Rhino poaching: we need cross-border co-operation
For the animals’ sake it is good to know that the 150km of fencing that SANParks is putting up to help combat rhino poaching will not affect the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park that straddles South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
The fencing will be in the south of the roughly 20000km² park (35000km² with the Zimbabwean and Mozambican parks added), from the Olifants River to the Crocodile.
Of course, if the fence pushes poachers northwards — which it may — that will be sad. Very sad.
SANParks says 20 rhinos have been killed by poachers this year. We are halfway through January.
Last week, several people made strong arguments for the commercialisation of rhino horn. Before you screech “No!”, consider that what we are doing is, patently, not working. While educating people away from demand for rhino horn is probably the most sustainable solution in the long run, it’s a very, very long run. I hope their arguments will be printed in full in Business Day soon.
Peace Parks CEO Werner Myburgh and Kruger Park GM Rey Thakuli tell me the fencing that is to go up, at a cost of R200m, will start at the Olifants River and go southwards. It will be electrified.
“The fence (that is there) is in a very bad state. It (the new fencing) will act as an early warning system,” says Thakuli.
“Fences,” says Myburgh, “have never stopped people moving across them. Their benefit is as a warning signal — if the lines are cut, we will know.”
According to one source, the park’s security bill leapt from R160m to R450m last year, when 448 rhinos were killed, 252 in the Kruger.
What the carnage in the park has done, says Myburgh, is to expose graphically the risk in letting down fences between countries. It has also highlighted the need for cohesive cross-border policy.
“We need to harmonise policies and implementation (between South Africa and Mozambique). We need them to be the same on both sides of the border. South Africa and Mozambique have to have the same deterrents and penalties. There is no use in a 10-year sentence in South Africa and a six-month one in Mozambique,” says Myburgh. “We have to harmonise policy very urgently.”
TRAFFIC East and Southern Africa director Tom Milliken says that, generally speaking, “there is no parity between South Africa and Mozambican laws and regulations. Further, it is my understanding that wildlife prosecutions in Mozambique seldom result in prison sentences, while South Africa is now imposing some significant jail sentences, like the 12 years a Vietnamese national recently received for smuggling rhino horn.”
It certainly makes sense for criminals to know that, should they get caught, they face similar sentences regardless of what side of the fence they are on. The Kruger park is employing an additional 150 rangers, to add to the 500 it already employs. It says it needs 1600 more to patrol the area properly.
Patrols, nabbing poachers, prosecuting them, ensuring penalties are similar across South Africa – none of these is good enough alone, but they all help.
January 17th, 2012 at 11:11 am
[...] the environmental affairs minister wants to enlist …Rhino video goes viral on YouTubeNews24Rhino poaching: we need cross-border co-operationBusiness Day (blog)Rhino fence hangs on public moneyThe New Age OnlineTimes [...]
January 17th, 2012 at 11:44 am
I want to do something!!!! how can i get involved??
January 17th, 2012 at 2:33 pm
Hello Hannah
Speak to the Endangered Wildlife Trust, or the World Wide Fund for Nature SA. The EWT definitely needs volunteers for its programme for orphaned and injured rhinos. Sue
January 17th, 2012 at 4:23 pm
Thanks for keeping us posted on this Sue.
January 19th, 2012 at 9:30 am
I published a novel, ‘Project Horn’, in 2007, an action thriller with the theme of criminal poaching of rhinos (still available on Kalahari, or on order from bookshops). Even though I wrote it in 2005, when poaching was still small scale, I predicted the huge and sudden escalation to the present levels, and the story deals with the reasons for this. According to present events, I think I struck the nail on the head.
January 20th, 2012 at 2:09 am
Legalising horn trade will not work. There are more than 4 billion Asians and although only a small portion make up the demand, small of 4 billion is still a lot. There is less than 35000 rhino’s. It is not possible to flood the market. I say we boycot the guilty countries by not going there for tourism. Go somewhere else for holiday and try to limit your spending towards these countries. If we can get enough people to do this, we might make a difference.
January 30th, 2012 at 6:28 pm
Sue,
What the parks need is ‘gutshot detection’ technology. This won’t stop the bullets but will alert the powers to the area of poaching, shooting. Catching one poacher is better than nil. Apparently there is technology that can detect a single or multiple gunshots within 25m in a 2 km radius, now if the manufactures can increase the radius of the shot detection say 15-20km we will have something.
Rob
February 9th, 2012 at 11:29 pm
local area community involvement, produces good intelligence. Intensified intelligence gathering the key, to limit and arrest current high poaching levels in the region.