January 2014: More than 1,000 rhinos have been illegally killed in South Africa during 2013, the equivalent of nearly three animals a day, making it the worst year ever on record for rhino poaching in South Africa, report the country’s Department of Environmental Affairs.
Copyright: TRAFFIC
The figure is more than 1.5 times the official figure of 668 rhinos killed for their horns in 2012 and brings South Africa’s White Rhino population ever closer to the tipping point when deaths will outnumber births and the population will go into serious decline.
Rhino horns are smuggled by organised transnational criminal networks to the consumer markets in Vietnam and China, where they are used as a status symbol and health tonic. Mozambique, which neighbours South Africa, is widely seen as both a transit point for rhino horn smuggling activities and an operational base for poachers who cross the border to kill rhinos.
“South Africa and Mozambique must decisively up their game if they hope to stop this blatant robbery of southern Africa’s natural heritage,” said Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC’s rhino expert. “2014 must mark the turning point where the world, collectively says ‘enough is enough’ and brings these criminal networks down.”
In March 2013, Parties meeting at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) singled out certain countries heavily implicated in rhino trade crime to take action to address the ongoing crisis, including Vietnam and Mozambique.
By the end of this month the Vietnamese government must report to CITES on their progress in making seizures, arrests, prosecutions and convictions for rhino horn trafficking and use offences, as well as implementation of a robust tracking system for preventing imported rhino horn trophies from going into illegal trade. The country has also been instructed to develop and implement measures to reduce demand for rhino horn.
Similarly, Mozambique, a transit point for horn exiting Africa, must show the enactment and implementation of legislation with deterrent penalties to combat wildlife crime and stop the killing of rhinos and trafficking of rhino horn effectively. Right now, rhino crime in Mozambique remains only a misdemeanor.
In late December 2012, South Africa signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Vietnam on tackling wildlife trafficking between the two nations and later developed a joint Rhino Action Plan. South Africa signed a similar MoU with China in 2013 and is developing others with Mozambique, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Hong Kong.
“The world’s rhinos are facing a genuine crisis and high level agreements and statements have to translate into meaningful conservation action, both in rhino range States and in key consumer countries such as VietNam and China,” said Dr Naomi Doak, Co-ordinator of TRAFFIC’s Greater Mekong Programme in Vietnam.
“We are still waiting to see the rhetoric result in significant arrests and prosecutions of those orchestrating the rhino horn trafficking.
“We also urgently need to see a reduction in demand for horn in VietNam, the introduction of a system for tracing hunting trophies in the country, and strong sentences imposed on those convicted of rhino horn trafficking.”
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