What does the future hold?
If you add the new figures released by
the minister the number of rhino killed
for their horns in South Africa since
2006 stands at 5,763. The number is
undoubtedly higher given that rhino
would certainly have been killed but
carcasses never found.
The Kruger park record looks better,
in spite of a noticeable increase in
elephant poaching. But HluhluweiMfolozi is now under threat. With rhino
horn fetching around $60,000 per kg in
the booming markets in Vietnam and
China, the temptation to poach is great.
Rhino horn is a lucrative alternative for
poor people struggling to feed, clothe
and educate their families, as it is for
greedy white professional hunters,
former parks officials and even qualified
veterinarians.
Security is being stepped up, but park
This single piece of rhino horn, from a non-lethally dehorned rhino, is worth about
$40,000. Keith Somerville
Problem shifts elsewhere
Molewa did briefly note that although poaching had
declined in Kruger it had increased in other areas. The
number of carcasses found has increased in HluhluweiMfolozi Reserve in Kwa-Zulu Natal. The director of the
reserve, Jabulani Ngubane, told me that 95 rhino had
been poached in the reserve since the beginning of
the year, a big increase on last year. The reserve has
about 4,500 white rhino and 500 black rhinos.
Cedric Coetzee, the head of rhino protection for
Hluhluwe-iMfolozi, told me that he feared that
poachers could shift to his reserve. One reason for
this was the success of security measures at Kruger.
The other was that the high density of animals in his
reserve – about three rhino to a square kilometre
– meant that a killing could take only two to three
hours.
officials admit the use of intelligence is disorganised.
And many of the army and police units sent to
supplement park rangers had no experience of
working in thick bush full of potentially dangerous
animals.
One option is some form of regulated trade from
dehorning sedated rhinos, natural mortality and
horn seized from poachers. But it is contentious and
conservationists are divided on the [issue]( (https://
africajournalismtheworld.com/2016/09/11/rhinohorn-and-conservation-to-trade-or-not-to-trade-thatis-the-question/). One must hope that the downward
trend in poaching continues. All one can say is that
there are improvements in Kruger National Park but
the war is not won. For sure, there are more battles to
be fought.
2016
SEPTEMBER
29