Africa Wild

There are two articles in a row, the first one is very important, as the chiefs seem to be getting the picture about the long-term consequences of poaching.

Rangers collaborating with poachers: SanParks executive

https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/sci-te ... executive/

Instead of clamping down on community members and syndicates who poach rhino in the Kruger National Park (KNP)‚ some rangers are collaborating with poachers‚ according to South African National Parks (SanParks).

“We unfortunately have crooks‚ like in any other organisation‚” said Glenn Phillips‚ SanParks’ managing executive. He added that SanParks is aware of collaboration between some staff members and poaching syndicates‚ and that “our investigators are working very closely with the police” to identify these people and bring them to book.

His remarks follow the arrest of three alleged rhino poachers – Walter Mhangani‚ 55‚ Emmanuel Mdhuli‚ 29‚ and Xongani Mathebula‚ a Mozambican whose age is unknown – found in possession of horns in KNP on Sunday.

The trio face charges of trespassing‚ possession of an unlicensed firearm‚ conspiracy to commit an offence‚ possession of a firearm with intent to commit crime‚ and possession of unlicensed ammunition‚ among others.

“We will continue with ongoing investigations [to root out suspects] in the park – because we cannot afford to have people working for us and being part of syndicates‚” Phillips said.

Although he did not allege that these three specific suspects had collaborated with Kruger staff‚ he suggested that other staff members were assisting poachers to gain entry to the park illegally.

“We also have situations where people drive in as tourists‚ but they are actually going to poach. We have to find a balance between creating a service attitude at the gate for tourists‚ [and facilitating effective security by the] police and the army‚” he said.

Phillips added that it was unfortunate that the syndicate kingpins never get arrested; the suspects usually netted are the low-level poachers who desperately need money‚ but end up putting their own lives and families at risk.

“This is an organised-crime situation‚” Phillips explained. “The people who have been arrested or killed are just foot soldiers‚ who have been sent in with a promise of easy money – but [their arrest] doesn't only impact on them; it is also very difficult for their families.”

In July last year‚ regional ranger Rodney Landela and his co-accused‚ Kenneth Motshotsho from the KNP’s veterinary science department‚ were linked to a rhino poached in the Kingfisherspruit area.

Both its horns had been removed.

It was reported that a SanParks firearm had been used in the poaching. The two were connected to the poaching after bloodied shoes were reportedly found in the vehicle Motshotsho was driving.

A very good article this:



The carcass of a dehorned rhino poached close to the Corridor Road, a tarred public road that runs through the centre of the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park. Source: Supplied


Safarious

Editor

Published Nov 20, 2017

Travelling rhino poaching gangs shift focus to KwaZulu-Natal

Business is booming in Africa’s oldest game reserve, the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, which has become the favourite new destination for South Africa’s rhino horn poaching gangs. Whereas poaching in the giant Kruger National Park to the north west dropped by almost 10% last year, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi has recorded an astonishing 100% growth in poaching in just three years. Tony Carnie of Roving Reporters filed this story from the frontline:
The carcass of a dehorned rhino poached close to the Corridor Road, a tarred public road that runs through the centre of the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park. Source: Supplied

Kruger is much bigger and much closer to the porous border with Mozambique, but there just seems to be something special about the smaller Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park that makes it worth driving an extra 400 – 500km for regular moonlight poaching expeditions.

Providing new insights into the latest modus operandi of some of the country’s increasingly sophisticated rhino poaching syndicates, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife rhino security co-ordinator Cedric Coetzee says the Mpumalanga Province-based “shoppers” typically hop into their cars late in the afternoon. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife is the provincial parks’ custodian.

“They leave (Mpumalanga) at around 3pm and can be back home in Hazyview by noon the following day,” Coetzee told the annual Ezemvelo conservation symposium that ended in Howick on the weekend of November 12.

To reduce the risk of getting rumbled by armed ranger patrols in daylight, the poachers do most of their business at night, using hit-and-run tactics. Typically, a gang will use three or four rented cars, he says, rather than risk their own vehicles and number plates being seen too often in the vicinity of Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park.

The shooter will not travel in the same car as the weapons, which are hidden in another vehicle. Having extra vehicles also makes it is easier to split up and throw law-enforcement agencies off the scent and to employ decoy tactics.
Though there are wildlife ranger patrols along the Corridor Road that runs through the centre of the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, rhinos can be shot from the comfort of a car when no one is looking. Picture: Tony Carnie
This massive rhino horn, hidden under the bonnet of a Mercedes, is thought to have been poached from the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park or Mkhuze Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal. Picture: SA Police Services

“Sometimes they will deliberately fire shots along the eastern fence to alert our patrols and then their colleagues will come in through the western fence line on the opposite side of the park. Instead of hiring local hunters, the gangs have their own well-trained and accurate shooters.

“Most of the poaching is planned and supervised from Mpumalanga, though we have also noticed that the gangs are moving around more. Instead of Mpumalanga alone, they are also moving to the Free State, Eastern Cape or Limpopo. They operate nationally.”

Though he did not go into specific details, Coetzee said organised crime was only able to exist in corrupt environments.

“We have to look at corruption at all levels . . . it exists all the way up to international level.”

While Coetzee believes there have been “some good efforts at all levels” to contain horn poaching, KwaZulu-Natal has become the new hot spot.
A graphic illustration of just how sharply rhino poaching has escalated in KwaZulu-Natal over the last few years. Most of the killings have been in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, one of Africa’s oldest game reserves. Source: Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife

As of last week (November 5, 2017), poachers had killed at least 202 rhinos in KZN this year, mostly in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi – a 100% increase compared to 2014, when 99 rhinos were killed, and vastly more than the 14 animals killed in 2008 (see graph).

While more recent national statistics have not been released, the poaching rate in the 2 million hectare Kruger National Park dropped by almost 20% last year following an onslaught that rose sharply from 2008 onwards.

Dr Peter Goodman, a private wildlife consultant and former Ezemvelo senior scientist, told the Symposium of Contemporary Conservation Practice that organised poaching remained the greatest threat to the survival of the country’s black and white rhino species.

“It is not all doom and gloom,” he said, “but we are sitting on a knife edge and we have to contain the current poaching rate.”

Based on current live auction values of around R300 000 per white rhino (not the more lucrative black market price of around $60 000 per kg of rhino horn in Vietnam), Ezemvelo had lost about R43 million worth of rhino last year and more than R55 million so far this year.

“The State is not committing appropriate levels of manpower, resources or management expertise to resolve these issues – so the funding shortfalls have to be pursued through donor funding and partnerships. We can’t keep beating at the door of Treasury. We have to become more innovative,” he told the symposium.

Magdel Boshoff, a senior official of the National Department of Environmental Affairs, said her department had no plans to introduce a new moratorium to prevent the domestic sale of rhino horns in the wake of the recent court decisions to overturn the moratorium that was in place from 2009 till earlier this year.

Instead, the department had published draft regulations earlier this year to allow for the export of a limited number of horns for “personal use” by international buyers. She expected that new regulations would be finalised within the next 12 months.

The department was also considering the enactment of much harsher penalties for rhino poaching and trafficking – by increasing maximum fines from R10 million to R20 million and maximum jail terms from 10 years to 20 years.
Suspected rhino poachers are arrested by police at a roadblock near Pongola. Two rhino horns were hidden in the engine compartment of the Mercedes they were driving. Picture: SA Police Services

Pelham Jones, chairman of the Private Rhino Owners’ Association, said private rhino ranchers now owned 37% of the total South African rhino population – more rhinos than in the rest of Africa – and had incurred costs of nearly R2 billion in rhino security and management costs since the 2009 moratorium on domestic rhino horn sales was imposed.

“The well-intended world ban on horn sales by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the domestic moratorium have not saved the life of a single rhino and have helped to create vast transnational organised crime syndicates who profiteer through illegal trade in rhino horns,” he said.

This story forms part of Roving Reporters coverage of the recent Symposium for Contemporary Conservation Practice organised by Ezemvelo in association with Wildlands, the Endangered Wildlife Trust and the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Roving Reporters coverage of the symposium was supported by the Human Elephant Foundation. Read more at http://www.rovingreporters.co.za





https://production.safarious.com/articl ... zulu-natal

ShockWildlifeTruths: 28 KZN rhinos poached in 2018 after 7 found dead in iMfolozi

2018-02-27 12:30 - Unathi Nkanjeni

As the war against rhino poaching continues, the discovery of seven dead rhinos in KwaZulu-Natal's Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve is a heavy blow for conservationists and park authorities.

Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife spokesman Musa Mntambi told Traveller24 that the seven rhinos were found on Wednesday last week.

"Five carcases were estimated to be three days or so old and while in the vicinity it was also discovered that other two rhino carcasses seemed to be more than two weeks old," says Mntambi. They were about 800 metres from each other.

Mntambi says the rhinos were killed under a very thick bush, which made it difficult for them to be seen from above.

If it were not for the vultures‚ "we might not yet have discovered the five killed last week".

“Our field rangers noticed the carrion birds converging at a particular spot and went there to check," says Mntambi.

According to Mntambi, as part of procedures‚ once a carcass is found the field rangers search the area to see if there are any other carcasses around.

'28 rhinos poached in KZN in 2018'

Mntambi says the discovery brings the number of poached rhinos in the province to 28 already in the first two months of 2018.

"Ezemvelo and in conjunction with law enforcement agencies as well as the local communities will continue to do everything in its power to fight against any type of poaching inside our game reserves," says Mntambi, adding that "we may lose some battles but we will definitely win the war."

VIDEO

DA MP Ross Purdon tabled a parliamentary motion this week calling on government departments to revisit this national rhino poaching crisis with the urgency it deserves. In the motion tabled on Monday, he says rhino poaching has reached critical levels in South Africa.

Purdon believes that increased anti-poaching efforts in the Kruger National Park (KNP) have detrimentally affected the country’s other parks.

“Poachers will always look for soft targets. Lack of funding (Ezemvelo had a budget cut of R400 million last year) has led to low staff morale and failing infrastructure in a number of provinces,” he says.

He highlighted the fact that seven butchered rhinos were discovered in a single day last week in KwaZulu-Natal’s flagship Imfolozi Game Reserve, four rhinos have been poached on different reserves in the Eastern Cape during the last two weeks and that the Pilanesberg Game Reserve is also suffering huge loses including 31 rhinos in 2017 and 10 rhinos within the first two months of the year.

Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, referred to the progress made when it came to anti-rhino poaching efforts, noting a decrease in overall rhino poaching figures for 2017 compared to 2016, however there was an increase in the number of rhino poached in KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, Free State and North West.

Last year also saw a decrease in rhino poaching arrests countrywide despite an increase in arrests within Kruger National Park.

According to Purdon this is a major concern. "It indicates that the powers that be are failing in the rest of the country. It is also disturbing to note
the increase of offences stemming from the very people that are employed to curb the poaching,” he said.

Purdon also fears for the future of other species, including elephants.

“The minister briefly mentions that 67 elephants were poached in KNP in 2017 but offers no solutions. The poaching of elephants is not getting the attention it deserves. We, the DA will put pressure on the Department and SANParks, together with the Mozambique Government to address this issue with the urgency it deserves.”

Purdon believes corruption is at the heart of the problem. “To tackle rhino poaching effectively will require enormous political will. We need high profile arrests and prosecutions,” he says.

* From the Conservation Action trust. See http://conservationaction.co.za

https://www.iol.co.za/ios/news/da-calls ... s-13639969

Minister of Environmental Affairs, Dr Edna Molewa, opens the 14th Multi-lateral meeting of the Defence and Security Chiefs on Anti-poaching

04 April 2018

Chief of the South African National Defence Force, General Shoke
Chief of the Namibian Defence Force, Lieutenant General Mutwa,
Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Sibanda, Deputy Commander of the Botswana Defence Force, Major General Morake,
Deputy Army Commander of Zambia, Major General Miti,
Chief of Defence Intelligence in Mozambique, Brigadier General Mitama,
Military Attaches,
Senior Defence and Security officials,
Senior representatives of Government departments,
Heads of National Parks and Wildlife Authorities,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good Morning,

I bring you greetings from the Honourable Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Ms Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, who is unable to be here today at a sad moment in South Africa after we have lost the mother of our Nation, the African child of the soil, Mama Winnie Madikizela Mandela, may her soul rest in peace.

I must say our extensive interaction with our own security cluster chaired by our Minister for Defence, makes me feel quite at home amongst such an esteemed gathering of Chiefs of Defence and other Defence officials.

We trust that most of you will have had the opportunity to visit our gem in nature conservation – the Kruger National Park – since your arrival for this 4th Multi-lateral Forum of the Defence and Security Chiefs on Anti-Poaching.

We are informed that one of the main purposes of this meeting is to not only deliberate on legal issues pertaining to Anti-Poaching efforts, but also to discuss a means to ensure that the punishment meted out to those convicted of poaching in our region is standardised.

The forum that is meeting here today is informed and aligned to both the SADC Protocol on Wildlife Conservation and Law Enforcement as well as the SADC Law Enforcement and Anti-Poaching LEAP Strategy. These tools are central to comprehensive anti-poaching efforts in our sub-region, promotion of the sustainable use of wildlife; enforcement of wildlife laws within, between and among State Parties; the promotion of the conservation of shared wildlife resources, and the facilitation of community based natural resources management practices for management of wildlife resources.

Our continent is home to most of the world’s surviving species of wild animals and plants. The region’s biodiversity and ecosystems play an important role in meeting the developmental objectives of our region. The SADC region, in particular, is unique and rich, with an abundance of wildlife. This makes us prone to daily threats of poaching. But while we are faced with similar challenges, we also have similar opportunities to tackle this threat.

The illegal killing and trafficking of our wildlife undermines our investments in the protection and conservation of our natural heritage. It is for this reason we, as the Southern African countries, have, after much deliberation, adopted the SADC Law Enforcement and Anti-poaching Strategy (known as the LEAP Strategy), which now needs to be implemented. This strategy will boost efforts to combat poaching and trafficking in wildlife by introducing a common approach to combat the illicit transnational trade in wildlife.

It is a well-known fact that our sub-region is home to the biggest elephant and rhino populations left on the Planet. This is in addition to all the other terrestrial and marine fauna and flora species which are conserved and sustainably used in our countries. We are mindful and respectful of the role you, our Defence and Security Chiefs, play to create and maintain stability on our continent. We thus appreciate the time taken, and effort being made, to collaborate on wildlife crime and corruption within the region. We need this collaboration and co-ordination which we believe is part of your core mandate, thus maintaining the integrity of our different countries.

The abundance of our natural assets unfortunately implies risk, and a threat to these species, our people and the environment in general, as unscrupulous groups illegally kill and traffic in species for financial gain. This is all due to the escalating demand for the parts and derivatives of the animals and plants that are used for a variety of purposes. It is therefore true that this is no longer just a threat to the environment, but also a social, economic and security threat as well as a transnational organised crime. We are not naïve to the fact that defending and protecting these species is a full-time and very expensive undertaking.

It is unfortunate that the poorest of the poor are more often than not, the ones that are being targeted and recruited by the criminal syndicates which, in turn, destabilises the social structures of our communities, at the expense of our natural heritage.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In order to address wildlife trafficking, our governments have diversified and expanded their capabilities to meet the escalating threat and as such diverted allocations from much needed resources for other socio-economic imperatives.

It has been almost a decade since rhino poaching started intensifying and increasing in the sub-region. Through our efforts to combat the scourge, we have learnt lessons and have developed best practices that we can share with each other. A forum like this one therefore serves as the ideal opportunity to do just that.

As rhino poaching escalated, South Africa had to adapt and enter into a number of collaborative agreements to ensure our wildlife is protected and properly managed.

The South African government at a Cabinet level, approved an Integrated Strategic Management Approach for the protection and management of rhino in the country. This approach is implemented through a joint collaboration within the Security Cluster comprising the Ministries of Defence and Military Veterans (Chair), Justice and Correctional Services, Police, Environmental Affairs as well as state owned entities, such as the State Security Agency, South African Revenue Service, National Prosecuting Authority, SANParks and the provincial conservation and security authorities.

The Integrated Approach comprises specific interventions aimed at:

increasing rhino numbers by expanding the range which also involves sharing animals with other range countries;
strengthening law enforcement and anti-poaching capabilities;
working with communities adjacent to national and provincial parks and broader awareness programmes;
national, regional and international collaboration with a number of strategic partners;
development and harmonisation of responsive legislative tools. South Africa has entrenched environmental rights (including the protection and sustainable use of wildlife) in its Constitution.

These have delivered a number of significantly satisfying results – most significantly, an established downward trend in the number of rhino poached in South Africa since 2016. It is an approach that is now being utilised to curb elephant poaching in the Kruger National Park.

This approach has resulted in poachers not only being arrested, but also being successfully prosecuted and receiving harsh sentences

We have also seen the importance of concluding environment and conservation MOUs with a number of countries in the region as well as those countries considered as transit and consumer countries. Furthermore, our co-operation through the Transfrontier Conservation Areas Programme not only affirms our common heritage but contributes to stability, peace and security.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We would therefore like to encourage this forum to adopt its Terms of Reference for the multi-lateral co-operation on anti-poaching which you have indicated will provide guidance and a framework on the:

Enhancement of judicial legislation process and harmonization there of
Minimization of illegal wildlife trafficking
Improvement and strengthening of field protection
Provision of resources for combatting illegal wildlife trafficking
Exchange of training and intelligence
Cross border challenges and co-operation
Joint border patrols
Joint operations to locate weapons
Domestication of SADC law enforcement and anti-poaching strategy

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We trust that we can forge an even closer alliance between our defence and security forces and our environmental protectors.

Cooperation with other complementary partners needs to be facilitated and enhanced as this could serve as the basis for general cross-border cooperation, including the sharing of technology, training, joint operations and joint operational centres, information sharing and common communication systems.

It is our fervent hope that this meeting will result in developing, not only mechanisms for the implementation of the LEAP strategy, but also ensure the translation of the Terms of Reference into tangible action, most importantly the establishment of a common legal framework and responsive legislation for member States in dealing with poaching.

We wish all participants a wonderful stay in our beautiful country. May this meeting result in decisions and outcomes that will have positive results in fighting the illegal killing and subsequent trafficking in wildlife in our region.

Thank you


https://www.sanparks.org/about/news/def ... p?id=57459

Nice speech apart from a couple of phrases that are not to my liking:

This is in addition to all the other terrestrial and marine fauna and flora species which are conserved and sustainably used in our countries.

They had better not use them at all, because the "sustainably" is questionable!

significantly satisfying results – most significantly, an established downward trend in the number of rhino poached in South Africa since 2016.

The downward trend is debatable!

Is the meeting help at Skukuza?