Cross-Border Poaching KNP - Mozambique

[Richprins]

[Flutterby]

Tx RP...makes things a bit clearer.

[Toko]

Stronger action needed to protect our rhinos

Marti Wenger, Shadow Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs
25 September 2013

Rhino poaching continues to escalate unabated and the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, does not appear to be taking any concrete action to stem the tide.

Until 2007 rhino deaths averaged 12 per annum and jumped to 83 in 2008, 668 in 2012 and 635 have already been killed in 2013.

This weekend, Minister Molewa said: “I can assure you that we will not allow rhinos to become extinct on our watch”. She needs to back this talk up with action.

Other than an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mozambique, which has not been signed, Minister Molewa is not doing enough to protect our rhinos.

The DA will request that the Minister and the CEO of South African National Parks (SANParks), Dr David Mabunda, be summoned to Parliament to present a detailed action plan for the protection of our rhinos from poachers.

I will also be submitting a range of questions to ascertain what other steps the Department and SANParks will be taking to protect our rhinos.

Stronger leadership is required from South Africa’s government in the fight against rhino poaching.

We need to save the rhino for future generations. The DA will continue to fight for its protection.

[Toko]

Conservation experts defend Molewa’s record on rhino safety

BY SUE BLAINE, 30 SEPTEMBER 2013

THE Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) allegation that Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa is not doing enough to save the rhino from extinction is unfair, said two rhino conservation experts on Friday.

South Africa is home to more than 80% of the global rhino population, and scientists have warned that if poaching increases at the same rate as it did in recent years, the species will be extinct in the wild by mid-century. Between 2009 and 2011 the loss to poaching jumped from 122 to 448, just more than a threefold increase. The rhino could go into decline by 2016.

"Rhino poaching continues to escalate unabated and the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, does not appear to be taking any concrete action to stem the tide. Until 2007 rhino deaths averaged 12 per annum and jumped to 83 in 2008, 668 in 2012 and 635 have already been killed in 2013," said DA water and environmental affairs spokeswoman Marti Wenger.

"Other than a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Mozambique, which has not been signed, Minister Molewa is not doing enough to protect our rhinos," Ms Wenger charged.

International Union for Conservation of Nature’s African Rhino Specialist Group chairman Mike Knight said the DA’s claims were "politicking" and South Africa had done "an immense amount" to combat rhino poaching. It was, however, worrying that the Presidency was so often silent on rhino poaching, he said.

"The DA does not have to worry about international politics (when it makes statements), and I don’t know the political reason why (the signing of the MoU with Mozambique ) is not taking place ," he said.

President Jacob Zuma was at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly last week in New York, yet according to UN officials he did not attend a UN high-level segment on wildlife trafficking last Thursday. Mr Zuma’s spokesman, Mac Maharaj, said the president left New York last Wednesday. He could not confirm the attendance of anyone from South Africa’s delegation.

Despite numerous appeals from citizens, tourists and game park rangers, Mr Zuma has said very little about rhino poaching.

Conservationist George Hughes said there was "so much going on at the moment" and combating poaching "isn’t easy". He would "like to hear more" on the plans by the Department of Environmental Affairs to apply to the International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species to trade in rhino horn. He believed this would reduce the price — reportedly up to $65,000/kg on the Asian black market.

Department of Environmental Affairs spokesman Albi Modise said the government had acknowledged poaching was "the biggest threat" to South Africa’s rhino, and had established a national joint security committee in 2011 to combat rhino poaching. That year the government declared the practice a security threat to South Africa.

"The government has adopted a multidimensional response to the scourge of rhino poaching, and other wildlife crimes. This includes working with the departments of police, justice and constitutional development and defence, as well as the National Prosecuting Authority, customs and excise, and other stakeholders within the private sector.

"It also includes steps such as the review of the Cabinet-approved National Strategy on the Safety and Security of Rhino in South Africa, adopted in 2010; the implementation of interventions at policy and law-enforcement levels, (and) the launch by … Ms Molewa of a national dialogue on rhino conservation, safety and security and economics," he said.

Memorandums of understanding had been signed with Vietnam and China, and were being negotiated with Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Mozambique, he said.

Wildlife trade tracking organisation Traffic’s Tom Milliken said linking the Kruger National Park with Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park had created "a war zone for rhinos", with daily incursions from Mozambique into South Africa.

"Kruger reportedly has more boots on the ground than ever before, so the increasing losses seem all the more staggering. They clearly need to get smarter and more proactive," he said.

Dr Knight said there was a lag effect in countercrime action, and engagement between the police and Mozambican authorities to boost the ability of South African antipoaching officials to pursue poachers into Mozambique, was "moving quite rapidly".

[Richprins]

Madoda Mabunda et al have been called before parliament quite regularly, and roasted, and the Department has indeed thrown a substantial amount of money at the problem, mostly to SANParks.

I don't think it's "politicking"...the MoU has seemingly not been signed as promised!

[Duke]

Moz keeps giving us the middle finger when it comnes to the MoU - just my opinion.

[Flutterby]

Renamo Poaching Rhino For War Chest

By Jacques Olivier
29 Oct 2013

In recent conversations with rhino conservation stakeholders Pot-Shot has learnt that there are increasing indications that the Mozambican opposition movement Renamo is actively involved in rhino poaching as a means of funding their organization. The recent incidents of violence in the Gorongosa region has raised fears that Renamo may be considering a wider scale resumption of hostilities since it declared an end to the 1992 Peace Agreement a week ago following a government attack on a Renamo base in central Mozambique. Renamo was one of the two belligerent parties in the devastating Mozambican civil war that raged from 1975 until 1992 and left approximately a million people dead.

One of Pot-Shot’s sources said that in a recent discussion with a senior police officer in Skukuza it was revealed that the SAPS has obtained substantiation within the past several weeks linking Renamo to poaching activity in the Kruger National Park. Recent reports say that poaching is mainly conducted by Mozambicans who are supposedly highly trained, well armed, and well-versed in military tactics. As a movement with decades of experience in guerrilla warfare Renamo is able to supply not only ground teams with shooters but also the logistical support to move horns removed from rhino carcasses back into Mozambique where it possesses the infrastructure to effectively smuggle the contraband out of the country.

The Vietnamese telecom Movitel is also currently the third active cellular network service provider in Mozambique. The Movitel mobile network footprint has been established by developing a fibre-optics network instead of relying solely on transmitter towers, which means that hundreds of Vietnamese technicians have established grass-roots infrastructure in numerous villages across a large part of Mozambique. With Vietnam being the world’s biggest consumer of rhino horn, it is feared that certain individuals working for Movitel are involved in the illicit trade as intermediaries between Renamo and dealers in Southeast Asia.

Another worrying trend seen over the past number of weeks in Mozambique has been the kidnapping of children for ransom of certain high-ranking and prominent people in Maputo. Current conjecture is that this may also be part of a Renamo campaign to generate cash.

“What is worrying about the possibility of Renamo engaging in rhino poaching as a means of filling its war chest now that hostilities have a possibility of increasing is that this could lead to a substantial escalation in rhino poaching on South Africa’s border with Mozambique”, Pot-Shot’s source said.

[Sprocky]

And so the plot thickens!

[Richprins]

Movitel have been going for a year or two, but definitely a cause for concern! Agreed, and poachers use cellphones big-time! SP and Moz are aware!

Most kidnappings occur down South, supposedly safe from Renamo...but some North too!

[Toko]

In May, there was talk that the border fence would be re-erected (equipped with a special detection system).

Now the invitation to bid for tenders is up

Bid No: KNP-015-13 - Invitation for suitably qualified and experienced suppliers to submit a proposal for the upgrade of the Eastern border fencing within the Kruger National Park

Link