Africa Wild

Two get jail for illegal harvest of 134 Tonga cycads

February 5 2013 at 09:00am
By NOMFUNDO XOLO

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Cycads that had survived three mass extinctions in the Earth’s history were now being wiped out through illegal harvesting.

This was the evidence of an Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife botanist that helped secure a three-year jail term for two cycad poachers on Monday. They were arrested in August in a police sting in northern KwaZulu-Natal.

Manguzi magistrate Brian Milner rejected the defence that S’phamandla Ngubane, 25, and Sibonelo Gcwabaza, 26 – both from the KwaNganase district – had been enticed by a police informer to harvest 134 Tonga cycads worth more than R100 000.

Cycads are protected worldwide by the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) and illegal possession can result in a 10-year jail sentence.

Defence lawyer Xolani Msimango argued that the two were young, vulnerable men who had been lured into a trap by a man called Bheki, to dig up plants for R500 each.

But Milner rejected this, citing contradictions in the versions given by Ngubane and Gcwabaza of how they had come to take cycads from the Tembe Elephant Park.

“It’s incredibly difficult for court to evaluate a case where an informer has been used. The court has to find something else to ensure that (the) informer is not falsely implicating the accused. That something can be found in the very poor quality of the evidence of Ngubane and Gcwabaza,” said Milner.

Regarding the seriousness of the offence, Milner referred to the evidence of Ezemvelo botanist, Paul Gordijn, who said that cycads were the most threatened plant species in the world – more endangered than the black and white rhino.

“They are the oldest living seed plant in the world.”

Of 38 South African species, two became extinct between 2003 and 2011, and seven species were “now down to less than 100 left in the wild”, he said.

Gordijn said cycads had become so vulnerable, that a local wild population could become extinct overnight.

State prosecutor, Waldo Smit, said the conviction sent out a strong message to illegal cycad harvesters.

Milner sentenced the two to three years in jail. – Roving Reporters

Plant poachers threaten Isimangaliso

Feb 24 2014 2:56PM

Sihle Mavuso

While battling rhino poaching, the globally recognized Isimangaliso Wetland Park is facing a new threat – from fauna thieves.

The park’s CEO, Andrew Zaloumis, said the thieves were uprooting special plants which are just as vulnerable to poaching as the rhino.

The park boasts of a wealth of biodiversity that reinforces the wisdom of protecting one of South Africa’s richest natural environments for posterity.

The impressive list of floral species continues to grow as researchers uncover news species, but a new threat is endangering them.

Zaloumis said Isimangalo offers the valauable species a high level of protection but it was a difficult task.

“Numerous cycad species are highly threatened in their natural habitat due to over collection, and this flourishing illegal trade is raping our country’s last protected areas of its biodiversity – a direct threat to Isimangaliso, South Africa’s first world heritage site.”

“All cycad species are protected by law and the trade in them is subject to conservation permits.

“International trade in cycads is strictly controlled through the Cites (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) legislation,” Zaloumis said.

In 2012 a stiff sentence was handed to a Sodwana businessman who was found guilty of harvesting specially protected cycads from the Ozabeni (Sodwana Bay) section of the park.

Convicted of the illegal removal of 95 plants, the businessman was fined R90000 or four years’ imprisonment, of which R60000 and two years was suspended for five years, on condition the fine was paid.

At the time, Zaloumis declared the conviction a victory for conservation. He said they would not tolerate theft or desecration of the park’s environment, fauna or flora.

“Our varied and distinctive vegetation includes towering, vegetated dunes, grasslands, savannah, floodplains, coastal forest and the Lebombo mountains; we have a multitude of botanical treasures that all need our protection.”

sihlem@thenewage.co.za

It never ends!

Cycad thieves strike again

link

August 7 2014 at 09:07am
By John Yeld

Cape Town - Ten more cycads, most of them members of a critically endangered plant species and with a combined conservative value of at least half-a-million rand, were stolen from Kirstenbosch Gardens this week.

The theft, probably during Monday night’s heavy downpours, came less than a fortnight after 13 of the world-famous garden’s cycads had been dug out of its cycad amphitheatre towards the top of the garden, also at night.

These earlier losses, all Encephalartos latifrons or the Albany cycad, and the flagship species of the collection, had a commercial conservative commercial value of at least R200 000.

This week’s heist saw another eight of this species and two Encephalartos caffer, the Grahamstown cycad or Rhini cycad, being removed.

Ironically, cycad curator Phakamani Xaba, a conservation research horticulturist with the SA National Biodiversity Institute, was travelling to Pretoria for a cycad conservation meeting when news of the latest theft broke on Tuesday morning.

“So I’ve not been to the site myself yet,” he said yesterday afternoon, speaking at OR Tambo Airport on his way back to Cape Town.

The thieves had known exactly what they were doing and had obviously visited the cycad garden previously to check it out, he added.

“They were very meticulous, in a sense, in that they targeted the female plants that are worth more on the market.”

These plants were also bigger than the 13 taken on the first occasion and were therefore also more valuable commercially.

Asked for a possible price on them, Xaba replied: “Sjoe! It’s R400 000 to R500 000, easily.”

Because of the size and number of the missing cycads that had been dug out, it was clear that there must have been more than one person involved, he added.

“We suspect they came in through the top (from the contour path on the mountainside or from Cecilia plantation) because we’ve not seen any breaks at the gate or in the fence, and security combed the area pretty well.

“We had thought that it (the earlier theft) was an isolated incident, but we will definitely be upgrading security in a major way now.”

Additional temporary security had already been added while the upgrade was under way.

As with the first heist, the second theft would have a major conservation impact because of the scientific value of the cycads, Xaba said.

Cycads are the earliest plants still in existence, dating from 340 million years ago. They flourished throughout the Mesozoic age that lasted from about 252 to 66 million years ago – the so-called age of reptiles that includes the Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic eras.

“All the cycads at Kirstenbosch are scientifically studied – when they cone, when they produce suckers, how much they grow... So, yes, it’s a loss,” Xaba said.

Encephalartos caffer is a relatively rare dwarf cycad from the sour grassveld of the Eastern Cape found in districts like Humansdorp, Albany, Bathurst, East London, and Kentani and Willowvale in Transkei.

Although rare in the wild, it grows easily from seed.

Encephalartos latifrons is found only in the Bathurst area of the Eastern Cape where there are fewer than 100 of these plants – and probably only about 80 – still growing in the wild. They no longer reproduce naturally and have to be hand-pollinated.

even plants

nan wrote:even plants

Yip

Crazy!!

http://www.pressreader.com/south-africa ... 1/TextView

At least they have got a serious sentence

what a world