Rhino Poaching 2017-2025

[Richprins]

[Lisbeth]

Kruger National Park’s rhinos are headed for extinction, we must declare emergency


(Photo: Supplied)

By Don Pinnock | 30 Nov 2022

Kruger National Park, the world’s greatest refuge for rhinos, is losing them to poaching faster than they’re being born. The park’s last rhino may already be alive. It’s time to declare an emergency.
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Under the heading Progress, the 2022 SANParks Annual Report has a deeply disturbing and immensely sad target claimed as a success: only 195 rhinos were killed by poachers during 2021 – an average of one every two days. The success, it seems, is that the previous year it was one rhino every 36 hours.

In its reports and pronouncements, SANParks acknowledges poaching problems, but the overall tone is “don’t panic, we’ve got it under control”. They haven’t. Kruger is bleeding rhinos and is in need of sutures – fast.

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) has disclosed that in the first six months of this year, 82 rhinos were killed in the park. If the trend continues, the year will end up with a kill rate equal to 2021.

The truth is that unless Kruger does something fast, rhinos could go extinct in the park within four years. That’s far shorter than the lifespan of most rhinos in Kruger.

Since 2009 – just 13 years – rhino numbers have dropped from 11,420 to 2,458 and this year they will continue to drop. During that time, the number of rhinos poached was double the existing population.

The cumulative numbers are shocking. There’s a good chance that Kruger rhinos are on the way to becoming functionally extinct, as these graphs clearly show.





Where do the problems lie?
What will it take to bend the curve upwards away from zero? The answer can only come from understanding the reasons for the decline.

SANParks will point to forces beyond their control – and they are considerable.

Like a snake eating its own tail, the problem begins and ends with a seemingly insatiable appetite in Asia for rhino horn, which is seen as both a status symbol and cure for various ailments (it isn’t).

This has led to a situation where highly organised international crime syndicates supply weapons and logistics to local middlemen who induce impoverished young men in communities on both sides of the park to poach rhinos.

The park is sandwiched between millions of mostly poor people – Mozambican and South African – with few prospects for employment. It’s fertile ground for poacher recruitment.

Kruger Park also has unfenced borders with a parallel park in Mozambique, but rangers following poachers cannot cross the line.

In his book, Rhino War, written with Tony Park, General Johan Jooste – who was Kruger’s head ranger from 2013 to 2016 – was told by a ranger: “They laughed at us, General. As soon as they crossed the border they stopped and started waving at us, yelling insults. They know we cannot chase after them.”

These issues alone, however, cannot be the sole reason for the precipitous decline of rhinos. There are serious internal problems as well, mostly, says Jooste, to do with ability, capacity, integrity and vision.

Buffet’s cancellation

A retired military officer, Jooste was brought in as head ranger in 2013 as rhino poaching began escalating. Donations formed the backbone of his development strategy and with them he created a highly trained paramilitary force out of the ranger corps. He also brought in high-tech surveillance equipment.

Jooste negotiated a R225-million anti-poaching grant from billionaire Howard Buffett, using it to create an efficient joint command centre to gather and coordinate intelligence against poachers.

Then, in 2016, Buffett cancelled more than half of the grant, citing the absence of a reporting structure with clearly defined roles and lack of internal capacity for project management. Millions were wasted on internal inquiries into this loss.

The collapse of Intensive Protection Zones for rhinos – set up by Jooste during his tenure and funded by Buffett – started coming apart after his departure. They did so, he says, because Kruger and ranger leadership failed “to carry them through and find a way to make them work or come up with workable alternatives”.

It was an “abdication of duty and lack of courage”.

Buffett’s bequest had been received with great fanfare, but evidently not universally within SANParks’ executive ranks.


A rhino after it is sedated on October 16, 2014 in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. Photo by Gallo Images / Foto24 / Cornel van Heerden)

Buffett’s generosity was based on his personal regard for Jooste and, according to the book, Rhino War, this rankled with those who didn’t appreciate being beholden to a rich American who had made it clear that his largesse would only be in place as long as Jooste – the white ex-apartheid general – remained at the helm.

Integrity testing

Jooste resigned under circumstances he is not willing to discuss; details of which are largely absent from his book. He alludes to “problems”. The park clearly not only lost necessary funding, but a key strategist in the rhino war. One of the problems, it seems, was integrity testing.

“Members of Exco feel you’re acting outside your mandate in pursuit of corruption after integrity testing,” he was told. Integrity testing was the euphemism for the polygraph testing of Kruger staff. From the outset, Jooste had insisted on this intervention and was the first to subject himself to the process.

Integrity testing was not popular, but Jooste felt it was necessary.

Poachers were paying some rangers to locate rhinos and a few were even involved in actual poaching. These included Rodney Landela, who Jooste had promoted to regional ranger.

Unions were also opposed to polygraph testing and it was suspended during the Covid pandemic. SANParks has undertaken to renew it, but has as yet failed to do so. It is not known whether a proposal for integrity testing was finally submitted to the SANParks board in November.

In his book, Jooste says testing without steps being taken on the results is useless. While Kruger management knows that leaks on rhino locations are coming from staff, they seem to be dragging their heels on making integrity testing happen.

Ranger shortage

Kruger also has a ranger shortage. More than 80 posts were not filled this year despite a commitment to do so obtained by DA shadow minister David Bryant.

They had not been filled for several years. SANParks explained the problem as a budget issue, despite millions being spent of anti-poaching initiatives.

It is unclear and counterintuitive that these posts are not budgeted for and filled as a fundamental step in the poaching war.

Overworked Kruger rangers – who are the heroes of this story – must have felt undervalued, viewing the millions spent by SANParks sending 39 delegates to the CITES Congress in Panama this year – and probably more to the Climate Change talks in Egypt.

Strongholds

Beyond Kruger Park, rhino conservation is another story and is in an intensive planning stage. Although the park has the largest single population of black and white rhinos, around 60% of the national species are in private hands and many others are in national and provincial parks other than Kruger.

According to SANParks’ Annual Report, strongholds beyond Kruger are being constructed, though it doesn’t say how advanced this is or quite how this programme will work. It’s clearly not in the interests of rhino safety to say where they are or will be.



There will be pushback from conservationists. They point out that placing rhinos in private hands has led to the crisis of rhino farming for their horns, which keep “leaking” on to the black market. This fuels both Asian demand and poaching. There’s a fine line between conservation and commercialisation.

In Rhino War, Jooste writes of Kruger: “A decade into the rhino campaign, my overwhelming realisation is that we cannot afford another 10 years like this, even with our successes. We must avoid another ‘runaway train’ situation at all costs.”

If the statistics are anything to go by, that train without brakes has already left the Kruger Park station. DM/OBP

[Lisbeth]

There seem to be some very narrow-minded people among the SANParks' decision-makers

[Richprins]

Very true this. But there were never 11500 rhino in Kruger, maybe 5000 in my opinion. We have a whole thread on that!

Salute to Jooste fighting a losing battle against Kruger staff and SANParks.

[Lisbeth]

To lose Jooste was just plain stupid

[Richprins]

Call for regular rhino poaching statistics
defenceWeb -
5th Jan 2023



One who has strong feelings about the lack of regular updates on rhino poaching in South Africa is Dave Bryant, Democratic Alliance (DA) shadow forestry, fisheries and environment minister.

The last official statistics came from Minister Barbara Creecy’s Department of Forestry and Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) in August 2022. They showed South Africa, as a whole, lost 259 rhino to poachers in the first six months of 2022 – 10 more than in the corresponding period the previous year.

Bryant maintains the DFFE and SANParks, the national natural heritage custodian, are not helping the ongoing battle against loss of the iconic Big Five species.

He told defenceWeb the issue of monthly reporting of rhino – and other notable species losses, including elephant – is repeatedly raised in Parliament.

“We’ve been told by SANParks representatives they are under no obligation to provide monthly statistics and do not have the capacity to undertake monthly counts. Reports are provided quarterly.”

This is in stark contrast to when Edna Molewa and Edna Mokoyane were ministers of what was then the Department of the Water and Environmental Affairs from 2010 to 2018. Monthly updates were the order of the day but this turned into quarterly and now, seemingly, once a year under Creecy who succeeded Mokonyane.

Bryant is of the opinion that, notwithstanding the “no obligation” cachet, SANParks has an ongoing tally of rhino numbers. “When asking for these in meetings they are readily provided.”

He, along with others including Stoprhinopoaching, Rhino Review and a number of conservation NGOs (non-government organisations), would “dearly like to have rhino statistics monthly” as it makes for better prevention planning and will assist in fundraising.

Bryant welcomed Creecy’s commitment to a confidential briefing on State-owned rhino horn stockpiles which he sees as “shedding light” on ongoing allegations of pilferage.

He agrees with her undertaking to implement mandatory polygraph testing for Kruger National Park rangers, expected to be operational later this year. “Add to that, 80 ranger posts in Kruger which urgently need filling if any headway is to be made in saving the park’s rhino population and there are some moves in the right direction,” he said.


https://www.defenceweb.co.za/featured/c ... DHkWO2pBig

[Lisbeth]

And when they release the numbers, we cannot be sure up to which point they are correct.

I hope that I am wrong, but I have the impression that SANParks is not run as well as in the past. It all seems rather approximate and mostly centered on making money

[Richprins]

[Lisbeth]

Rhino poaching on the rise in Namibia

Posted on January 30, 2023 by teamAG in the NEWS DESK post series.


A rhino and calf in Etosha National Park, Namibia. Rhino poaching is on the increase in Namibia.

Namibia’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) has confirmed that 87 rhinos were poached in the country in 2022 – almost double the number (45) poached in 2021. The 2022 tally included the poaching of 61 black rhinos and 26 white rhinos.
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The news comes as MEFT announced the 2022 poaching statistics for elephants and rhino in a statement released on 30 January, 2023.

The Ministry reported that Etosha National Park is being targeted for poaching, with 46 rhinos poached in the park in 2022 alone. The total tally also includes 15 rhinos poached on rhino custodianship farms and 25 on white rhino private farms.

“We note with serious concern that our flagship park, Etosha National Park, is a poaching hotspot,” MEFT said in the statement. “The Ministry and its partners in wildlife protection and law enforcement will step up efforts against wildlife crime in Etosha National Park, particularly to curb rhino poaching.”

One rhino poaching incident has been recorded in 2023 so far. That brings the total tally of rhinos poached from 2017 to date to 376.

In a positive turn, however, elephant poaching appears to be on the decrease. MEFT reports that only four elephants were poached in 2022. Elephant poaching figures have declined in Namibia over the past years, from 101 in 2015 to 50 in 2017, 27 in 2018, 13 in 2019, 12 in 2020, and 10 in 2021. The four elephants targeted in 2022 were poached in the Zambezi Region (two), Kavango West Region (one) and Kunene Region (one).

Africa Geographic Travel“It is our hope that these figures will continue to descend until we reach the zero-poaching target,” said MEFT. “For this year, no elephant has been poached.”

Elephant numbers are increasing and their range is expanding in Namibia, which is cause for celebration and concern. The key concern is related to human-elephant conflict, especially in areas where elephants have not occurred for decades. As a result, the country took the decision last year to auction 170 elephants from human-elephant conflict hotspots, with many of these elephants controversially being exported to safari parks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

MEFT noted in its recent statement that it had put improved interventions in place to fight wildlife crime, praising the work of anti-poaching units operating across the country. It called on members of the public to help curb rhino poaching by reporting suspected perpetrators to the authorities. “We must as a nation stand against the illegal plundering of our natural resources by rejecting and condemning wildlife crimes in our beautiful country,” it said.

[Richprins]