Africa Wild

Let’s start to poach the poachers

Bastards!!

Rhino poaching in Botswana – is pride hampering prevention?

Posted on March 12, 2021 by Guest Contributor in the OPINION EDITORIAL post series.
By Melissa Reitz
Supplied by Political Animal Lobby



Botswana’s recent upsurge in rhino poaching is reaching a crisis point. More than 100 rhinos have been poached in under two years from a population of less than 400. Yet, the government remains resolute in its denial of a growing catastrophe.

Former Botswanan president Ian Khama recently announced on social media that over 120 rhinos have been poached in the past 18 months. The post said that poachers were ‘killing rhinos with or without horns,’ and that ‘after corona (virus) there will be none left for tourists to see.’

Botswana’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) has denied the accusation – saying Khama’s announcement is irresponsible and will negatively impact tourism. In a statement, the DWNP claims that wildlife-related crimes are down by 70 per cent since the COVID 19 period from March 2020.

But on the same day as DWNP’s statement release, Bhejane Trust, a Zimbabwean rhino conservation organisation, publicised the massacre of 12 more rhinos in the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana saying, ‘Urgent action is required by the Botswana authorities, and they should bring in expert advice and assistance immediately if any rhino(s) are to survive.’

Conservationists are concerned that Botswana’s rebuttal to its growing poaching crisis is encouraging rhino horn poachers to focus on the remaining rhino in the Okavango Delta area.

‘The current government already has a poor conservation record, and it seems to be following the same policy of denial it used with the elephant poaching over the last few years,’ says Ian Michler, conservationist and specialist wilderness guide. ‘Let’s be clear; the poaching syndicates have seen the weakness and have turned their attention on this country. Without a strong and effective response, Botswana runs the risk of seeing rhino disappear from its parks and reserves for the third time.’



After numbers crashed in the early nineties Botswana engaged in a rhino relocation project in 2001 which spanned over ten years, introducing viable populations of black and white rhinos back into the Okavango Delta.

In June last year, the Botswanan government began removing rhino horns and relocating rhinos away from the Delta in an attempt to reduce the risk of poaching. The official count for poached rhinos was 56 since 2018, marking it the worst onslaught since the country’s black rhino population was wiped out in 1992 and white rhinos dropped to below 30 individuals.

According to Dereck Joubert, who leads the Botswana non-profit Rhinos Without Borders, the relocation of rhinos away from the Delta was essential amid the coronavirus pandemic as poachers were using the absence of safari tourists during lockdown to their advantage. Asian rhino horn traders had also begun to tout rhino horn as a cure for the virus.

At that stage, nearly 50 poached rhinos had been recorded since late 2019.



In August 2020, the poaching crisis was still showing no sign of let-up and the government went back on its decision to reduce the military capability of the arms carried by its wildlife rangers. With 17 poachers shot dead in six months in gunfire exchange with the army, it was decided to re-arm anti-poaching rangers with military weapons.

Is this what it seems to be? An attempt by the government to minimise what is obviously a devastating onslaught on the last few remaining rhinos in Botswana; a repeat of their stance on elephants just two years ago?

In 2019, the newly elected President Mokgweetsi Masisi denied that elephant poaching was at a crisis point when aerial surveys revealed that almost 400 elephants had been poached between 2017 and 2018.

“The question remains: why is the Botswanan government not engaging the international community for help? Other countries are using NGOs and civil society to assist them with wildlife crime,” says Adrienne West of Political Animal Lobby. “Botswana cannot expect to tackle an issue of this magnitude alone.”

What about the death sentence for Botswana poachers?

Where have you seen that?

"SHOOT TO KILL POLICY" is not exactly the same as a death sentence, but it is wrong anyway. Not only because it deprives people of their lives, without a court sentence, but also because as the article says, they only get to the lowest level of the criminal organisations. Moreover, they are talking about people FISHING It is scary Are African countries getting nazis?

Suspected poacher crushed by elephants in Kruger National Park
18 April 2021 - 15:57
Shonisani Tshikalange Reporter
The man was discovered by rangers badly trampled and had succumbed to his injuries.


A suspected poacher was trampled to death by a herd of elephants in the Kruger National Park while allegedly attempting to evade capture on Saturday.

The man succumbed to his injuries. His body was later discovered by rangers.

The SA National Parks (SANParks) reported the death on Sunday and said the suspected poacher and his accomplices were fleeing from them when they ran into a breeding elephant herd.

Kruger National Park spokesperson Isaac Phaahla said field rangers were out on a routine patrol in the Phabeni area when they detected incoming spoors which they followed.

“Three individuals were spotted by the rangers and attempted to run away, but rangers requested backup from the air wing and K9 unit. When they realised they had been spotted, the suspected poachers dropped an axe and a bag with their provisions in an attempt to escape from the rangers,” said Phaahla.


Phaahla said one of the suspects was arrested after assistance from the air wing and K9 units.

“The suspect informed the rangers that the group had run into a herd of elephants and was not sure if his accomplice had managed to escape. The rangers discovered his accomplice badly trampled, and who had unfortunately succumbed to his injuries. The third suspect is said to have been injured in the eye but continued to flee,” he said.

Phaahla said a rifle was recovered and the case was referred to police who, together with the pathology team, attended to the scene.

KNP managing executive Gareth Coleman has called on community members living close to the area to assist with information.

“The campaign against poaching is the responsibility of all of us. It threatens many livelihoods, destroys families and takes much-needed resources to fight crime which could be used for creating jobs and development,” Coleman said.

The search for the third suspect is under way.

TimesLIVE

https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/sout ... onal-park/

Revenge!

Rhino poachers stage a comeback after easing of lockdown restrictions
By Reuters - 03 May 2021 - 16:27




Thandi the miracle rhino, left barely alive after being brutally dehorned by poachers with machetes. She was saved by a veterinarian team led by my brother William — the first rhino ever to survive a machete attack where poachers hack the horn off at the roots. File picture Credit: Roger Paul Mills


Rhino poaching is on the rise again across the country since the government loosened coronavirus restrictions, following a year-long lull due to the pandemic, wildlife parks say.

The strict limits on travel, including international travel, imposed in March last year had the happy side effect of keeping poachers at bay. In 2020, 394 rhinos were poached, 30% fewer than the year before and the lowest yearly tally since 2011.

But then South Africa began easing international travel restrictions in November.

"Since November, December last year and into 2021, this landscape and particularly Kruger National Park has been experiencing serious numbers of rhino poaching incidents,” said Jo Shaw, the Africa Rhino Lead for WWF International Network.

She declined to say how many incidents had occurred.

"There is a very real and realised threat as poaching pressure has increased since lockdown perhaps to meet the demand from the international markets," she said.

Rhino poaching often involves both local poachers and international criminal syndicates that smuggle the high value commodity across borders, often to Asia where demand is high.

Their methods are cruel: rhinos are sometimes shot with a tranquiliser gun before the horn is hacked off, resulting in the animal being left to bleed to death, Save the Rhino said on its website.

Other rhinos are killed with high-powered hunting rifles before the horn is removed, said Julian Rademeyer, director of the organised crime observatory for east and southern Africa at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime.


Reserves, which have been battling tighter budgets amid a coronavirus-induced lull in tourism, have also been forced to cut back on anti-poaching patrols, compounding the threat to rhinos.

Some reserves use dehorning as a way to prevent armed poachers from taking advantage of easier cross-border travel.

Veterinarians cut the horn at the stub, rather than removing it all, which prevents the rhino from bleeding to death. Balule Nature Reserve, located in the greater Kruger system has de-horned 100 rhinos since April 2019.

The country's environmental ministry is expected to release its 2021 half-year poaching figures at the end of June.

"As restrictions over time have become less, there has been an uptick in poaching as a result," said Rademeyer.

South Africa has about 16,000 rhinos located within its borders, Frances Craigie, chief director of enforcement at the environmental ministry told Reuters.

But relentless poaching and a drought in the North-East region has hit the rhino population hard. In the Kruger National Park, the number of rhinos has plummeted almost more than two thirds in the last decade to around 3,800 in 2019 from 11,800 rhinos in 2008, a South African National Parks report showed. ($1 = R14.3015)

https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/sout ... trictions/