Cross-Border Poaching KNP - Mozambique

[iNdlovu]

Sure, for the sake of the Trans-frontier park, keep the fence down and then there will be no rhino in either park. All these so called experts make me sick

[Richprins]

It is very significant that National Geographic are on board!

The idea of small sections of fence raised opposite hot-spots may have merit, presumably highly electrified on the Moz side.

The ultimate short-term solution is for Moz. to get its act in order regarding penalties, law enforcement and corruption.

Ironically the "strain in relations" comes from bad press worldwide, not a real worry about animals, IMO...but either way it is good that some are belatedly feeling the pinch.

That is the long-term problem...

[Scipio]

Mozambique has worse problems at the moment, Frelimo and the ruling party looks like they are going to have another go at it.

[iNdlovu]

Frelimo is the ruling party. You surely must mean Renamo and the ruling party

[Richprins]

The NG report is very good and concise, I forgot to add...these guys are not stupid!

[iNdlovu]

It is very significant that National Geographic are on board!

The idea of small sections of fence raised opposite hot-spots may have merit, presumably highly electrified on the Moz side.

The ultimate short-term solution is for Moz. to get its act in order regarding penalties, law enforcement and corruption.

Ironically the "strain in relations" comes from bad press worldwide, not a real worry about animals, IMO...but either way it is good that some are belatedly feeling the pinch.

That is the long-term problem...

For the kind of money that the poachers are prepared to risk their lives for, a little stroll around the section wouldn't happen I suppose

Now that one is contradiction in terms RP. Short term solution?, it won't happen in our life time nor the next generations

[Sprocky]

Published: 2013/05/28 05:53:16 PM
Source: SAPA

Cape Town - A year and a half after starting talks about curbing rhino poaching, South Africa and Mozambique have yet to reach an agreement.

"I wish it was actually yesterday," Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa told journalists after debate in the National Assembly on her department's R5.4bn budget on Tuesday.

She was replying to a question about when a memorandum of understanding would be signed between the two countries.

Close to 2 500 rhino have been poached in South Africa in the past seven years, most of them in the Kruger National Park. Many of those arrested for poaching have been Mozambicans.

Among the provisions of the memorandum for which Molewa is seeking signatures is the re-erection of a fence along the eastern border of South Africa's flagship reserve.

Sections of the fence were dropped over a decade ago, when the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park - a conservation area of about 35 000km², straddling South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique - was established.

"It is our joint, shared view, with SA National Parks, that there is a need to put up that fence," Molewa said.

Two or three meetings with Mozambique on the matter had been postponed. A change of minister on the Mozambique side had also contributed to the delay.

"We had tried to [have] a meeting twice, but on both occasions something urgent occurred from their side.... That's what we heard."

No time

Asked how long this had been going on, she responded: "About a year-and-a -half."

It was hoped to arrange a meeting between the leaders of the two countries - President Jacob Zuma and his Mozambique counterpart Armando Guebuza - as "soon as they find space or time".

The necessary legal preliminaries had been completed, but signatures were now needed.

Molewa said re-erecting the border fence did "not necessarily negate the spirit of the transfrontier park".

Earlier, she said South Africa was intensifying its international co-operation with so-called rhino horn "recipient" countries, such as Vietnam, Thailand, and China.

"To date we have signed memorandums of understanding with Vietnam and China, and we aim to sign similar agreements with Mozambique and other Asian countries."

Rhino poaching, particularly in the Kruger Park, continued to be "a major challenge".

Molewa said the situation was fuelled by a thriving black market in rhino horn.

More than 360 rhino have been killed by poachers in South Africa since the beginning of this year.

[Richprins]

Pathetic...useless!

People are dying!

[Amoli]

Conscious of the serious implications for the ambitious transboundary conservation scheme, Jooste picked his words carefully. Putting back the fence, he said, was not part of SANParks policy right now. But it might become part of the solution. It would have to be decided what kind of fence it should be and how it would affect the GLTP. It might be put back only in critical areas (where most incursions are happening).

Fencing the Border Counter-Productive

But the Peace Parks Foundation, which South African industrialist and philanthropist Anton Rupert set up in the 1990s, with Mandela and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands as its patrons, to promote transfrontier-park schemes, has warned that putting back the fence would not only destroy the project but indeed be totally counter-productive. 
Its chief executive, Werner Myburgh, has said that communities living in Mozambique’s adjoining Limpopo National Park have just recently agreed, after years of tough negotiations, to be resettled outside the park for purposes of consolidating the transfrontier arrangement.

The relocation is being done with millions in funding from the German and French governments.
 This funding could dry up if a return of the boundary fence is seen as a failure of the project. This would cause the villagers to stay put and perhaps lead to more people moving into the park, thus creating bigger settlements that would offer an even better springboard for the poachers to make their sorties into Kruger.
 Myburgh explained: “We cannot resort to anti-poaching operations alone. We need to take a more innovative approach. There needs to be a whole suite of actions. A successful transfrontier park where matters like security are co-managed could be a major deterrent also to poaching. We are three to five years away from realising a fantastic dream. Let us not destroy it.”

Surely there must have been a time limit to move these villagers. My goodness, how can we afford them to stay inside the park . If the German and French governments with hold their funding, there will be other countries that will assist

I say, put back the fence until all issues of the agreement has been dealt with, villagers re-located, included.

[Richprins]

Ja, as far as I know the relocation of villagers has been completed on a small scale within the Moz sector of the GKTNP. (Shingwedzi River) What remains within that area is villages along the Limpopo River, which were never destined to be moved. Also villages along the Massingir Dam, which cannot be moved, and sort of fall outside the Park.

I think Jooste means the villages between the Olifants and Komati rivers, which are on a hotchpotch of private land, Cutadas (Govt. land) and lodges.

These were never part of the initial Peace Parks deal, neither the original GKTNP Park deal.