vietnam's promised inspections.

Traffic, the international wildlife monitoring network, estimated at least 400 rhinos were shot in "pseudo-hunts" conducted by Vietnamese middlemen and women. Most of the hunters appear to have been recruited by syndicates to exploit loopholes in South Africa's hunting legislation in order to obtain rhino horn for the black markets of South-east Asia.

Rhino horn is widely used in Vietnam – particularly by the wealthy – as a panacea for a range of ills including cancer and fevers. There is also growing evidence of its popularity among the nouveau riche as a hangover cure and as a status symbol.

"Nowadays, bribes for officials are disguised in the forms of not only gifts, luxury vacations and cars, but also rhino horns, bear bile, or tiger bone paste," Le Nhu Tien, vice-chairperson of a Vietnamese National Assembly committee recently told the Thanh Nien News website.

The trade in black market horns from pseudo-hunts was thrown into sharp relief earlier this month when it emerged that thieves targeted the mansion of the vice-chairperson of one of Vietnam's largest banks and stole the horns from a stuffed white rhinoceros that he kept inside.

Tram Be – who serves on the board of Sacombank – told Tuoi Tre News he received the rhino as a housewarming gift four years ago and had all the necessary paperwork and permit to prove he was its legitimate owner.

But the documentation, seen by the M&G, proves exactly the opposite.

Personal use
It shows the animal was shot by a hunter from Ho Chi Minh City named Ngo Thanh Nhan. According to Singh, the trophy therefore "legally belongs to Mr Ngo Thanh Nhan, the person in whose name the Cites export permit was issued".

Cites, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, to which both South Africa and Vietnam are signatories, regulates trade in endangered and threatened species.

"In terms of Cites ... the trophy should be regarded as an item for personal use [of the hunter] only," Singh said. "Any activity involving the trophy that is not directed [or] intended for personal use, can be regarded as commercial; and a commercial activity involving the trophy in the country of import is not allowed in terms of the convention. This must however, be enforced through national legislation in the importing country."

Vietnamese authorities continue to look for the thieves but have made no attempt to arrest the banker.

Be continues to deny any wrongdoing and recently showed reporters a gift card purportedly signed by Ngo Thanh Nhan. It is dated March 1 2007, five months after the 885kg stuffed rhino was shipped from South Africa to Vietnam. "Happy new home!" it reads. "I would like to present you a white rhino. I hope that this gift brings good luck to your family."

Julian Rademeyer is the author of Killing for Profit – Exposing the illegal rhino horn trade. It will be published by Zebra Press in November.