Counter Poaching Efforts

[Toko]

POTENTIALY controversial measures approved by government to dehorn black rhinos in order to discourage poaching are making its debut in Namibia.

Thursday, October 9, 2014 - 08:00

In a world first intervention by a state, the sweeping measures might forever change the way rhinos appear in nature if the procedure is completed. Although rhino horns do grow back, the government decision could become an ongoing stra-tegy.
The intention to sell the horns commercially still depends on the approval of international wildlife institutions.
In an attempt to root out poaching, the Namibian government has demonstrated its determination with Cabinet giving the green light to dehorn the black rhinos, which at this stage all belong to the state.
The radical step to dehorn black rhinos will follow a two-pronged approach to combat the crime that has increased drastically over the past year.
The Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) has been instructed to start with the dehorning of state-owned rhinos (black rhinos) in areas where poaching has severely escalated.
At the same time, an elite anti-poaching task force has been established to continue the fight against rhino and elephant poachers. During the past nine months alone, 33 elephants have been poached for their tusks and 14 rhinos for their horns in the northern regions. Speaking exclusively to Informanté, MET deputy minister, Pohamba Shifeta referred to the intensification of poaching, hence a decision to dehorn was taken. “This is considered to be one of the best ways to take control of illegal poaching. We have already proceeded with the dehorning of the rhinos in the Kunene and Erongo regions,” Shifeta elaborated.
“The process to dehorn rhinos is quite a simple one and painless,” Jaco Muller, chairman of Help our Rhinos Now Namibia (HoRN.Nam), explains. “It is a 20 minute process where the rhino will be darted with M99 by a veterinarian, which is basically an anesthetic.
A sabre saw is then used to cut the horn off the rhino, leaving approximately eight centimeters of it on the rhino.”
Commercial farmers acting as custodians of the state-owned rhinos, who wish to proceed with the dehorning, can apply at the MET to do so, where an MET official must be present during the operation of the dehorning, after which they can then take the horn to stockpile it at a safe place.
“It does not make sense to destroy the horns collected like other countries do, when wildlife conservancies in Namibia can benefit from it.
Depending on how much is collected, we are considering to apply for the legal trade in both rhino horn and elephant tusks at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES),” Shifeta stated. Shifeta said money collected would be paid into the Ministry’s Wildlife Trust to help conservancies all over Namibia in their development, and to strengthen their security measures.
In the meantime, four members of the MET and 14 from Nampol were recruited to attend a week-long training session at the Waterberg Plateau Park in the Otjozondjupa Region to form an elite anti-poaching task force.

[Lisbeth]

Rhino horn demand down in Vietnam

Demand for rhinoceros horn in Vietnam has dropped by almost 40 percent since the launch of a public education and awareness campaign in August 2013.

The campaign was jointly implemented by the Humane Society International (HIS) and the Vietnam Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)

The year-long campaign focused on targeting people in Vietnam’s capital city, Ha Noi, by engaging stakeholder groups to help spread messages against the use of rhino horns.

These included the 800,000-member Ha Noi Women’s Association, the business community, university students, the scientific community, leading health experts and school children,. Who all received copies of HSI’s book I’m A Little Rhino as part of their curriculum.

Advertisements also appeared on billboards within the city and at the airport, and on the sides of city busses. Campaign messages were further spread throughout Vietnam through hundreds of press articles.

The results of post-campaign poll indicate that the campaign has been successful and there has been a dramatic reduction in public demand:

Only 2.6 percent of people in Vietnam continue to buy and use rhino horn, a decrease of 38 percent.
77 percent decline in people in Ha Noi buying and using rhino horn, down from 4.5 percent to one percent
25 percent decrease in the number of people in Vietnam who think using rhino horn has medical value
Only 38 percent of the national population and 21 percent of people in Ha Noi city continue to think that rhino horn has medical value, a 51 percent and 53 percent decrease respectively from last year
Of those who think rhino horn can treat diseases, most believe it can treat cancer (60 percent) and rheumatism (40 percent)
"Insatiable demand for rhino horn is driving rhinos to the brink of extinction, so reducing that demand is absolutely crucial,” said Teresa M. Telecky, director of the wildlife department for HIS.

“These poll results demonstrate that, even in a relatively short period of time, our demand reduction campaign has succeeded in significantly and dramatically altering public perception and influenced behaviour. The results offer a vital ray of hope for the survival of rhinos.”

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/Vi ... rn.html#cr

[Mel]

If this could now show in a decrease in rhino poaching it'll be real good news...

[Toko]

Family offers R1m to catch rhino kingpins

November 15 2014 at 02:26pm
By Sheree Bega Comment on this story

Pretoria - A well-known East Rand family has put up a whopping R1 million reward to “strike fear in the hearts” of the masterminds of a recent rhino attack on their game reserve.

“We’re after the kingpins, not the poachers,” Franco D’Arrigo, of Springs, said this week of the unprecedented reward amount for the rhino killings.

“We’re taking the fight to them. We want to nail them. We will never get to the end of rhino poaching in this country if we don’t get the kingpins.”

His family’s reward is for the “successful arrest, prosecution and recovery of the stolen rhino horn” of those involved in an attack on the three dehorned rhinos on their father’s reserve, in the Soutpansberg area on October 28.

Armed poachers shot dead two rhino, injuring another, but she and her calf survived.

In 2010, poachers slaughtered another bull on their property.

No arrests have been made in either case.

The reward, believes D’Arrigo, will create chaos between rival gangs.

“We want to strike fear in their hearts. This time they went through the wrong farm. We want them to know if they come to our farm with guns again, they must think three times before trying to shoot our rhino.”

D’Arrigo said his family members were working with the Hawks and Limpopo nature conservation officials to apprehend those involved in the attack.

More than 1 000 rhino have been slaughtered in South Africa so far this year – an average of 4.6 animals a day, according to rhino conservation groups.

His family’s substantial reward may be the first initiated by private rhino owners. In 2012, SANParks announced it would pay R100 000 in cash for the arrests of suspected poachers and a further R1m for the successful conviction of a poaching syndicate mastermind.

D’Arrigo’s sister, Carmela Lattanzi, said all the rhinos roaming their reserve were dehorned last year to reduce the risk of poaching.

“They still killed them for the little horn there was, probably less than 1kg. On a nearby farm, poachers killed one of the calves, just out of spite, recently.”

She believed police and nature conservation officials lacked the resources to apprehend the culprits behind a spate of rhino attacks in the area.

“They are really trying, however. So many farmers in our area have had rhino poached. There are only a handful still farming with rhino.

“We believe if we offer such a big reward… they will kill each other to try get that money.



l If you have any information about the rhino poaching attack in the Soutpansberg area in late October, contact 074 208 4758.

[Richprins]

Very good!

Maybe SP should reannounce their reward too!

[Flutterby]

[Lisbeth]

16 year old sells photos for rhinos

[nan]

wow sounds good

[Toko]

Stars and stripes for Ezemvelo

December 22 2014 at 09:34am
By DAILY NEWS REPORTER

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has taken delivery of two 4x4, “crime scene” trailers to help it in the war against the illegal wildlife trade and – indirectly – the war on terror.

One of the trailers, which comes packed with forensic equipment, is the latest in a series of donations by the US Department of State in South Africa. The donation is part of a $10 million (R115m) African assistance package announced by President Obama during his visit last year to help fight wildlife crime on the continent.

The second trailer was donated by the Free State Parks Department.

Sifiso Keswa, Ezemvelo’s senior manager: People and Conservation, in a speech at the handover of the trailers in Pretoria, said the US had made many practical offerings recently in support of Ezemvelo’s conservation efforts.

“This is an opportunity to record and contextualise many other crucial interventions the US government, as well as the US Fish and Wildlife Service has done – and is doing – to support conservation in KwaZulu-Natal and in South Africa in general,” he said.

Catherine Hill-Herndon, US Embassy Pretoria deputy chief of Mission and Catherine Novelli, visiting Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, spoke of illegal wildlife trade helping fund many terrorist organisations.

Keswa said the crime scene trailer indicated the “real insight” the US government held in the fight to combat wildlife trafficking: “It can carry all and every piece of forensic equipment to crime scenes to help us expertly collect evidence that is so critical in the investigation and prosecution of criminals”.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service recently demonstrate its commitment to “informed assistance” by providing more than R1.1m of a larger R1.7m grant to support Mkhuze Game Reserve.

This includes funding the salary for a specialised rhino monitor over two years; a 4x4 vehicle; resources to execute critical monitoring and notching of the reserve’s black and white rhino populations and providing equipment, both infrastructural and surveillance.

“This is a massive gesture of goodwill. Since receiving this money, we have already notched the ears of some 31 rhino, which, at this early stage, has resulted in expanding our previous estimate of Mkhuze’s rhino population from 74 to 85,” said Keswa.

He said the US’s assistance reached beyond “the nuts and bolts of the field” and extended to his organisation’s human resources.

Over the past two years the US Consulate-General in Durban sponsored three of Ezemvelo’s principal law enforcement and management staff to attend their International Visitor Leadership Programme, a new US initiative dedicated to wildlife trafficking and poaching.

These staff members spent three weeks engaging with American institutions and various departments and experiencing panel discussions and field trips.

“The experience that Jabulani Ngubane (manager: Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park), Lawrence Munro (Rhino Operations Unit manager) and Dirk Swart (section ranger: Hluhluwe) gained was unprecedented… an invaluable exposure to international conservation and intelligence expertise”.

Last month the US Consulate paid for Steven Galster of the Arrest programme, based in Thailand, to speak at Ezemvelo’s Annual Symposium of Contemporary Conservation Practice: “His insights and experiences of the latest global trends in wildlife crime and trafficking were captivating… amazingly informative”.

He added that the recent success of September’s inaugural World Rhino Youth Summit held at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park had much to do with the US Consulate paying for children from Vietnam, their teachers, and a Vietnamese journalist to attend: “For obvious reasons their presence was particularly significant. This funding was fundamental to the overall success of the congress.”

[Lisbeth]

USA