 |
| Photo courtesy of wsilver, Flickr |
South African rhino crisis continues to escalate
31 December 2011- Rhino poaching in South Africa continues to escalate, having reached record highs for the year. According to statistics from SANParks, by mid-December 2011, 435 rhino had been poached.The issue is a complex and contentious one. Demand for rhino horn in Asia has resulted in South Africa being targeted, as it has the largest population in the world. The demand reportedly equates to about 900 horns a year and comes from a misguided notion about its healing and aphrodisiac properties, when it consists of nothing more than keratin – the same as hair and nails. Education would go a long way in dispelling the myth in Asian countries, but this would take years, and right now time is of the essence to prevent our rhinos’ extinction.
In a November 2011 article on the Abu Dhabi website www.national.ae, it was reported that gram for gram, rhino horn is more valuable than gold, being sold for about US$60 000 per kilogram. Gold is about US$ 57 000 per kilogram and so the incentive for poachers is clear. The website says a poor Mozambican worker can earn R200 000 for a horn – what he would normally earn in a decade.
Many conservationists feel the only approach is to
legalise the trade in rhino horn so that the animal is worth more alive than
dead. Horns can be harvested without pain to the animals (they grow back), as
well as be taken from dead rhinos. The procedure, which is regulated by the
Biodiversity Act and requires a permit, involves a wildlife vet immobilising
the animal and dehorning it humanely. The sales of these horns could
be channelled back into South Africa to the tune of R800 million a year,
according to Michael Eustace, a wildlife economist quoted on www.national.ae.
The many forms of poaching
Poaching has many forms making it all the more difficult
to stop. Subsistence poaching is where poor individuals, also those living on
the outskirts of a game reserve, need to poach only one rhino to gain financial
security beyond their wildest dreams. Such poaching in Vietnam has caused the extinction
of the Javan rhino. The many forms of poaching
The local organisation Stop Rhino Poaching says subsistence poaching has all but disappeared in South Africa where it has become a lot more sophisticated. Asian syndicates often hire highly trained hunters with state-of-the-art equipment and shoot rhinos with rifles or dart them from helicopters or vehicles. Many of these hunters can kill a rhino with a single shot.
Commercial poaching accounts for most of the incidents and poachers often come from a military background. Stop Rhino Poaching says their modus operandi is to stake out a farm or reserve to find out the location of the rhinos and then shoot them and hack the horns off with an axe or panga.
With vets, game farmers and well-known conservation figures having appeared in court suspected of involvement in rhino poaching, as well as working with Asian cartels, it seems South Africa is fighting a losing battle…
What are the solutions?
Many game rangers are under-equipped and not trained to deal with professional poachers. This needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency by the national parks. Meanwhile several game farmers have given up – they’re selling off their rhinos or refusing to buy any because the risk of them being poached is too great. If game farmers don’t keep rhinos, protect them and breed them, then all that’s left is for the game reserves to continue with this task and they have been particularly hard-hit by poachers.
Other game farmers have tried micro chipping their rhinos or using tracking devices, while sniffer dogs have been trained to pick up tiny amounts of rhino horn, but all of this unfortunately does not deter poachers. Stronger intervention is necessary. Aside from calls on social media sites for people to get involved in “rhino poacher hit squads” and other such radical groups, there are many organisations trying to make a difference in their own way.
The Kruger National Park, home to the most rhino in South Africa, recently announced it would not inform visitors of the whereabouts of these animals, as it had previously done via maps and noticeboards. The park believes that this has backfired by tipping off would-be poachers – it has lost 244 rhinos this year (at the time of going print).
The Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve near Johannesburg has been working with researchers to investigate the controversial “poisoning” of horns on live rhino. Ectoparasiticides are used to control parasites like ticks on livestock and most of them are neurotoxins. When ingested by humans they can cause symptoms like nausea, vomiting and convulsions. The reserve feels treatment of rhino horn with an ox pecker-friendly version of this substance, plus marking treated horns with indelible dye to warn would-be poachers, would help protect rhinos and prevent them being poached in the first place.
The reserve explains that the dye also shows up when x-rayed at airport security, for example, even if the rhino horn had been ground into powder. Treatment is effective for about four years after which it would have to be reapplied. It is an affordable solution for smaller game farmers and the reserve points out that hunters would also benefit in that the rhinos will be protected until they are due to be professionally hunted in a legal and humane way.
The Palala Rhino Sanctuary in Naboomspruit, Limpopo, fills another gap by being a rhino rescue operation and rhino orphanage. It was launched in 2008 and registered as a Section 21 company in 2011.Comprising nine ladies and two men, they relocate rhinos in high-risk areas and private reserves, which are being targeted by poachers, to the sanctuary where the animals will be constantly monitored. They train rhino owners to better protect their animals and also find out when rhinos are being auctioned, and then raise the funds to buy them to prevent them from landing up with unscrupulous owners.
“When rhinos need a place of safety or TLC after being wounded, the owners bring them to us,” explains Purette van der Heever. Or if a rhino has been abandoned by its mother or orphaned due to poaching, the sanctuary takes them in. “We will go anywhere in South Africa to help a rhino in need,” she says. Rhinos at the sanctuary are protected by guards 24/7, who follow them around the farm. Their greatest need right now is for night-vision binoculars.
Palala has also been involved in the high-profile case of Phila the black rhino that was shot nine times by poachers on a Limpopo reserve and survived. She was taken to the Johannesburg Zoo to recover for a year and Palala has been campaigning for her return to the bush, which is now imminent.
The sanctuary says the solution to the rhino crisis in South Africa is complex and hinges on education: education of Asian countries, local role players and schoolchildren, because rhinos are part of their heritage. “We need to get our government to understand the urgency and the seriousness of the crisis,” says Purette. Government must support the cause and it needs to take a zero-tolerance approach towards any person from an Asian country that gets caught in South Africa with rhino horn.
“Private game owners need to join government to form a collaborative committee to ensure the law regarding rhinos is adhered to,” she says and suggests getting Dr Ian Player, Gary Player’s brother, to chair the committee. He is a conservationist who started Operation Rhino, which has resulted in a number of independent research papers. He also established an anti-poaching network in South African game reserves. “We at Palala often consult him on how to manage and run our sanctuary,” Purette says.
The international community has come out in strong support of South Africa’s rhino crisis by raising awareness in the media. A US animal rights group, the International Rhino Foundation, has launched a new programme called Operation Stop Poaching Now. It is currently attempting to raise around US$80 000 to train 300 of our rangers in intelligence gathering, evidence collection, rhino identification and monitoring. They will be equipped with crime-scene kits which include a camera, metal detector, a GPS system, finger-printing materials and evidence bags. According to the foundation, less than five percent of poachers are ever convicted, a travesty of justice for our rhinos.
Contact details:
Stop Rhino Poaching
www.stoprhinopoaching.com
elise@stoprhinopoaching.com
Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve
Palala Rhino Sanctuary
www.palalarhinos.givengain.org
Tel: 082 4511 043, selomie@palalarhinos.co.za
