World Image Magazine Issue 31 April 2016 | Page 12

Image by Black Mamba APU
Transfrontier Africa founded the Black Mamba Anti-Poaching
Unit (APU) in 2013 to protect the Olifants West Region of
Balule Nature Reserve. Within the first year of operation the
Black Mambas were invited to expand into other regions and
now protect all boundaries of Balule Nature Reserve.
Balule Nature Reserve is part of the Associated Private Nature
Reserves (APNR) that forms a contractual component of the
Greater Kruger National Park. Our Western Region has been
registered with the National and Provincial governments as a
component of the national protected areas network.
This is an open system of about 186,000ha, which further
joins the 2,800,000ha of the Kruger National Park, totalling
roughly three million hectares of unfenced African savannah!
We thus supply protection to all the wild animals that roam
freely throughout Balule Private Nature Reserve, and safeguard the most western region of Kruger Park.
Balule are the proud custodians of Black and White
Rhinoceros which interact freely as part of the Greater Kruger
National Park’s meta-population of rhino.
Commercial poaching has become big business, thanks to the
boom in populations and the “new wealth” in Asia.

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Consumption of products derived from endangered species is
flourishing be it for ‘Medicinal’ purposes, trinkets and status
symbols or just simply to be on the menu.
Subsequently rhino poaching has escalated dramatically in
recent years and is being driven by the demand for rhino horn
in Asian countries, particularly Vietnam and China, due to its
use as a status symbol to display someone’s success and
wealth and in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Although there is no scientific proof of its medicinal value,
rhino horn is still highly prized in traditional Asian medicine.
It is ground into a fine powder or manufactured into tablets as
a treatment for a variety of illnesses such as nosebleeds,
strokes, convulsions, and fevers.
Despite intensive conservation efforts, poaching of this iconic
species is still increasing across South Africa and pushing the
remaining rhinos closer and closer towards extinction.
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