Any new update?Richprins wrote: ↑Fri Dec 24, 2021 11:05 am SANParks concerned about number of rhinos being killed in Kruger National Park
This follows the release of a report last week by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and Environment confirming that seven rhino had been killed in the park recently.
Dominic Majola | a day ago
JOHANNESBURG - SANParks has raised concerns about the number of rhino being killed in the Kruger National Park.
This follows the release of a report last week by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and Environment confirming that seven rhinos had been killed in the park recently.
Twenty-four rhino carcasses were found in the country between 1 and 14 December.
The Kruger National Park is calling on South Africans and communities to intervene and assist in reporting people who are known to be part of the poaching.
Spokesperson Ike Phaahla said that the national park had seen a 37% reduction in animals poached compared to last year.
"We are concerned about the number because one rhino killed is one rhino too many, especially after the negative impact that the long-term poaching has had on the population in the park," Phaahla said.
Meanwhile, Phaahla said that 69 alleged poachers had been arrested within the Kruger National Park to date.
https://ewn.co.za/2021/12/22/sanparks-c ... m=break.ma
Rhino Poaching 2017-2025
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Re: Rhino Poaching 2017-2022
More rhinos are being killed for their horns — and it’s not just the poachers who are to blame
(Photo: Geran de Klerk / Unsplash
By Georgie Pearce | 20 Apr 2022
Poverty around protected parks is not the main reason rhino poaching thrives, argues researcher Ian Glenn.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Conservation critics often overlook a key driver of endemic rhino poaching in South Africa: the complicity of those meant to uphold the law.
So says Ian Glenn, author of a soon-to-be-released research paper titled, Framing the Kruger National Park. And he reckons endemic poaching will continue unabated until this is “ruthlessly addressed”.
Glenn remembers childhood visits to Kruger with more than a little nostalgic fondness, even if the game was sometimes hard to spot from the cramped back seat of the family sedan.
A lifetime later, the writer and scholar’s affections for what he calls “the most significant national park in Africa” remain undimmed. His views on its critics and those who take potshots at the country’s approach to conservation and wildlife crime are, however, another matter.
“Most of the critiques from foreign academics, in particular, are repetitive, riddled with errors, sociologically naïve, methodologically suspect and ideologically driven,” he says in the opening salvo of a paper, Framing the Kruger National Park, which he expects to see published soon.
In a Zoom interview, Glenn talked about why he feels the academics have got it wrong and even failed in some cases to acknowledge as much publicly when presented with evidence. He also spoke about some of the difficulties facing Kruger as it deals with a poaching crisis and, on a happier subject, discussed his new book, a homage to the subcontinent’s pioneering wildlife filmmakers.
Antidote
The book, now at an advanced stage in the publishing process, has been a mammoth undertaking. Glenn has spent hundreds of hours interviewing filmmakers and watched more than 200 wildlife films — from monochrome glimpses of the natural world in the 1930s to overt warnings of a looming environmental crisis in the 1980s.
“Film and conservation are strongly allied,” says Glenn. There is, he adds, a sense of purpose behind wildlife films: to instil an awareness of the wilderness, with calls to action that offer real optimism — an antidote to all the doomsday media out there.
So how does this former head of the University of Cape Town’s English department, later founder of its Film and Media department, and now Research Fellow in Communications Science at the University of the Free State, come to be writing about conservation and poaching?
Glenn, 73, angles his wiry 1.9m frame toward the camera and settles himself in a storyteller’s manner.
Rhino poaching gang arrest and crime scene, Zululand, KwaZulu Natal. (Photo: Peter Chadwick)
Magnificent classic
When he was growing up, Glenn’s family moved frequently, from his birthplace Pretoria to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and to the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast. He saw a fair bit of country along the way. At Estcourt High School he came under the spell of headmaster Reg Pearse, author of the “magnificent classic”, Barrier of Spears, about the Drakensberg mountain range. Pearse inspired a lifelong love of the wild in many of his young charges, but for Glenn, this took a somewhat different direction.
Tremendously bookish as a youngster, he pursued a career as a literary and communications scholar and so came to conservation from a humanities perspective.
Conservation, he says, has been a sidestep, not a starting point. Yes, he retains his childhood affection for Kruger and there are family ties too (his mother and sister’s ashes are scattered there). But his present focus on the park owes more to research on pioneering wildlife filmmakers like Dieter Plage and David and Carol Hughes.
“I should make my lack of credentials clear,” says Glenn, acknowledging he has no professional qualifications in ecology or any of the biological sciences. But when it comes to scholarly writing in general, he feels on familiar ground — and he expects other commentators from the academies to uphold the accepted standards of accuracy, fairness and rigour.
Distortion
That they failed to do so, he says, prompted Framing the Kruger National Park. In a nutshell, it skewers foreign critics of Kruger who, Glenn feels, betray a limited experience of circumstances in Africa in general and of the park in particular. And it accuses them of distorting or ignoring the historical record.
There is plenty of evidence, including from before recorded history, that both man and animals lived on the land that would eventually become Kruger and its adjoining private reserves (collectively known as Greater Kruger). The eviction of indigenous inhabitants began more than 100 years ago, culminating in the park’s creation in 1926. With it came the ideal, for some, of a pristine “wilderness”, conceived as a place without people.
Lucky that this inquisitive white rhino was viewed through a camera lens and not the sights of a gun. (Photo: Jacques Briam)
Motives
The legacy of exclusion endures, but Glenn argues that many critics, for ideological reasons, exaggerate the number of people displaced from their land or otherwise affected. They distort too, he says, the motives for anti-poaching measures and the realities that require these.
This serves to legitimise poaching as something happening on “stolen” land, popularising the idea that the crime is the inevitable consequence of dispossession.
“Some foreign academics may see poaching as resulting from deprivation and land claims, but that view strikes me as naive and out of touch with the realities of criminal gangs and corruption,” he tells me.
“In reality, they are career criminals who moved from car theft or people trafficking. This is just their latest gig.”
It’s easy to leap to the conclusion that poverty lies at the root of poaching, he says. Some 2.9 million people live within 50km of Greater Kruger’s boundaries — according to a 2020 study by the University of Florida and SA National Parks — and other studies put the poverty rate in neighbouring Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces at 50%. That’s an awful lot of needy people, but subtle, cultural forces should not be overlooked.
Crime scene: A hunting rifle, marked by a police cone, at the scene of a shoot-out between rhino poachers and an anti-poaching unit. (Photo: Peter Chadwick)
Hot wheels and women
People seek more than an escape from poverty. They recognise inequality and yearn for dignity, opportunity and many other things beyond putting bread on the table. Young men, to put things in simple terms, will always want hot wheels and women and they’ll hunt for ways to pay for these.
None of this is clear cut, nor are solutions to the illegal wildlife trade easy. Yet “visiting experts” — blinkered academics from abroad, as Glenn sees them — come to the problem with pet theories, ignoring the realities on the ground and the published record.
In many cases, he adds, foreign NGOs are more concerned with “signalling stances to their constituencies than with dealing with the realities and responsibilities on the ground”.
Some consider themselves authorities on Kruger, but he argues in his paper there are “few signs that the critics have studied the archival evidence or insider accounts”.
Local authorities have sometimes complained to him that information they give to visiting academics is simply ignored when it does not fit their preconceived notions.
Fortress conservation
Then there’s the contentious “fortress conservation” model to consider.
It describes Kruger and other parks where fence lines and gates are used to restrict access to nature in order to protect it. The model is roundly criticised by idealists and Glenn takes their point. But he isn’t impressed by the alternatives.
“Fortress conservation is the worst, except for all the others,” he says.
And while fortress conservation and the extent to which it alienates people living outside its fences often dominate the critical discourse, Glenn is concerned that critics overlook or devalue the sacredness of the protected space.
He speaks of a “disappointing failure… to examine how and why the Kruger Park has mattered and matters to a wide range of South Africans”.
He is incensed by academics who frame Kruger as a one-time colonial happy hunting ground turned playground for the privileged, or who paint anti-poaching initiatives “as akin to the War on Terror”.
“Perhaps we need to get better at looking at it dispassionately,” says Glenn, acknowledging the difficulty of this. “Is it possible to look at it dispassionately?”
White rhinos prefer herds, making them an easy target for poachers. (Photo: Jacques Briam / Wild About The Wild)
Natural capital
Critics are also ignorant of the financial pressures Kruger faces and dismissive of the good work it does, he says, pointing out that the park strives to provide the South African public with relatively affordable access to the Big Five while supporting international tourism — “a major earner of foreign exchange for economies in the region”.
In the aftershocks of Covid-19, which robbed Kruger of vital tourism revenue, it must find ways to conserve iconic species with dwindling resources. By SANParks’ own admission, it’s caught in a cycle of crisis management to “keep the lights on”.
Does he see a possibility for conservationists and poachers to find common ground on how Kruger’s wildlife resources — its natural capital — can be used?
“The trouble with rhino poaching is that you can have all the incentives you want, but how do you dissuade those people?” Glenn says.
“I don’t know that one can find a compromise with commercial poachers easily. The obvious solution, which I have a lot of sympathy for, is that crocodiles and ostriches were saved from extinction by commercial farming. Could the same be true for rhinos?”
Demand
He answers his own question by suggesting that “only demand reduction in Asia” will ultimately stop poaching.
“Given that Taiwan, for example, has stopped using rhino horn, this is not impossible, but obviously difficult.”
Legalising the trade in rhino horn would give rise to commercial farming of rhino, which ultimately might be the only solution to endemic rhino poaching, says Ian Glenn. (Photo: Zahir Ali / Zali Photography)
Lessons from Africa
What about lessons from elsewhere in Africa? After all, other countries on the continent are grappling with many of the difficulties South Africa faces — from the illegal wildlife trade to climate change, to the impact of Covid on parks and tourism.
Other African countries have sometimes taken a “tougher and more successful stance against poaching”, but “the political will to do the same thing in South Africa is lacking and perhaps the administrative capacity”, he says.
“The serious academic work on poaching in Africa sees it as far more linked to corruption than to poverty, and it is no accident that poaching spiked (in South Africa) during the period of State Capture,” says Glenn.
Drawing on his own research, including a great deal of time spent monitoring poaching cases at the Skukuza Magistrates’ Court within the Kruger Park, Glenn has come to view government corruption and a failure of law enforcement as major contributors to the steep decline in wild rhino populations at the hands of international syndicates.
“People throughout the system are playing the system. In reality, there are very high levels of protection,” he says, adding that the “ruthless follow-through” necessary for successful prosecutions is missing.
Evolving story
The failings of the country’s criminal justice system are, of course, hardly limited to cases involving the illegal wildlife trade. Nor can you dissociate what is happening in the park from what is happening in wider society. Kruger’s history in many ways mirrors South Africa’s — an evolving story of a resilient place and its people who have long weathered turbulent times.
Responding to Glenn’s comments, the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) head of communications, Bulelwa Makeke, said corrective plans had been implemented “to enforce strict and effective follow-through needed to curtail our poaching epidemic”.
She provided a summary account of notable prosecutions, noting that countrywide, from 2016 to 2021, the NPA had successfully finalised 264 rhino-related prosecutions in which 244 persons were convicted, most of them in the Skukuza court.
“The NPA has been and will continue to prosecute rhino-related matters with the vigour it deserves without any fear or favour,” said Makeke.
“In addition, the NPA has enhanced training initiatives which have led to the development of highly skilled advocates who are dealing with these kinds of prosecutions within the Organised Crime units and in the regional courts in the country.” DM/OBP
Georgie Pearce is a freelance environmental journalist.
This article forms part of a series of stories arising from a journalism workshop hosted in Skukuza, in the Kruger National Park. Organised by WESSA and Roving Reporters, the workshop aimed to stimulate debate on the complexities of the illegal wildlife trade in and around Greater Kruger. Views expressed in this series are not necessarily those of the project implementors or its sponsors.
(Photo: Geran de Klerk / Unsplash
By Georgie Pearce | 20 Apr 2022
Poverty around protected parks is not the main reason rhino poaching thrives, argues researcher Ian Glenn.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Conservation critics often overlook a key driver of endemic rhino poaching in South Africa: the complicity of those meant to uphold the law.
So says Ian Glenn, author of a soon-to-be-released research paper titled, Framing the Kruger National Park. And he reckons endemic poaching will continue unabated until this is “ruthlessly addressed”.
Glenn remembers childhood visits to Kruger with more than a little nostalgic fondness, even if the game was sometimes hard to spot from the cramped back seat of the family sedan.
A lifetime later, the writer and scholar’s affections for what he calls “the most significant national park in Africa” remain undimmed. His views on its critics and those who take potshots at the country’s approach to conservation and wildlife crime are, however, another matter.
“Most of the critiques from foreign academics, in particular, are repetitive, riddled with errors, sociologically naïve, methodologically suspect and ideologically driven,” he says in the opening salvo of a paper, Framing the Kruger National Park, which he expects to see published soon.
In a Zoom interview, Glenn talked about why he feels the academics have got it wrong and even failed in some cases to acknowledge as much publicly when presented with evidence. He also spoke about some of the difficulties facing Kruger as it deals with a poaching crisis and, on a happier subject, discussed his new book, a homage to the subcontinent’s pioneering wildlife filmmakers.
Antidote
The book, now at an advanced stage in the publishing process, has been a mammoth undertaking. Glenn has spent hundreds of hours interviewing filmmakers and watched more than 200 wildlife films — from monochrome glimpses of the natural world in the 1930s to overt warnings of a looming environmental crisis in the 1980s.
“Film and conservation are strongly allied,” says Glenn. There is, he adds, a sense of purpose behind wildlife films: to instil an awareness of the wilderness, with calls to action that offer real optimism — an antidote to all the doomsday media out there.
So how does this former head of the University of Cape Town’s English department, later founder of its Film and Media department, and now Research Fellow in Communications Science at the University of the Free State, come to be writing about conservation and poaching?
Glenn, 73, angles his wiry 1.9m frame toward the camera and settles himself in a storyteller’s manner.
Rhino poaching gang arrest and crime scene, Zululand, KwaZulu Natal. (Photo: Peter Chadwick)
Magnificent classic
When he was growing up, Glenn’s family moved frequently, from his birthplace Pretoria to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and to the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast. He saw a fair bit of country along the way. At Estcourt High School he came under the spell of headmaster Reg Pearse, author of the “magnificent classic”, Barrier of Spears, about the Drakensberg mountain range. Pearse inspired a lifelong love of the wild in many of his young charges, but for Glenn, this took a somewhat different direction.
Tremendously bookish as a youngster, he pursued a career as a literary and communications scholar and so came to conservation from a humanities perspective.
Conservation, he says, has been a sidestep, not a starting point. Yes, he retains his childhood affection for Kruger and there are family ties too (his mother and sister’s ashes are scattered there). But his present focus on the park owes more to research on pioneering wildlife filmmakers like Dieter Plage and David and Carol Hughes.
“I should make my lack of credentials clear,” says Glenn, acknowledging he has no professional qualifications in ecology or any of the biological sciences. But when it comes to scholarly writing in general, he feels on familiar ground — and he expects other commentators from the academies to uphold the accepted standards of accuracy, fairness and rigour.
Distortion
That they failed to do so, he says, prompted Framing the Kruger National Park. In a nutshell, it skewers foreign critics of Kruger who, Glenn feels, betray a limited experience of circumstances in Africa in general and of the park in particular. And it accuses them of distorting or ignoring the historical record.
There is plenty of evidence, including from before recorded history, that both man and animals lived on the land that would eventually become Kruger and its adjoining private reserves (collectively known as Greater Kruger). The eviction of indigenous inhabitants began more than 100 years ago, culminating in the park’s creation in 1926. With it came the ideal, for some, of a pristine “wilderness”, conceived as a place without people.
Lucky that this inquisitive white rhino was viewed through a camera lens and not the sights of a gun. (Photo: Jacques Briam)
Motives
The legacy of exclusion endures, but Glenn argues that many critics, for ideological reasons, exaggerate the number of people displaced from their land or otherwise affected. They distort too, he says, the motives for anti-poaching measures and the realities that require these.
This serves to legitimise poaching as something happening on “stolen” land, popularising the idea that the crime is the inevitable consequence of dispossession.
“Some foreign academics may see poaching as resulting from deprivation and land claims, but that view strikes me as naive and out of touch with the realities of criminal gangs and corruption,” he tells me.
“In reality, they are career criminals who moved from car theft or people trafficking. This is just their latest gig.”
It’s easy to leap to the conclusion that poverty lies at the root of poaching, he says. Some 2.9 million people live within 50km of Greater Kruger’s boundaries — according to a 2020 study by the University of Florida and SA National Parks — and other studies put the poverty rate in neighbouring Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces at 50%. That’s an awful lot of needy people, but subtle, cultural forces should not be overlooked.
Crime scene: A hunting rifle, marked by a police cone, at the scene of a shoot-out between rhino poachers and an anti-poaching unit. (Photo: Peter Chadwick)
Hot wheels and women
People seek more than an escape from poverty. They recognise inequality and yearn for dignity, opportunity and many other things beyond putting bread on the table. Young men, to put things in simple terms, will always want hot wheels and women and they’ll hunt for ways to pay for these.
None of this is clear cut, nor are solutions to the illegal wildlife trade easy. Yet “visiting experts” — blinkered academics from abroad, as Glenn sees them — come to the problem with pet theories, ignoring the realities on the ground and the published record.
In many cases, he adds, foreign NGOs are more concerned with “signalling stances to their constituencies than with dealing with the realities and responsibilities on the ground”.
Some consider themselves authorities on Kruger, but he argues in his paper there are “few signs that the critics have studied the archival evidence or insider accounts”.
Local authorities have sometimes complained to him that information they give to visiting academics is simply ignored when it does not fit their preconceived notions.
Fortress conservation
Then there’s the contentious “fortress conservation” model to consider.
It describes Kruger and other parks where fence lines and gates are used to restrict access to nature in order to protect it. The model is roundly criticised by idealists and Glenn takes their point. But he isn’t impressed by the alternatives.
“Fortress conservation is the worst, except for all the others,” he says.
And while fortress conservation and the extent to which it alienates people living outside its fences often dominate the critical discourse, Glenn is concerned that critics overlook or devalue the sacredness of the protected space.
He speaks of a “disappointing failure… to examine how and why the Kruger Park has mattered and matters to a wide range of South Africans”.
He is incensed by academics who frame Kruger as a one-time colonial happy hunting ground turned playground for the privileged, or who paint anti-poaching initiatives “as akin to the War on Terror”.
“Perhaps we need to get better at looking at it dispassionately,” says Glenn, acknowledging the difficulty of this. “Is it possible to look at it dispassionately?”
White rhinos prefer herds, making them an easy target for poachers. (Photo: Jacques Briam / Wild About The Wild)
Natural capital
Critics are also ignorant of the financial pressures Kruger faces and dismissive of the good work it does, he says, pointing out that the park strives to provide the South African public with relatively affordable access to the Big Five while supporting international tourism — “a major earner of foreign exchange for economies in the region”.
In the aftershocks of Covid-19, which robbed Kruger of vital tourism revenue, it must find ways to conserve iconic species with dwindling resources. By SANParks’ own admission, it’s caught in a cycle of crisis management to “keep the lights on”.
Does he see a possibility for conservationists and poachers to find common ground on how Kruger’s wildlife resources — its natural capital — can be used?
“The trouble with rhino poaching is that you can have all the incentives you want, but how do you dissuade those people?” Glenn says.
“I don’t know that one can find a compromise with commercial poachers easily. The obvious solution, which I have a lot of sympathy for, is that crocodiles and ostriches were saved from extinction by commercial farming. Could the same be true for rhinos?”
Demand
He answers his own question by suggesting that “only demand reduction in Asia” will ultimately stop poaching.
“Given that Taiwan, for example, has stopped using rhino horn, this is not impossible, but obviously difficult.”
Legalising the trade in rhino horn would give rise to commercial farming of rhino, which ultimately might be the only solution to endemic rhino poaching, says Ian Glenn. (Photo: Zahir Ali / Zali Photography)
Lessons from Africa
What about lessons from elsewhere in Africa? After all, other countries on the continent are grappling with many of the difficulties South Africa faces — from the illegal wildlife trade to climate change, to the impact of Covid on parks and tourism.
Other African countries have sometimes taken a “tougher and more successful stance against poaching”, but “the political will to do the same thing in South Africa is lacking and perhaps the administrative capacity”, he says.
“The serious academic work on poaching in Africa sees it as far more linked to corruption than to poverty, and it is no accident that poaching spiked (in South Africa) during the period of State Capture,” says Glenn.
Drawing on his own research, including a great deal of time spent monitoring poaching cases at the Skukuza Magistrates’ Court within the Kruger Park, Glenn has come to view government corruption and a failure of law enforcement as major contributors to the steep decline in wild rhino populations at the hands of international syndicates.
“People throughout the system are playing the system. In reality, there are very high levels of protection,” he says, adding that the “ruthless follow-through” necessary for successful prosecutions is missing.
Evolving story
The failings of the country’s criminal justice system are, of course, hardly limited to cases involving the illegal wildlife trade. Nor can you dissociate what is happening in the park from what is happening in wider society. Kruger’s history in many ways mirrors South Africa’s — an evolving story of a resilient place and its people who have long weathered turbulent times.
Responding to Glenn’s comments, the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) head of communications, Bulelwa Makeke, said corrective plans had been implemented “to enforce strict and effective follow-through needed to curtail our poaching epidemic”.
She provided a summary account of notable prosecutions, noting that countrywide, from 2016 to 2021, the NPA had successfully finalised 264 rhino-related prosecutions in which 244 persons were convicted, most of them in the Skukuza court.
“The NPA has been and will continue to prosecute rhino-related matters with the vigour it deserves without any fear or favour,” said Makeke.
“In addition, the NPA has enhanced training initiatives which have led to the development of highly skilled advocates who are dealing with these kinds of prosecutions within the Organised Crime units and in the regional courts in the country.” DM/OBP
Georgie Pearce is a freelance environmental journalist.
This article forms part of a series of stories arising from a journalism workshop hosted in Skukuza, in the Kruger National Park. Organised by WESSA and Roving Reporters, the workshop aimed to stimulate debate on the complexities of the illegal wildlife trade in and around Greater Kruger. Views expressed in this series are not necessarily those of the project implementors or its sponsors.
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
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Richprins
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Re: Rhino Poaching 2017-2022
Drawing on his own research, including a great deal of time spent monitoring poaching cases at the Skukuza Magistrates’ Court within the Kruger Park, Glenn has come to view government corruption and a failure of law enforcement as major contributors to the steep decline in wild rhino populations at the hands of international syndicates.
“People throughout the system are playing the system. In reality, there are very high levels of protection,” he says, adding that the “ruthless follow-through” necessary for successful prosecutions is missing.
Amen!
Very good article!
“People throughout the system are playing the system. In reality, there are very high levels of protection,” he says, adding that the “ruthless follow-through” necessary for successful prosecutions is missing.
Amen!
Very good article!
Please check Needs Attention pre-booking: https://africawild-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=322&t=596
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Re: Rhino Poaching 2017-2022
I am not too sure that the ship called South Africa will ever straighten up again and be able to stay on course 
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
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Richprins
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Re: Rhino Poaching 2017-2022
New life at Inverdoorn after horrific poaching attack
Picture: Inverdoorn
Published May 2, 2022
Cape Town – The pregnant rhino at Inverdoorn Private Game Reserve that survived a horrific poaching attack in which four other rhinos were killed in December, has given birth to a healthy calf.
Aquila Collection owner Searl Derman announced the birth on Monday.
“I am elated to announce that, not only have arrests been made within days of the incident back in December, but the surviving rhino gave birth to a healthy baby rhino boy on April 30.”
On December 8, 2021 the Inverdoorn anti-poaching team found four dead rhinos whose horns had been hacked off. An injured female rhino was missing and had to be tracked.
“Under the guidance and supervision of specialist veterinarian Douw Grobler, the injured female was constantly monitored, and finally stabilised enough to perform a series of reconstructive procedures to reassemble parts of her face that had been badly injured by a close-range high-calibre rifle shot,” explained Derman.
On Saturday April 30, one of the Inverdoorn rangers, out on a morning game drive, spotted a newborn white rhinoceros struggling in an aardvark hole.
The anti-poaching team and management were immediately notified and the Aquila 24-Hour Rapid Rhino Response Team – a privately funded and managed unit that was established to locate, rescue and rehabilitate orphaned rhinos from private game reserves in South Africa – was activated.
“The on-site team pulled the baby rhino free from the hole without any injury,” said Derman.
Tears of joy from the management and reserve teams followed as they reunited him with his mother who was then identified as the surviving rhino from the poaching incident.
“The judicial system is currently in control of the process to bring justice to the lost rhino lives, and we once again thank all the role-players and stakeholders that supported my teams and myself back in December 2021. The miraculous birth of this little boy is a joyous moment and celebrated throughout wildlife circles and the global rhino conservation community. Just a few short months ago, we were under immense pressure to save the mother’s life, now we see the miracle of an added life,” said Derman.
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The calf and mother will be monitored by the Rapid Rhino Response Team to ensure the baby and mother bond.
The rangers that captured the first images of the new baby at Inverdoorn said: “It is a momentous occasion and honour to have taken these images of new life after the tragedy on our private game reserve, and the occasion inspires us to continue our commitment to fight for the survival of rhinos and all other endangered wildlife.”
Cape Times
https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/ne ... Crcku_TgTQ
Picture: Inverdoorn
Published May 2, 2022
Cape Town – The pregnant rhino at Inverdoorn Private Game Reserve that survived a horrific poaching attack in which four other rhinos were killed in December, has given birth to a healthy calf.
Aquila Collection owner Searl Derman announced the birth on Monday.
“I am elated to announce that, not only have arrests been made within days of the incident back in December, but the surviving rhino gave birth to a healthy baby rhino boy on April 30.”
On December 8, 2021 the Inverdoorn anti-poaching team found four dead rhinos whose horns had been hacked off. An injured female rhino was missing and had to be tracked.
“Under the guidance and supervision of specialist veterinarian Douw Grobler, the injured female was constantly monitored, and finally stabilised enough to perform a series of reconstructive procedures to reassemble parts of her face that had been badly injured by a close-range high-calibre rifle shot,” explained Derman.
On Saturday April 30, one of the Inverdoorn rangers, out on a morning game drive, spotted a newborn white rhinoceros struggling in an aardvark hole.
The anti-poaching team and management were immediately notified and the Aquila 24-Hour Rapid Rhino Response Team – a privately funded and managed unit that was established to locate, rescue and rehabilitate orphaned rhinos from private game reserves in South Africa – was activated.
“The on-site team pulled the baby rhino free from the hole without any injury,” said Derman.
Tears of joy from the management and reserve teams followed as they reunited him with his mother who was then identified as the surviving rhino from the poaching incident.
“The judicial system is currently in control of the process to bring justice to the lost rhino lives, and we once again thank all the role-players and stakeholders that supported my teams and myself back in December 2021. The miraculous birth of this little boy is a joyous moment and celebrated throughout wildlife circles and the global rhino conservation community. Just a few short months ago, we were under immense pressure to save the mother’s life, now we see the miracle of an added life,” said Derman.
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The calf and mother will be monitored by the Rapid Rhino Response Team to ensure the baby and mother bond.
The rangers that captured the first images of the new baby at Inverdoorn said: “It is a momentous occasion and honour to have taken these images of new life after the tragedy on our private game reserve, and the occasion inspires us to continue our commitment to fight for the survival of rhinos and all other endangered wildlife.”
Cape Times
https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/ne ... Crcku_TgTQ
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Lisbeth
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Re: Rhino Poaching 2017-2022
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
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RogerFraser
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Re: Rhino Poaching 2017-2022
https://www.dffe.gov.za/mediarelease/cr ... inopoached
259 rhino poached in South Africa in first six months of 2022
01 August 2022
A total of 259 rhino have been poached for their horn in South Africa in the first six months of 2022.
“Recent trends in rhino poaching show a move away from the Kruger Park to private reserves and KwaZulu-Natal where the majority of rhinos have been killed this year. This makes it all the more important for national government to shift its focus to supporting provincial authorities and private reserves in the war on rhino poaching” said the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Ms Barbara Creecy.
The number of rhino poached between January and June 2022 is 10 more than the 249 poached countrywide in the first six months of 2021. From January to end of June 2022, 82 rhino were poached for their horns in the Kruger National Park.
2022 Poaching statistics show a loss of 210 rhino on state properties and 49 in privately-owned parks. As indicated, hardest hit during this period is KwaZulu-Natal which recorded a loss of 133 rhino. This is more than triple the 33 rhino killed in the first six months of 2021.
The demand for rhino horn remains a constant threat to our rhino populations as crime syndicates continue to operate within our borders. The number of successful arrests and prosecutions recorded over the past 6 months, can be attributed to the continued successful collaboration between the law enforcement agencies, including the SAPS, DPCI and the Green Scorpions, Customs officials and the National Prosecuting Authority. These efforts are supported by private security.
Partnerships between the public and private sector remain key to combating wildlife trafficking. In addition to work being undertaken within the seven Integrated Wildlife Zones, the partnership now includes both the financial and transport sectors, as well as transit and end user countries in Southeast Asia, especially with the People’s Republic of China, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Between January and June, 69 people were arrested in connection with rhino poaching and rhino horn trafficking. Of these, 13 alleged poachers were arrested in the Kruger National Park.
As a result of the ongoing work of integrated enforcement teams at OR Tambo International Airport, 4 alleged rhino horn traffickers were arrested between January and June this year for trying to smuggle 56 pieces of rhino horn out of the country. In one instance, cooperation between the Hawks, Malaysia and Qatar authorities led to the arrest of another alleged rhino horn trafficker and his haul of rhino horn pieces at Doha Airport in Qatar. This arrest demonstrates the success of country-to-country cooperation to combat wildlife trafficking at an international level.
The Hawks are also working with the US Fish and Wildlife service in an investigation arising from the discovery in June of a suspect parcel at FedEx that was destined for the USA. The parcel contained 8 kilograms of rhino horns pieces concealed as wooden art pieces.
A number of search and seizure operations took place countrywide, with the Hawks arresting one suspect and confiscating 29 rhino horn during an operation at storage and packing facilities in Bedfordview where rhino horns are prepared and packed for the illegal markets in Southeast Asia.
In combined law enforcement operations two suspects were arrested in June when they were stopped by the Highway Patrol in Bedfordview and found to be in possession of two fresh rhino horn. Two suspects, one an ex Ezemvelo-KZN Parks ranger, were arrested earlier this month after their vehicle was searched and two fresh rhino horn were seized. One of the accused had previously been arrested for possession of rhino horn in the Kruger National Park.
On 23 April 2022 an integrated operation was conducted to address money laundering and corruption linked to rhino horn trafficking activities within the Kruger National Park. Various search and seizure warrants were authorised and executed at multiple premises in and around the Park with the aim of effectively dismantling the operations of some of the main targets. A multi-dimensional team led by the Hawks, with the support of the Kruger National Park and Stock Theft and Endangered Species in Skukuza was assembled and premises in Limpopo and Mpumalanga were searched during the operation.
Three suspects were arrested during the operation, which included two Kruger National Park field rangers. The arrests and the success of this operation had a significant impact on the rhino poaching activities within the Kruger Park, and has sent out a strong message that corrupt and illegal activities will not be tolerated. One of the rangers was dismissed during the departmental hearing on 21 July 2022. The other ranger’s departmental hearing is ongoing pending the outcome of the court process.
In total 51 cases in which 51 people were convicted have been finalised. The heaviest sentence handed down was 34 years imprisonment, while two Mpumalanga men were sentenced to 28 year behind bars for killing rhino and being in possession of illegal firearms and ammunition.
In the Skukuza court, two Mozambican nationals were convicted for poaching a rhino in the Kruger National Park, possession of unlawful firearms and ammunition and being in the country illegally. They were sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. In another matter, two Mozambican citizens were convicted of poaching two rhino Kruger National Park, possession of unlawful firearms and ammunition and sentenced to 19 years imprisonment. In addition, three South Africans were sentenced on charges of rhino poaching in the Kruger National Park and firearm related charges, and sentenced to an effective 24 years in jail.
The global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), had completed an assessment in 2019 of the threats posed to South Africa, and the effort being made to fight these crimes. During this process the contribution of wildlife trafficking to the generation of proceeds of crime was found to pose a medium to high risk to the country.
Responding to the recommendations of FATF, earlier this year, the National Prosecuting Authority obtained its first conviction on stand-alone charges in terms of Section 6 of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (money laundering). In this matter, the individual was accused of laundering the money earned from, amongst others the buying of rhino horn, through a casino. Ping Wu was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. The success of this prosecution demonstrates the importance of the government’s integrated approach to combat rhino horn trafficking, with increased focus on targeting the financial crimes involved. We are expecting numerous similar successes in the near future.
To mark World Ranger Day, Minister Creecy last week paid special tribute to field and game rangers working in conservation areas countrywide for their continued commitment to protecting South Africa’s iconic species from poaching.
“Following the murder earlier this week of well-known anti-poaching field Ranger, Anton Mzimba, at his home in the Timbavati, we are reminded of the threats that rangers face from poachers and their crime bosses on a daily basis. These are men and women that deserve our respect and support as we join hands to improve their safety,” said the Minister.
In May, Kruger National Park field ranger and dog handler, Shando Mathebula, was killed by a buffalo while on patrol in the Shangoni Ranger Section. He has been remembered by his family and colleagues as a young man who was dedicated and who served with discipline and distinction.
In recent years, the work of rangers has changed from a general focus on the conservation of species to a more militant way of operating against well-armed criminal gangs entering national parks and private and state-owned conservation areas to poaching rhino, elephant and other species. Rangers often spend weeks away from home, living in the bush in an effort to protect the country’s natural environment from plunder.
“Our rangers need all the support we can provide them. These are men and women who, despite numerous challenges, remain committed to the task at hand despite not knowing what a day will bring,” said the Minister.
** Members of the public can report any suspicious activities around wildlife to its environmental crime hotline which is 0800 205 005 or the SAPS number 10111.
Links to the Minister’s audio-visual recordings:
Audio: https://bit.ly/3Js8Fqj
For media inquiries contact:
Albi Modise
Cell: 083 490 2871
259 rhino poached in South Africa in first six months of 2022
01 August 2022
A total of 259 rhino have been poached for their horn in South Africa in the first six months of 2022.
“Recent trends in rhino poaching show a move away from the Kruger Park to private reserves and KwaZulu-Natal where the majority of rhinos have been killed this year. This makes it all the more important for national government to shift its focus to supporting provincial authorities and private reserves in the war on rhino poaching” said the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Ms Barbara Creecy.
The number of rhino poached between January and June 2022 is 10 more than the 249 poached countrywide in the first six months of 2021. From January to end of June 2022, 82 rhino were poached for their horns in the Kruger National Park.
2022 Poaching statistics show a loss of 210 rhino on state properties and 49 in privately-owned parks. As indicated, hardest hit during this period is KwaZulu-Natal which recorded a loss of 133 rhino. This is more than triple the 33 rhino killed in the first six months of 2021.
The demand for rhino horn remains a constant threat to our rhino populations as crime syndicates continue to operate within our borders. The number of successful arrests and prosecutions recorded over the past 6 months, can be attributed to the continued successful collaboration between the law enforcement agencies, including the SAPS, DPCI and the Green Scorpions, Customs officials and the National Prosecuting Authority. These efforts are supported by private security.
Partnerships between the public and private sector remain key to combating wildlife trafficking. In addition to work being undertaken within the seven Integrated Wildlife Zones, the partnership now includes both the financial and transport sectors, as well as transit and end user countries in Southeast Asia, especially with the People’s Republic of China, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Between January and June, 69 people were arrested in connection with rhino poaching and rhino horn trafficking. Of these, 13 alleged poachers were arrested in the Kruger National Park.
As a result of the ongoing work of integrated enforcement teams at OR Tambo International Airport, 4 alleged rhino horn traffickers were arrested between January and June this year for trying to smuggle 56 pieces of rhino horn out of the country. In one instance, cooperation between the Hawks, Malaysia and Qatar authorities led to the arrest of another alleged rhino horn trafficker and his haul of rhino horn pieces at Doha Airport in Qatar. This arrest demonstrates the success of country-to-country cooperation to combat wildlife trafficking at an international level.
The Hawks are also working with the US Fish and Wildlife service in an investigation arising from the discovery in June of a suspect parcel at FedEx that was destined for the USA. The parcel contained 8 kilograms of rhino horns pieces concealed as wooden art pieces.
A number of search and seizure operations took place countrywide, with the Hawks arresting one suspect and confiscating 29 rhino horn during an operation at storage and packing facilities in Bedfordview where rhino horns are prepared and packed for the illegal markets in Southeast Asia.
In combined law enforcement operations two suspects were arrested in June when they were stopped by the Highway Patrol in Bedfordview and found to be in possession of two fresh rhino horn. Two suspects, one an ex Ezemvelo-KZN Parks ranger, were arrested earlier this month after their vehicle was searched and two fresh rhino horn were seized. One of the accused had previously been arrested for possession of rhino horn in the Kruger National Park.
On 23 April 2022 an integrated operation was conducted to address money laundering and corruption linked to rhino horn trafficking activities within the Kruger National Park. Various search and seizure warrants were authorised and executed at multiple premises in and around the Park with the aim of effectively dismantling the operations of some of the main targets. A multi-dimensional team led by the Hawks, with the support of the Kruger National Park and Stock Theft and Endangered Species in Skukuza was assembled and premises in Limpopo and Mpumalanga were searched during the operation.
Three suspects were arrested during the operation, which included two Kruger National Park field rangers. The arrests and the success of this operation had a significant impact on the rhino poaching activities within the Kruger Park, and has sent out a strong message that corrupt and illegal activities will not be tolerated. One of the rangers was dismissed during the departmental hearing on 21 July 2022. The other ranger’s departmental hearing is ongoing pending the outcome of the court process.
In total 51 cases in which 51 people were convicted have been finalised. The heaviest sentence handed down was 34 years imprisonment, while two Mpumalanga men were sentenced to 28 year behind bars for killing rhino and being in possession of illegal firearms and ammunition.
In the Skukuza court, two Mozambican nationals were convicted for poaching a rhino in the Kruger National Park, possession of unlawful firearms and ammunition and being in the country illegally. They were sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. In another matter, two Mozambican citizens were convicted of poaching two rhino Kruger National Park, possession of unlawful firearms and ammunition and sentenced to 19 years imprisonment. In addition, three South Africans were sentenced on charges of rhino poaching in the Kruger National Park and firearm related charges, and sentenced to an effective 24 years in jail.
The global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), had completed an assessment in 2019 of the threats posed to South Africa, and the effort being made to fight these crimes. During this process the contribution of wildlife trafficking to the generation of proceeds of crime was found to pose a medium to high risk to the country.
Responding to the recommendations of FATF, earlier this year, the National Prosecuting Authority obtained its first conviction on stand-alone charges in terms of Section 6 of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (money laundering). In this matter, the individual was accused of laundering the money earned from, amongst others the buying of rhino horn, through a casino. Ping Wu was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. The success of this prosecution demonstrates the importance of the government’s integrated approach to combat rhino horn trafficking, with increased focus on targeting the financial crimes involved. We are expecting numerous similar successes in the near future.
To mark World Ranger Day, Minister Creecy last week paid special tribute to field and game rangers working in conservation areas countrywide for their continued commitment to protecting South Africa’s iconic species from poaching.
“Following the murder earlier this week of well-known anti-poaching field Ranger, Anton Mzimba, at his home in the Timbavati, we are reminded of the threats that rangers face from poachers and their crime bosses on a daily basis. These are men and women that deserve our respect and support as we join hands to improve their safety,” said the Minister.
In May, Kruger National Park field ranger and dog handler, Shando Mathebula, was killed by a buffalo while on patrol in the Shangoni Ranger Section. He has been remembered by his family and colleagues as a young man who was dedicated and who served with discipline and distinction.
In recent years, the work of rangers has changed from a general focus on the conservation of species to a more militant way of operating against well-armed criminal gangs entering national parks and private and state-owned conservation areas to poaching rhino, elephant and other species. Rangers often spend weeks away from home, living in the bush in an effort to protect the country’s natural environment from plunder.
“Our rangers need all the support we can provide them. These are men and women who, despite numerous challenges, remain committed to the task at hand despite not knowing what a day will bring,” said the Minister.
** Members of the public can report any suspicious activities around wildlife to its environmental crime hotline which is 0800 205 005 or the SAPS number 10111.
Links to the Minister’s audio-visual recordings:
Audio: https://bit.ly/3Js8Fqj
For media inquiries contact:
Albi Modise
Cell: 083 490 2871
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Richprins
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Re: Rhino Poaching 2017-2022
They will not stop until there is nothing left!
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Lisbeth
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Re: Rhino Poaching 2017-2022
And then they will start on something else
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge