Counter Poaching Efforts

[Sharifa]

A colourful way to tackle rhino poaching by Kingsley Holgate

here

[Mel]

Fits in well to our Artistic World Rhino Day

[Flutterby]

African hotels take stand against poaching

Sep 25 2013 21:13
Fin24



Nairobi - Whilst nobody will say so publicly, for fear of repercussions, the suspicion is that ground rhino horn is leaving Africa in diplomatic bags, delegates heard at the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) in Nairobi on Wednesday.

Poaching was declared at the forum to be the greatest threat to Africa's tourism industry and branded poachers as Africa's Public Enemy number one.

"Poaching is a global problem needing a global solution, Lazaro Nyalandu, Tanzania's deputy minister for natural resources and tourism said in an address at conference.

It is estimated that Tanzania has an elephant population of 100 000 today, but this is cut by 30 a day by poachers.

"They are so sophisticated that we need a military response," said Nyalandu.

"If their activities are not stamped out, we will have lost all our elephants in 10-15 years."

Nyalandu wants to see Tanzania's neighbours taking a stand too, pressurising the countries where the poachers' clients live to stamp out the trade.

The value of ivory and rhino horn continues to rise rapidly, as does the demand for "wildlife products".

Across Africa, one elephant is being killed every 15 minutes for its tusks. This continued illegal trade will lead to the species' extinction by 2025.

The hotel and tourism industry's concern goes well beyond statements.

Five percent of all AHIF revenues are being given to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, (DSWT), which looks after orphaned baby elephants and rhinos.

"Wildlife is the reason why tourists come to Africa," said Nyalandu.

As each herd is decimated, so too is the potential employment of thousands of people, most of whom are on low incomes. Poaching is not just about killing animals; it's about destroying livelihoods."

Poaching in Africa is happening on an industrial scale according to Nick van Marken, head of Deloitte's international travel, hospitality and leisure practice.

"Poachers are using automatic weapons to slaughter entire herds. They then hack off the tusks and horns. Rhino horn is ground down in Africa and then smuggled out," he said.

"Wildlife is part of Africa's natural infrastructure - remove it, and one of the primary reasons for visiting the continent will disappear."

He said it is time for the tourism industry to step up and speak out.

"Africa is so huge and the borders are so long that it's incredibly difficult to police," said Andrew McLachlan, VP Africa & Indian Ocean Islands, Carlson Rezidor.

[Toko]

The changing face of the rhino.

Published on Wednesday, 25 September 2013 11:12

For the first time in the history of rhino poaching, the channels to influence and educate Asian countries against the use of rhino horn are starting to open.

In Vietnam and China, government initiatives, celebrities and young people are beginning to back campaigns and educational programmes to stop the illegal poaching trade, according to leading South African wildlife vet Dr William Fowlds.

“This is an unprecedented chapter in our efforts to reach the market, we have to take advantage of what is going on there,” he said


Ahead of World Rhino Day, Dr Fowlds was talking at ‘The Changing Face of the Rhino’ lecture at the Royal Geographical Society, London, which brought himself, celebrity adventurer Bear Grylls and CEO of Born Free Will Travers together to discuss rhino conservation.

Tradition

Rhino horn is popular in south east Asian cultures as it is deemed to have medicinal qualities that cure a plethora of ailments; from the common hangover to cancer. It has been a long-running perception that conservationists cannot influence this Asian tradition, yet Fowlds noticed a marked change in attitudes during a recent trip to a Vietnamese university. Far from the university staff censoring his lecture, they encouraged him to be as shocking as possible and the students surprised him by being open and engaged. Fowlds believes that changing the world’s attitudes of rhino horn lies with young people. “The youth in Vietnam is an accessible market to get the message across,” he said. Can former NBA star and Chinese icon Yao Ming convince his countrymen to save rhinos and elephants?

Poaching

In the last five weeks, South Africa has lost more than 100 rhinos to poachers. In the last four weeks, at least three rhinos have been poached each night, Fowlds said. Numbers have dropped by 95% in the last century, from 500,000 rhinos to 29,000 across Africa and Asia, Save The Rhino reveals. Rhino horn, which takes 48 hours to get from the body to Asia, is made of keratin. Despite being made from the same material as human fingernails, it is twice as valuable as gold pound-for-pound.

“It is useless. It is valued at that because of greed,” said Grylls. “I believe we are in the middle of an international wildlife crisis. And the crisis revolves around… the humble rhinoceros horn,” he added. ‘Changing the world’s attitudes to rhino horn lies with young people’

Legalisation

The legalisation initiative is a proposed solution to the steep increase in the number of poached rhinos in South Africa. In 2007, 13 rhinos were poached. In 2013, an estimated 900 rhinos will die for their horns. Supporters of legalisation believe that control will no longer lie with criminals and an increase in supply – achieved by dehorning rhinos in a way that keeps them alive – will see a drop in price and thus incentive for poachers. However, Travers claims that those supporting legalisation are naïve and insane.

In 2009, the convention of international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora approved China and Japan as official ivory trading partners, predicting a drop in the demand for illegal ivory and elephant poaching. “Far from statisfying demand,” said Travers, “demand was stimulated and elephant poaching has gone through the roof.” The volume of illegally traded ivory has hit a 25 year high, with 1 kilo of illegal ivory priced 1,000% higher than in 2009.

“The definition of insanity, they say, is doing something over and over and expecting a different result,” Travers said. ‘Rhino poaching crisis is bleeding conservation dry’

The South African government claims that legalisation will allow them to control the rhino horn market and generate resources to fight poaching. They want to set up a central selling organisation to manipulate rhino horn prices through price fixing, according to Travers. When demand is high, prices will be high, when demand is low, prices will be low. Yet when prices are low it is likely that demand will be stimulated and when prices are high poachers will undercut the legal channel.

“Poor people will continue to be exploited by criminal networks willing to risk someone else’s life to make a killing… and legalising rhino horn will legitimise claims made by some that it works.” Travers feels there is a “shocking degree of cynical exploitation running through this issue. “I imagine a Chinese or Vietnamese family a few years from now. Their elderly mother is dying from cancer, the children thinking that rhino horn is the cure, scrape together the last resources and buy some. “Their mother dies. They are in poverty. And their tragic circumstances are as a direct result of the blatant exploitation of their …ignorance and superstition.” ‘Attitudes towards rhino horn starting to shift among Asian youth’

What are the other options?

Fowlds believes there are other options.

He said: “I don’t believe we have even started to address the demand issue. We have always thought that by protecting our animals we would win this battle but we are being shown that we can’t. It’s a monumental mountain to climb. “What I have learnt… is that silver bullet we have been looking for, that one solution to rhino poaching, unfortunately just does not exist.”

Fowlds splits rhino conservation into five subcategories; protection on the ground, information and intelligence, local law, global cooperation – as crime syndicates have their own marketing campaigns – and market reduction. Without protection on the ground, 25,000 rhinos would die a year. However, Fowlds notes that the biggest threat to conservation in South Africa is desensitisation.

“Those animals get chalked up on a graph as a statistic and that is the last you hear of it… statistics are threatening to desensitise us South Africans. “There is so much killing that when we look at a graph like this we forget what the impact and implications are.” The rhino has already come back from the brink of extinction in 1960, after a conservation effort in South Africa turned their fate around.

Today, the number of rhinos being poached is increasing at an alarming rate. Without the rhino, Africa will lose its magic and the motivation to protect its ecosystems, Fowlds said. “This crisis is bleeding conservation dry. And the risk that we face as humanity on the planet, losing something so special, is simply unbearable.”

Thandi and Themba

In 2012, poachers brutally removed the bone, skin and horns of three rhinos in the Kariega game reserve with machetes or axes, leaving them for dead.

Two survived the night; Themba, a male, and Thandi, a female. Teams of specialists and volunteers joined Dr Fowlds in trying to save the two rhinos, starting with deciding whether it would be kinder to euthanise them. Describing what it is like to find and help a poached rhino, Fowlds said: “It transforms the landscape from as close to paradise…to a living hell.”

Through using social media to document the progress of the two rhinos, the response from South Africans and the international community was a surprise. Thousands of pounds were raised and people are being educated. Thandi is doing well and is about to have her second operation.

Unfortunately, Themba died 24 days after being found by Dr Fowlds.

Posted by The South African.com

[Toko]

Army to join KZN rhino effort

October 2 2013 at 11:36am
By VIVIEN VAN DER SANDT

Defence Force soldiers are to be deployed in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park (HiP), in northern KwaZulu-Natal, to join the fight against rhino poaching.

The move is controversial as the military are not meant to operate in civilian matters. Some soldiers are deployed in parks on border areas, as this is interpreted as being border defence.

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has identified 16 rhino poaching syndicates in the province.

This comes as the yearly total of rhino poached in South Africa reached an all-time high of 704 by the end of last month This exceeds the annual record of 668 set in 2012, according to data provided by the Environmental Affairs Department on Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife Communications manager, Musa Mntambo, would only confirm that the park was “in negotiations with the SANDF”.

“We are discussing with provincial SANDF,” he said.

“I cannot comment on the details. We are discussing how many personnel, the hours they will work, and where exactly they will be deployed.”

However, plans to accommodate the military personnel seem quite far advanced, as a camp with ablution facilities is being erected in the park for them.

Ezemvelo has already identified September, October and November as a “high risk” period in which there is a spike in rhino poaching, according to past statistics.

It is thought that the soldiers will be drawn from, among others, 121 SAI battalion stationed at Mtubatuba, and Manguzi, close to the park. Ten soldiers from Manguzi are already active in the Tembe Elephant Park, on the Mozambican border. Some sources claimed the soldiers could be stationed at the HiP camp within weeks.

Ezemvelo’s recently appointed anti-poaching co-ordinator, Cedric Coetzee, travelled to Kruger Park to meet top officials involved in anti-rhino poaching efforts there.

The SANDF deployed 265 soldiers in “Operation Corona” at Kruger National Park and the borders around the park, following a plea for help by South African National Parks (SanParks).

Ezemvelo chief executive, Dr Bandile Mkhize confirmed a few weeks ago that Coetzee had met the Kruger Park team “to find ways of synergising their efforts with our own”. Mkhize revealed that Coetzee had made a presentation to Ezemvelo’s management, outlining his strategy for fighting the rhino-poaching scourge.

“I am instituting a joint operations command including ourselves, the SAPS, our Project Rhino stakeholders, and the SANDF,” Coetzee told them.

“Essentially, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife is for the first time integrating its own efforts with the expertise and resources of private law enforcement agencies,” Coetzee had added.

Coetzee outlined his strategy as:

* Project Border Security, which sees the return of the SANDF to patrol the Mozambican border.

* Project Intelligence which sets up a formal network for information gathering.

* Project Civil Action will set up a legal team to investigate and interrogate key suspects.

* Project Sangoma will identify key rhino-poaching role players and conduct special investigations to disrupt poaching networks and their operation capability.

Coetzee had said Ezemvelo’s intelligence units had identified about 16 poaching syndicates operating in KZN.

“Many feed off informers, including sangoma (traditional healers), drivers, the shooters, and even our own (Ezemvelo) staff.

R60 million has been provided by provincial government for the operation.

Mntambo said the negotiations with the SANDF at this point dealt only with soldiers for foot patrols, but military equipment such as helicopters would be used if necessary.

Night vision equipment has been provided to rangers.

HiP’s Project Zap Wing already has a fleet of aircraft (fixed wing and helicopter) that fly over private and public game reserves.

Mntambo said private security firms were already patrolling the corridor road from the park to the Mozambican border.

Rangers have been fighting a losing battle as syndicates have been using helicopters, night vision equipment and high-powered rifles.

Mntambo said 68 rhino had been poached in the province this year. He could not say how many of them had been poached in the HiP.

According to Reuters, many of the poachers come from Mozambique and sell the horn to crime syndicates to feed rapidly rising demand in South-East Asia, where the horn is thought to cure cancer and tame hangovers.

“We need people to be ashamed of this. The fact that our rhinos are killed is because there is a market out there. There are people who are coming to steal our heritage,” said Fundisile Mketeni, a top biodiversity official at the Department of Environmental Affairs.

“The poaching syndicates are determined to carry on with their nefarious acts, using the poverty that is prevalent in Mozambique and South Africa to recruit poachers,” said Ike Phaahla, a spokesman with SA National Parks.

[Richprins]

Nice and transparent! Well done, KZN!

Notice the reservations regarding putting SANDF straight into the "battle"...

[Toko]

Nice and transparent! Well done, KZN!

Notice the reservations regarding putting SANDF straight into the "battle"...

SANDAF is part of "Operation Rhino" and in 2013 five SANDAF soldiers died in this internal operation. Link

[Richprins]

BTW...the dye injected into the horns discolours them, so clearly visible as pink-purple etc. on the live animal!

Was in the paper!

[mouseinthehouse]

Richprins,
AFAIK the horn infusion is NOT visible.

This taken from someone who lives and works on a reserve that is infusing their rhino. (in response to a question on the poaching thread I started on TripAdvisor South Africa forum)

OK - now, the dye - Yes, it is the same one. It is a bright pink color, though more red than pink I'd say.

Any bits that are visible disappear completely very quickly. It is injected right into the horn with a pressure system, thus you cannot see it at all - the only bits you can see are any drops from the actual procedure if any is spilled etc. It is undetectable, this is part of the protection. We are seeing so far that the signs are quite a bit deterrent for all of the rhino in the reserve, even if only a few are poisoned.

[Richprins]

Aha!

Thanks very much, mith!

Makes sense!

...so the paper was naughty!