N West officials accused of issuing illegal permits to rhino poachers
N West officials accused of issuing illegal permits to rhino poachers
Wednesday 14 November 2012 05:52
SABC
The Democratic Alliance has accused North West officials of issuing illegal permits to rhino poachers. The DA leader in the province, Chris Hattingh, told the legislature that of the 179 permits issued, 141 were illegal, including one issued to poaching kingpin Chumlong Lemthongthai.
He was sentenced to 40 years in jail earlier this week. The number of rhinos killed for their horns in South Africa this year now stands at 549.
Over 220 were killed in the North West Province.
The DA’s Chris Hattingh says, “There is a major problem on farms where after farmers apply for permits there is suddenly a massive amount of poaching on that farm. We suspect officials are involved.”
Rhino owners are currently busy relocating their animals to places of safety, under heavy security.
The MEC for Economic Development, Environment and Tourism, Motlalepula Rosho says the department will ask the police to follow up the allegations of government involvement in rhino poaching.
“If there is anybody with information that there are officials involved, we would really appreciate if they can bring that information to law enforcements.”
Rhino Hunting
"Hunting rhino for survival" ???
Hunting rhino for survival
22 Mar 2013
“THE media always paints us in a negative light.”
It felt like a bullet with my name on it.
The hunter had my attention.
I was at the premiere of The White Rhino: A Conservation Success Story, a film that was instrumental in squashing a radical proposal by Kenya at the recent Cites (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) meeting in Bangkok, which would have banned the legal export of white rhino trophies from South Africa and Swaziland until at least 2018.
“It was a result of this film and the strong representation by a powerful South African delegation that it was withdrawn just before it got to the vote,” said Coenraad Vermaak, a trophy-hunting safari businessperson.
“If that proposal had been accepted it would have become legally binding and would have had a devastating impact on the conservation of the species in South Africa.”
The ban hoped to curb white-rhino poaching, which has skyrocketed since 2008, when mostly Vietnamese nationals started finding ways of getting rhino horn to feed their country’s obsession with its alleged health qualities. “How is it that Kenya, with a population of 361 southern white rhino (a 2010 estimate), all of which were reintroduced from South Africa and 70% of which occur on private land, can purport to have a solution for another country that has over 18 000 white rhino?” the documentary queries.
The insinuation was that animal-rights groups had influenced the country’s proposal, which would have been counter-productive to South Africa’s unique wildlife management policies, which are based on the sustainable use of wildlife.
According to Kenyan wildlife ecologist Mike Norton-Griffiths, 35 years ago, both countries had wildlife populations of about 1 000 000. Kenya then banned the use of wildlife for anything except tourism. Its numbers have declined by 80%. Conversely, South Africa adopted a more flexible policy based on the sustainable use of wildlife as an economic resource. Its wildlife estate now stands at over three million, 2,5 million of which are conserved on privately owned land covering over 20 million hectares.
South Africa’s wildlife-management system evolved due to conservation icons such as Dr Ian Player, who joined the Natal Parks Board in 1952. He spearheaded Operation Rhino in 1960, which brought the southern white rhino back from the brink of extinction. In 1953, he counted 437 white rhinos in Mfolozi, which was then the only place they could be found. “I started to lobby at that time to get permission to capture rhino and move them elsewhere. The move was a success and within a decade, every game reserve in South Africa had acquired founder populations of rhino. In 1972, there were 1 800 rhinos in Mfolozi, which were about 400 head over safe biological carrying capacity. That was when we punted putting them on the hunting list.”
“With the population in Mfolozi game reserve increasing in spite of live removal and translocation, the board was persuaded in 1970 to move the rhino from the specially protected species list to protected species, where they could be hunted under controlled conditions by permit on commercial ranches,” said former Natal Parks Board senior officer David Cook.
“That was the beginning of a whole new era of conservation in this country,” said Player. “Cattle ranches very quickly saw that this was an economic thing. This led to a tremendous increase of rhino, as well as land under conservation.”
“Those pioneers in the hunting industry set the scene,” said Cook. “They acted as the catalyst for what was to become a multi-billion rand industry. [Rhino prices increased] from R200 a head to R250 000 each, as more farmers and agriculturalists on marginal land made the move and invested in fences and restocked ranches that were formally stocked with goats and cattle.”
Vermaak was one of those pioneers. “I was one of the first game farmers in Natal to introduce white rhino on private land, in the seventies, when they cost R250,” he said.
“My neighbours told me I was mad, but I would never have bought rhino if they were not a financial investment from which I expected a return.
“They had a value and that was the incentive for me then, as it still is today for hundreds of white-rhino owners on game farms who own over 5 000 of them. That’s one third of the total national population.”
“Trophy hunting has been a very powerful driving force behind rhino conservation in South Africa since the late sixties, and especially since that change in legislature and market price in the late eighties,” said wildlife economist Michael ’t Sas-Rolfes.
In 1994, South Africa’s rhino situation was so healthy that Cites allowed the white rhino to be downlisted to Appendix 2, to officially allow for the export of live rhinos and the export of trophies derived from professional hunting safaris. When the government moved to stem the flow of rhino horn onto the black market by declaring a national moratorium on internal sales of horn in 2009 — and in the face of a sharp increase in poaching — psuedo trophy hunters from East and Southeast Asia turned to exploiting a loophole (closed in 2011) in the regulatory system to legally export an estimated 720 rhino horns to Asian markets, most of which is believed to have entered the traditional medicine market.
“In 2009, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica amended the Biodiversity Act to issue national norms and standards. This co-ordinated the applications for white rhino through the establishment of a national register. In 2011, it was further amended to make applicants give proof that they were bona fide hunters. It became compulsory for environmental-management inspectors to be present at each rhino hunt and that DNA samples are taken from the killed rhino. These amendments had a significant impact on the number of applicants. In 2011, there were 222 applications and 91 in 2012.”
The thirst for rhino horn was evident as poaching levels skyrocketed after these loopholes were tightened, resulting in the allocation of vast resources and a new focus to combat the scourge. “The main poachers are well-armed from Mozambique and have military training, skills and hardware,” says Chris Galliers of the Game Rangers Association of Africa.
“The government has improved its selection process and training of rangers. They have made it a priority as a threat to national security. Recently, 20 NPA prosecutors were assigned 186 cases involving rhino poaching. Courts are imposing harsh sentences to deter poaches. There was also the signing of the MoA between SA and Vietnam.”
It is a different picture for private game farmers, according to Private Rhino Owners Association chairperson Pelham Jones.
“We are perceived as the soft target by poaching syndicates,” he said. “We do not have the privilege of the army or police to help us, so we have an armed protection unit going out armed with a pepper spray, facing gangs who are heavily armed, sophisticated, well-informed and brutal in their conduct.
“We are reliant on the economics of the rhino industry to be able to justify and sustain the ownership of rhino,” he said.
“A rhino should be valued at over half a million rand; sadly rhino have fallen to half that figure. Investor confidence in Product Rhino has fallen. While their value has dropped, expenses have increased because before 2008 we did not need as much security.” As a result, private properties have dropped from 400 to about 350, which means a loss of range of some 300 000 hectares for the rhino. “If rhino trophies were banned, a whole house of cards would fall,” said ’T Sas-Rolfes.
Wildlife contributes about R9 billion to the national GDP per annum, according to Wildlife Ranching SA President Dr Gert Dry. “That makes us, as an agricultural commodity, the fifth biggest.”
According to the film, rhinos accounted for 75% of total turnover for Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife between 2008 and 2011. Ezemvelo CEO Dr Bandile Mkhize said that local communities can now survive because of the income generated from hunting.
“The Makasa community generated R1 million, which is money they could never have generated if they didn’t have this natural resource,” he said.
“These rhinos were saved by us from extinction,” said Mkhize. “It is important for us to continue that legacy and to emphasise that there is nothing wrong with the sustainable use of natural resources.”
“Anything that imperils [the hunting industry] really is going against conservation,” said Player.
Jones, who represented the Private Rhino Owners Association at Cites, said Kenya recognised the strength of the South African position on counter argument and withdrew on the day. “[Water and Environmental Affairs] Minister [Edna] Molewa then announced cabinet’s approval for the department to investigate and explore all possibilities to legalise trade to shut down the black market of illegal trade in rhino horn.”
While advocates of sustainable use of wildlife won the battle against Kenya and the animal rights groups at Cites, it appears their war at home has only just begun.
• The White Rhino: A Conservation Success Story was produced by Zig Mackintosh of Osprey Filming Company, which is based in Hilton. They have made numerous films free of charge, including this one, to aid conservation.
22 Mar 2013
“THE media always paints us in a negative light.”
It felt like a bullet with my name on it.
The hunter had my attention.
I was at the premiere of The White Rhino: A Conservation Success Story, a film that was instrumental in squashing a radical proposal by Kenya at the recent Cites (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) meeting in Bangkok, which would have banned the legal export of white rhino trophies from South Africa and Swaziland until at least 2018.
“It was a result of this film and the strong representation by a powerful South African delegation that it was withdrawn just before it got to the vote,” said Coenraad Vermaak, a trophy-hunting safari businessperson.
“If that proposal had been accepted it would have become legally binding and would have had a devastating impact on the conservation of the species in South Africa.”
The ban hoped to curb white-rhino poaching, which has skyrocketed since 2008, when mostly Vietnamese nationals started finding ways of getting rhino horn to feed their country’s obsession with its alleged health qualities. “How is it that Kenya, with a population of 361 southern white rhino (a 2010 estimate), all of which were reintroduced from South Africa and 70% of which occur on private land, can purport to have a solution for another country that has over 18 000 white rhino?” the documentary queries.
The insinuation was that animal-rights groups had influenced the country’s proposal, which would have been counter-productive to South Africa’s unique wildlife management policies, which are based on the sustainable use of wildlife.
According to Kenyan wildlife ecologist Mike Norton-Griffiths, 35 years ago, both countries had wildlife populations of about 1 000 000. Kenya then banned the use of wildlife for anything except tourism. Its numbers have declined by 80%. Conversely, South Africa adopted a more flexible policy based on the sustainable use of wildlife as an economic resource. Its wildlife estate now stands at over three million, 2,5 million of which are conserved on privately owned land covering over 20 million hectares.
South Africa’s wildlife-management system evolved due to conservation icons such as Dr Ian Player, who joined the Natal Parks Board in 1952. He spearheaded Operation Rhino in 1960, which brought the southern white rhino back from the brink of extinction. In 1953, he counted 437 white rhinos in Mfolozi, which was then the only place they could be found. “I started to lobby at that time to get permission to capture rhino and move them elsewhere. The move was a success and within a decade, every game reserve in South Africa had acquired founder populations of rhino. In 1972, there were 1 800 rhinos in Mfolozi, which were about 400 head over safe biological carrying capacity. That was when we punted putting them on the hunting list.”
“With the population in Mfolozi game reserve increasing in spite of live removal and translocation, the board was persuaded in 1970 to move the rhino from the specially protected species list to protected species, where they could be hunted under controlled conditions by permit on commercial ranches,” said former Natal Parks Board senior officer David Cook.
“That was the beginning of a whole new era of conservation in this country,” said Player. “Cattle ranches very quickly saw that this was an economic thing. This led to a tremendous increase of rhino, as well as land under conservation.”
“Those pioneers in the hunting industry set the scene,” said Cook. “They acted as the catalyst for what was to become a multi-billion rand industry. [Rhino prices increased] from R200 a head to R250 000 each, as more farmers and agriculturalists on marginal land made the move and invested in fences and restocked ranches that were formally stocked with goats and cattle.”
Vermaak was one of those pioneers. “I was one of the first game farmers in Natal to introduce white rhino on private land, in the seventies, when they cost R250,” he said.
“My neighbours told me I was mad, but I would never have bought rhino if they were not a financial investment from which I expected a return.
“They had a value and that was the incentive for me then, as it still is today for hundreds of white-rhino owners on game farms who own over 5 000 of them. That’s one third of the total national population.”
“Trophy hunting has been a very powerful driving force behind rhino conservation in South Africa since the late sixties, and especially since that change in legislature and market price in the late eighties,” said wildlife economist Michael ’t Sas-Rolfes.
In 1994, South Africa’s rhino situation was so healthy that Cites allowed the white rhino to be downlisted to Appendix 2, to officially allow for the export of live rhinos and the export of trophies derived from professional hunting safaris. When the government moved to stem the flow of rhino horn onto the black market by declaring a national moratorium on internal sales of horn in 2009 — and in the face of a sharp increase in poaching — psuedo trophy hunters from East and Southeast Asia turned to exploiting a loophole (closed in 2011) in the regulatory system to legally export an estimated 720 rhino horns to Asian markets, most of which is believed to have entered the traditional medicine market.
“In 2009, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica amended the Biodiversity Act to issue national norms and standards. This co-ordinated the applications for white rhino through the establishment of a national register. In 2011, it was further amended to make applicants give proof that they were bona fide hunters. It became compulsory for environmental-management inspectors to be present at each rhino hunt and that DNA samples are taken from the killed rhino. These amendments had a significant impact on the number of applicants. In 2011, there were 222 applications and 91 in 2012.”
The thirst for rhino horn was evident as poaching levels skyrocketed after these loopholes were tightened, resulting in the allocation of vast resources and a new focus to combat the scourge. “The main poachers are well-armed from Mozambique and have military training, skills and hardware,” says Chris Galliers of the Game Rangers Association of Africa.
“The government has improved its selection process and training of rangers. They have made it a priority as a threat to national security. Recently, 20 NPA prosecutors were assigned 186 cases involving rhino poaching. Courts are imposing harsh sentences to deter poaches. There was also the signing of the MoA between SA and Vietnam.”
It is a different picture for private game farmers, according to Private Rhino Owners Association chairperson Pelham Jones.
“We are perceived as the soft target by poaching syndicates,” he said. “We do not have the privilege of the army or police to help us, so we have an armed protection unit going out armed with a pepper spray, facing gangs who are heavily armed, sophisticated, well-informed and brutal in their conduct.
“We are reliant on the economics of the rhino industry to be able to justify and sustain the ownership of rhino,” he said.
“A rhino should be valued at over half a million rand; sadly rhino have fallen to half that figure. Investor confidence in Product Rhino has fallen. While their value has dropped, expenses have increased because before 2008 we did not need as much security.” As a result, private properties have dropped from 400 to about 350, which means a loss of range of some 300 000 hectares for the rhino. “If rhino trophies were banned, a whole house of cards would fall,” said ’T Sas-Rolfes.
Wildlife contributes about R9 billion to the national GDP per annum, according to Wildlife Ranching SA President Dr Gert Dry. “That makes us, as an agricultural commodity, the fifth biggest.”
According to the film, rhinos accounted for 75% of total turnover for Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife between 2008 and 2011. Ezemvelo CEO Dr Bandile Mkhize said that local communities can now survive because of the income generated from hunting.
“The Makasa community generated R1 million, which is money they could never have generated if they didn’t have this natural resource,” he said.
“These rhinos were saved by us from extinction,” said Mkhize. “It is important for us to continue that legacy and to emphasise that there is nothing wrong with the sustainable use of natural resources.”
“Anything that imperils [the hunting industry] really is going against conservation,” said Player.
Jones, who represented the Private Rhino Owners Association at Cites, said Kenya recognised the strength of the South African position on counter argument and withdrew on the day. “[Water and Environmental Affairs] Minister [Edna] Molewa then announced cabinet’s approval for the department to investigate and explore all possibilities to legalise trade to shut down the black market of illegal trade in rhino horn.”
While advocates of sustainable use of wildlife won the battle against Kenya and the animal rights groups at Cites, it appears their war at home has only just begun.
• The White Rhino: A Conservation Success Story was produced by Zig Mackintosh of Osprey Filming Company, which is based in Hilton. They have made numerous films free of charge, including this one, to aid conservation.
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Richprins
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Re: "Hunting rhino for survival" ???
Agree 100%! 
Private owners (most are honest ones) should not be punished for SA authorities' inadequacies.
Private owners (most are honest ones) should not be punished for SA authorities' inadequacies.
Please check Needs Attention pre-booking: https://africawild-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=322&t=596
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Flutterby
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Re: "Hunting rhino for survival" ???
Do you really think they are more concerned with the conservation of the species than filling their pockets? 
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Richprins
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Re: "Hunting rhino for survival" ???
Whatever. The fact remains that they keep herds going where otherwise there wouldn't be any...along with huge areas of land kept in a natural state!
Please check Needs Attention pre-booking: https://africawild-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=322&t=596
Re: "Hunting rhino for survival" ???
Does it distinguish them from statal rhino owners?Flutterby wrote:Do you really think they are more concerned with the conservation of the species than filling their pockets?
Re: Rhino Hunting
IUCN Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group. SULi News Issue 5 (July 2013)
Rhino trophy imports into the US: perspectives from the US and the impact on communities in Namibia
The US Fish & Wildlife Service (USF&WS) has recognized the beneficial value of sustainable use of Namibia’s black rhino. In April, the Service granted an import permit for a black rhino hunting trophy. SULi members John J Jackson III and Brian Jones discuss this decision and its implications from a conservation and trophy hunting, and a rural community perspective.
The conservation and trophy hunting perspective
By John J Jackson III
The black rhino is listed as “endangered” under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, (ESA). Import is prohibited without a permit and no permit has ever before been issued for a trophy of any “endangered” listed species taken in the wild in the 40 year history of the 1973 Act.
The approval was based upon a scientific determination that the hunting enhanced the survival of the species in the wild as well as separate findings that it was not detrimental and it did not jeopardize the species; three findings in total. It was found to enhance the survival by producing needed revenue for recovery and essential management and by directly benefitting local livelihoods which increased community support for the presence of rhino and disincentives for poaching.
Make no mistake about it, this is one instance where the USF&WS has determined that sustainable use, specifically tourist safari hunting, enhanced the survival of the species in the wild. Conservation revenue is expected to increase substantially from the increased demand of U.S. hunters, the largest safari market. The fixed quota and off-take will remain the same, but demand from the enlarged market is expected to increase the auction price/conservation revenue. The quota is limited to five per year by CITES Resolution CoP16 13.5 and CoP13 Doc. 19.3. That is 4 percent of the Namibia population according to the USF&WS findings. The Namibia population of the D. b. bicornis subspecies, the one permitted, has increased by well over 100% since 2001, which puts it over Namibia’s 10-year target.
In its enhancement finding, the FWS highlighted Namibia’s National Action Plan, its Rhino Coordinator and its “certification” process for selection of rhino to be taken (limited to post-reproductive males) as examples of its exemplary management practices. Moreover, because aggressive males are “population limiting,” removal of post-reproduction males may lead to a “population increase and greater survival.” Fifty percent of male rhino die from fighting wounds and thirty percent of females. Translocation of surplus, post-reproductive males frequently culminates in their death and that of productive cows, calves and productive bulls at the translocation site. The hunt price was $225,000 U.S. Dollars of which $175,000 went into Namibia’s Game Products Trust Fund that funds Namibia’s rhino program, including community programs to incentivize the local people. The rhino is expected to become the most expensive trophy in the world.
The African Rhino Specialist Group (ARSG) of SSC/IUCN has counseled Namibia from the inception and supported the FWS’s enhancement determination. The FWS cited in its determination that the program conforms with SULi’s Guiding Principles on Trophy Hunting as a Tool for Creating Conservation Incentives, IUCN SSC 2012. I was able to act as the pro bono legal representative of the permit applicant.
The enhancement finding is so unique that I do not believe it will serve as a precedent for other species. Other efforts have been disappointing. For example, I spearheaded the attempted importation of endangered listed Canadian wood bison and Suleiman markhor of Torghar without permitting success, though a District Court did overturn the denial of the wood bison permits. Instead, I was successful with the alternative strategy of downlisting the wood bison from “endangered” to “threatened” which permits trophy importation. A Final Rule on Conservation Force’s petition to downlist the Suleiman markhor of the STEP Program in the Torghar Hills of Pakistan is expected in July. Conservation Force was successful in establishing the U.S. import of flare-horned markhor a few years ago. Unlike the straight-horned markhor it is only listed as threatened. In that instance the price jumped from $45,000 to $150,000.
John J Jackson III is the President of Conservation Force, an IUCN member organization, and a member of SULi. He was originally successful with establishing the import of elephant trophies in the early 1990s.
The rural community perspective
By Brian Jones
The granting of an import permit for a black rhino hunting trophy by the US Fish &Wildlife Service is good news for rural communities in Namibia. It shows that good conservation practice will be recognized and that communities can gain from their conservation efforts. Black rhino are being conserved in state-run protected areas and on private land in Namibia, but there is also an important population on communal land, particularly within communal area conservancies. The conservancies are areas of land within which communities have been given user rights over wildlife.
Since the devastating poaching of black rhino in north western Namibia the 1980s, the illegal killing of rhino has been reduced to almost zero. There have been only a handful of poaching cases over the past 15 years and the rhino population on communal land has more than doubled. While the conservation authorities and NGOs have stepped up monitoring and anti-poaching activities, there is common agreement that without community commitment to conservation it would have been difficult to achieve this level of success.
The communal area conservancies in north-western Namibia are able to gain income from photographic tourism activities as well as from strictly controlled safari hunting. This income is used for a variety of community benefits including communal projects, household cash payments, transport to clinics in remote areas, support to the elderly and human-wildlife conflict mitigation. The income and other benefits, such as meat from community hunts and trophy hunting, help to provide incentives for rural farmers to accept large and dangerous wildlife species such as black rhino, lion and elephant on their land.
The conservancies also plough back a portion of their income into conservation. They employ game guards that help to monitor black rhino movements and distribution. They contribute staff members and vehicles to annual game counts in partnership with conservation officials and NGO personnel. The conservancies also set aside land exclusively for wildlife and tourism. One conservancy tourism establishment has a highly successful rhino tracking activity for guests and a community owned tourism concession has a high-end tourist camp that is also based on specialist rhino tracking using community members as trackers.
This conservation effort by local communities has been recognized by the Namibian government which trans-locates black rhino from state-run protected areas to conservancies as part of an official rhino custodianship programme. Even if the black rhino are not hunted on communal land the bulk of the hunting fee goes into the Game Products Trust Fund, which among other things, provides grants to conservancies to assist their conservation activities.
Namibia is well aware of the terrible poaching of rhino taking place in neighbouring South Africa and that the focus may shift one day to Namibia. However, ensuring that communities have an incentive to conserve black rhino and are committed to stopping poaching will be one of the key strategies the Namibian authorities use to try to combat rhino poaching.
Brian Jones is an Environment & Development Consultant based in Windhoek, Namibia
Rhino trophy imports into the US: perspectives from the US and the impact on communities in Namibia
The US Fish & Wildlife Service (USF&WS) has recognized the beneficial value of sustainable use of Namibia’s black rhino. In April, the Service granted an import permit for a black rhino hunting trophy. SULi members John J Jackson III and Brian Jones discuss this decision and its implications from a conservation and trophy hunting, and a rural community perspective.
The conservation and trophy hunting perspective
By John J Jackson III
The black rhino is listed as “endangered” under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, (ESA). Import is prohibited without a permit and no permit has ever before been issued for a trophy of any “endangered” listed species taken in the wild in the 40 year history of the 1973 Act.
The approval was based upon a scientific determination that the hunting enhanced the survival of the species in the wild as well as separate findings that it was not detrimental and it did not jeopardize the species; three findings in total. It was found to enhance the survival by producing needed revenue for recovery and essential management and by directly benefitting local livelihoods which increased community support for the presence of rhino and disincentives for poaching.
Make no mistake about it, this is one instance where the USF&WS has determined that sustainable use, specifically tourist safari hunting, enhanced the survival of the species in the wild. Conservation revenue is expected to increase substantially from the increased demand of U.S. hunters, the largest safari market. The fixed quota and off-take will remain the same, but demand from the enlarged market is expected to increase the auction price/conservation revenue. The quota is limited to five per year by CITES Resolution CoP16 13.5 and CoP13 Doc. 19.3. That is 4 percent of the Namibia population according to the USF&WS findings. The Namibia population of the D. b. bicornis subspecies, the one permitted, has increased by well over 100% since 2001, which puts it over Namibia’s 10-year target.
In its enhancement finding, the FWS highlighted Namibia’s National Action Plan, its Rhino Coordinator and its “certification” process for selection of rhino to be taken (limited to post-reproductive males) as examples of its exemplary management practices. Moreover, because aggressive males are “population limiting,” removal of post-reproduction males may lead to a “population increase and greater survival.” Fifty percent of male rhino die from fighting wounds and thirty percent of females. Translocation of surplus, post-reproductive males frequently culminates in their death and that of productive cows, calves and productive bulls at the translocation site. The hunt price was $225,000 U.S. Dollars of which $175,000 went into Namibia’s Game Products Trust Fund that funds Namibia’s rhino program, including community programs to incentivize the local people. The rhino is expected to become the most expensive trophy in the world.
The African Rhino Specialist Group (ARSG) of SSC/IUCN has counseled Namibia from the inception and supported the FWS’s enhancement determination. The FWS cited in its determination that the program conforms with SULi’s Guiding Principles on Trophy Hunting as a Tool for Creating Conservation Incentives, IUCN SSC 2012. I was able to act as the pro bono legal representative of the permit applicant.
The enhancement finding is so unique that I do not believe it will serve as a precedent for other species. Other efforts have been disappointing. For example, I spearheaded the attempted importation of endangered listed Canadian wood bison and Suleiman markhor of Torghar without permitting success, though a District Court did overturn the denial of the wood bison permits. Instead, I was successful with the alternative strategy of downlisting the wood bison from “endangered” to “threatened” which permits trophy importation. A Final Rule on Conservation Force’s petition to downlist the Suleiman markhor of the STEP Program in the Torghar Hills of Pakistan is expected in July. Conservation Force was successful in establishing the U.S. import of flare-horned markhor a few years ago. Unlike the straight-horned markhor it is only listed as threatened. In that instance the price jumped from $45,000 to $150,000.
John J Jackson III is the President of Conservation Force, an IUCN member organization, and a member of SULi. He was originally successful with establishing the import of elephant trophies in the early 1990s.
The rural community perspective
By Brian Jones
The granting of an import permit for a black rhino hunting trophy by the US Fish &Wildlife Service is good news for rural communities in Namibia. It shows that good conservation practice will be recognized and that communities can gain from their conservation efforts. Black rhino are being conserved in state-run protected areas and on private land in Namibia, but there is also an important population on communal land, particularly within communal area conservancies. The conservancies are areas of land within which communities have been given user rights over wildlife.
Since the devastating poaching of black rhino in north western Namibia the 1980s, the illegal killing of rhino has been reduced to almost zero. There have been only a handful of poaching cases over the past 15 years and the rhino population on communal land has more than doubled. While the conservation authorities and NGOs have stepped up monitoring and anti-poaching activities, there is common agreement that without community commitment to conservation it would have been difficult to achieve this level of success.
The communal area conservancies in north-western Namibia are able to gain income from photographic tourism activities as well as from strictly controlled safari hunting. This income is used for a variety of community benefits including communal projects, household cash payments, transport to clinics in remote areas, support to the elderly and human-wildlife conflict mitigation. The income and other benefits, such as meat from community hunts and trophy hunting, help to provide incentives for rural farmers to accept large and dangerous wildlife species such as black rhino, lion and elephant on their land.
The conservancies also plough back a portion of their income into conservation. They employ game guards that help to monitor black rhino movements and distribution. They contribute staff members and vehicles to annual game counts in partnership with conservation officials and NGO personnel. The conservancies also set aside land exclusively for wildlife and tourism. One conservancy tourism establishment has a highly successful rhino tracking activity for guests and a community owned tourism concession has a high-end tourist camp that is also based on specialist rhino tracking using community members as trackers.
This conservation effort by local communities has been recognized by the Namibian government which trans-locates black rhino from state-run protected areas to conservancies as part of an official rhino custodianship programme. Even if the black rhino are not hunted on communal land the bulk of the hunting fee goes into the Game Products Trust Fund, which among other things, provides grants to conservancies to assist their conservation activities.
Namibia is well aware of the terrible poaching of rhino taking place in neighbouring South Africa and that the focus may shift one day to Namibia. However, ensuring that communities have an incentive to conserve black rhino and are committed to stopping poaching will be one of the key strategies the Namibian authorities use to try to combat rhino poaching.
Brian Jones is an Environment & Development Consultant based in Windhoek, Namibia
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Richprins
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Re: Rhino Hunting
Fully agree!
That is the way it should be, and one should not underestimate the millions of dollars generated by responsible hunting, which is invariably passed on to the communities, mostly through employment!
That is the way it should be, and one should not underestimate the millions of dollars generated by responsible hunting, which is invariably passed on to the communities, mostly through employment!
Please check Needs Attention pre-booking: https://africawild-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=322&t=596