Rhino Poaching 2014

[H. erectus]

attach your own pricetag for that matter!!

Okie,.. ,....indeed,...action speaks louder than words, now,...?

[H. erectus]

Sitting opn my stoep, when fourty of these fat beasties,.....

I live out in the sticks, yet want to be part and parcel of heyday,..

My financial status has become status quo,,

Is my inheretance really justified, leaving me to sweep the floor???

Oi, we have a big problem here, simply to stare at multimillions,...

grazing grass.

Aei, what a sad, sad situation,............... but we can fix it!!!!

[Penga Ndlovu]

612+

[Penga Ndlovu]

KNP just released their stats.
Other provinces still need to do so


631+

[Richprins]

We are trying to fix it, H.!

All of us have done something, you included!

Here's a new one:



https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/ ... e_petition

[Flutterby]

Address by SANParks Chairperson, Mr Kuseni Dlamini to the media

Date: 23rd July 2014

Ladies and gentlemen of the media thank you kindly for honouring our invitation and also showing interest in the affairs of South African National Parks. This meeting aims to put in context important aspects of SANParks affairs and please take note that this is based on facts.

First of all, we are a public entity and accountable to the South African public. Based on that fact we have always been upfront in taking the public into our confidence on matters pertaining to South African National Parks. Over the last 19 years this organisation has performed exceptionally well achieving clean audits year after year. Good corporate governance has been the cornerstone of this organisation and continues to be at the forefront of our daily operations.

South African National Parks has on its books a number of service providers, whose relationship is governed by legal agreements. Pathfinder is but one of those service providers. Their contract was legally terminated after SANParks reviewed the service they were providing. Affordability is one of the key considerations in continuing with services of this kind, followed by value for money. All those factors were considered when terminating their relationship with SANParks, remembering that the organisations’ mandate is that of conservation, we continue to believe that issues of law enforcement should be left to relevant authorities, however we believe we also have some role to play in this.

Our studies indicate that measures that have been put in place in the fight against rhino poaching are beginning to show results. The increase in the arrests and the successful prosecutions, bare testimony to the enormous efforts by our Rangers Corp working in partnership with various law enforcement agencies. SANParks is encouraged by the heavy sentences handed out by the courts in recent times and the work done by the police to gather irrefutable evidence to enable prosecutors to argue for those heavy sentences.

Given what we have alluded to above, it cannot be true that the war against rhino poaching is being lost. In actual fact there has been a concerted effort to intensify the protection of our country’s heritage – the rhino. It is critical to note that conservation is a science and science is not static. SANParks in its operations applies a principle of adaptive management, which speaks to research informed by various methodologies and world best practices.

SANParks is proud of its cutting edge best practices when it comes to science research and all its operations are informed by long term peer review driven results, therefore speculative suggestions that the methodology used in the recent census of rhino species is inaccurate is not true. Kruger National Park has got a strong and viable rhino population. The latest official census on rhino populations will soon be released and the public will be informed of its results. It is safe to say that the previous census of 2010 which was peer reviewed, showed that there is an estimated rhino population of between 8,500 and 12,000 in the Kruger National Park not the 7 000 and 7500 which has been mentioned. The public must appreciate that we cannot hold a census every year because of the enormity of this project.

As mentioned above, SANParks is guided by proven scientific research when taking decisions on rhino and other management matters. It has been widely reported that there are plans to remove or relocate 500 rhinos from the iconic Kruger National Park. This is wrong and grossly misleading. There are no approved plans to do that.

In closing, SANParks goes to move from strength to strength. In fact today was the official opening for the 2015 bookings and we are very confident of the growing interest from local and foreign tourists to visit our parks. We had a very successful June holiday season this year and hope to do even better next year. We have an Acting CEO supported by a competent and capable executive management team and great and committed teams across all our parks doing great work for SANParks and South Africa at large.

Thank you!

[PennyinSA]

Goodness me - what a load of codswallop!!!!! The famous saying is bulls....t baffles brains and this fits the bill! As Shakespeare would have said "Much ado about nothing"!!!!!

[Richprins]

The most irritating thing is the poor language and spelling...SP should really get someone to do their releases professionally, especially one of this magnitude. It reflects very poorly, especially under the watchful eye of an international community...

But that's just me...

[Richprins]

Ladies and gentlemen of the media thank you kindly for honouring our invitation and also showing interest in the affairs of South African National Parks. This meeting aims to put in context important aspects of SANParks affairs and please take note that this is based on facts.

First of all, we are a public entity and accountable to the South African public.

At the time, SANParks said its managing executive has been put on precautionary suspension. They declined however, to give further details, saying the matter was "not for public consumption".

Based on that fact we have always been up front in taking the public into our confidence on matters pertaining to South African National Parks.

Not really...the Malelane hotel comes to mind, as well as the KTP cycle challenge and Shangoni Gate, for example...


Over the last 19 years this organisation has performed exceptionally well achieving clean audits year after year.


Who is auditing SP now, compared to the past decades? And did the organisation perform badly prior to that, as in no clean audits....?

Good corporate governance has been the cornerstone of this organisation and continues to be at the forefront of our daily operations.

South African National Parks has on its books a number of service providers, whose relationship is governed by legal agreements.


Dlamini's own company way back, Gijima, continues to be a service provider for SANParks, although he is no longer linked to that company...


Pathfinder is but one of those service providers. Their contract was legally terminated after SANParks reviewed the service they were providing. Affordability is one of the key considerations in continuing with services of this kind, followed by value for money.



Why should affordability be especially linked to "services of this kind"? Shouldn't that apply across the board? Value for money has been a major problem regularly voiced by SP tourists regarding accommodation, for example. The Skukuza Conference centre went way over budget, another example, and utilisation figures of that are also claimed not to be in the public interest.





All those factors were considered when terminating their relationship with SANParks, remembering that the organisations’ mandate is that of conservation,



It has been abundantly stated by SANParks that to only stick to conservation as its mandate is archaic etc. Many SP projects have nothing at all to do with conservation, such as building school buildings, allowing local communities to utilise resources etc. In fact raising cash has been a major element in SP's recent "Vision and Mission" statements.






we continue to believe that issues of law enforcement should be left to relevant authorities, however we believe we also have some role to play in this.

This is nonsensical!

Our studies indicate that measures that have been put in place in the fight against rhino poaching are beginning to show results. The increase in arrests and successful prosecutions, bear testimony to the enormous efforts of our Ranger Corps working in partnership with various law enforcement agencies. SANParks is encouraged by the heavy sentences handed out by the courts in recent times and the work done by the police to gather irrefutable evidence to enable prosecutors to argue for those heavy sentences.


These heavy sentences have only happened over the last weeks, where were they over the previous years? Not linked to the content of the reasons for this release, rather a placebo.



Given what we have alluded to above, it cannot be true that the war against rhino poaching is being lost.



It can absolutely be true! The intro to this speech proudly asserts that it is based on facts. The facts are that increasing numbers of rhino are being killed, and there is no particular increase in the number of poachers arrested?



In actual fact there has been a concerted effort to intensify the protection of our country’s heritage – the rhino. It is critical to note that conservation is a science and science is not static. SANParks in its operations applies a principle of adaptive management, which speaks to research informed by various methodologies and the world's best practices.



This makes no sense whatsoever...no idea...




SANParks is proud of its cutting-edge best practices when it comes to scientific research. and all its operations are informed by long term peer-review driven results, therefore speculative suggestions that the methodology used in the recent census of rhino species is inaccurate is not true.


Just to say it is not true is speculative in itself, given that the methods are effectively based on speculation!? They are not long-term either...



Kruger National Park has a strong and viable rhino population. The latest official census on rhino populations will soon be released and the public will be informed of its results. It is safe to say that the previous census of 2010, which was peer-reviewed, showed that there is an estimated rhino population of between 8,500 and 12,000 in the Kruger National Park, not the 7 000 and 7500 which have been mentioned.



A mere two years ago the population of white rhino in Kruger was touted by SANParks as being 15 000! Does it inspire confidence to now estimate a gap of maybe 3500 regarding "rhino numbers" (hopefully meaning white rhino?) in Kruger? 6000 was also mentioned years ago, by the way.



The public must appreciate that we cannot hold a census every year because of the enormity of this project.



The public needs to appreciate nothing! Far more "enormous" censuses have been done in Kruger in the past, with far less funding, doing painstaking animal counts covering the entire Park, not just portions. SANParks have received BILLIONS over the last years, both from Government and private organisations.

As mentioned above, SANParks is guided by proven scientific research when taking decisions on rhino and other management matters. It has been widely reported that there are plans to remove or relocate 500 rhinos from the iconic Kruger National Park. This is wrong and grossly misleading.

“The board is considering moving them to other parks,” Gert Dry, a board member of SANParks, which runs Kruger, said in a telephone interview today. “The numbers and final plans have not been concluded.”
“I don’t think putting up fences and having more guards alone will be able to ultimately safeguard the rhino,” Dry said.

There are no approved plans to do that.

In closing, SANParks moves from strength to strength. In fact today was the official opening of the 2015 bookings and we are very confident of the growing interest from local and foreign tourists wishing to visit our parks. We had a very successful June holiday season this year and hope to do even better next year. We have an Acting CEO supported by a competent and capable executive management team and great and committed teams in all our parks doing great work for SANParks and South Africa at large.

Thank you!

[Richprins]

I've fixed the release's grammar and spelling mistakes as best I could too!