Rhino Poaching 2014

[Richprins]

wynand was responding to other posts, initially, okie!

And the "whining puppy" is AW, not you!

[okie]

RP , hey , I know that

[RobertT]

What I find quite disturbing is that with all the poaching, the numbers should be dwindling as there are less and less animals in the area and so should be harder and harder to find? Yet this year the average has increased, so they must have more eyes on the ground or more poachers covering a wider area.

[Bushcraft]

Good point RT

I agree with portions of what wynand has stated, but okie makes a few points which makes one think.

I think an element of frustration develops amongst the “general public” due to a lack of consistent information on poaching numbers, a lack of information on exactly what is being done, a SANParks forum which hides the poaching issues from the general public view, a SANParks management team who seem to down play how serious this is (except when the CEO is in the chopper), etc.

I feel that more information “out there” would result in more support locally and internationally.If I was the CEO of SANParks I would be on every news/documentary/etc type programme who would listen and be shouting for assistance on a large scale.

It makes one think why this is swept under the carpet as much as possible. Do they think it indicates a lack of competence or is it really to protect the rhinos further

[Sprocky]

Whose doing the poaching???

We had far less incidents when there were fewer people on patrol!!!

Aha.
You are starting to catch my drift now.

Oi! You two:
Sniping with cheap remarks like those does not achieve anything but sow mistrust. I play a very small role in all this but I do have regular interaction with the teams on the ground. Your remarks are an insult to many brave, loyal and capable men I've met.

Wynand, I did not state that the guys on the ground are involved. I take my hat off to these guys, as I was in the military for 13 years and I know what bush warfare is about. It just concerns me that the number of poaching incidents are on the increase even though there are more anti-poaching members in the field. Somewhere, there must be money changing hands between poachers and other law enforcement groups, as well as officials at border posts.

[wynand]

Ok, Sprocky, understood.

We know there has been and still is "inside" collaboration. Delivery truck drivers, maintenance workers, catering managers, tourist guides, security guards and, yes, even rangers. All have cell phones with cameras and many such phones have gps's. In a certain area bordering the Park, rhino poaching has fallen dramatically (down to zero..touch wood) for two months now since a number of staff who have failed VSA/polygraph tests have been removed from the Lowveld. There are other factors too, but this one seems to stand out a bit.

But folks: the biggest causative factor in the escalation of rhino deaths is the massive increase in poaching pressure. Participants in this debate are correct in pointing out that arrests, as a proportion of rhino deaths is a dwindling rate. It means that the increase in counter measures is falling short of what is required to turn the tide. The only successes that can be claimed by the "green forces" are that the exponential increase in poaching has been beaten down to a more or less linear increase and that arrests have increased. Clearly, even more effort is required from this nation: Political will, international cooperation, education and law enforcement at all levels of the supply chain. We seem to agree on that?

It is unfounded criticism that I take issue with:

Okie: Thanks for responding, and I agree with much what you say, but I would like you to not just rephrase your remark but retract it because it is based on a misconception of the reality out there: You said" "And you must wonder how it is that they are usually only caught AFTER the killing of the animals . " My pointing out the vastness of the area and the fact that locating intruders is a lot easier once shots have been fired only made you dig in, still defending your statement. You are right that there is a higher density of rhino in the South of the Park, but you have been misled about the North. There are significant numbers of rhino all the way up to Pafuri. The North has been hard hit by poachers in December and January. I wish the poachers were as poorly informed as the person(s) who brought you to believe that there was a "last rhino North of Letaba". Utter nonsense! See: Rhino distribution 2008.

But if you like, reduce the area to a third, treble the number of poaching bands and you still have one band per 13 000ha. That is ten times the density that we estimate, but say we are totally mistaken and you are right. Give some thought to 13 000 hectares of bush and how one is to locate a small band of men who do not want to be found in there!

Your saying "but let’s not try to make the job look bigger than what it really is" just shows no appreciation of the problem, and fails to recognise the remarkable capability of the folks who regularly succeed in apprehending poachers after and before shots are fired.

[Flutterby]

Thanks for all your insightful comments Wynand!

I agree that protecting our rhinos is a massive task, and I thank all those who work so tirelessly doing just that. But at the same time, I'm sure all those rangers slogging it out in the field must sometimes wonder why they are not getting more help. To quote Bushcraft...

If I was the CEO of SANParks I would be on every news/documentary/etc type programme who would listen and be shouting for assistance on a large scale.

SANParks should be pushing this in our faces everyday, but it's almost as if they have closed themselves off from the rest of the world!

[wynand]

What I find quite disturbing is that with all the poaching, the numbers should be dwindling as there are less and less animals in the area and so should be harder and harder to find? Yet this year the average has increased, so they must have more eyes on the ground or more poachers covering a wider area.

Robert, as pointed out: There is a massive increase in poaching effort. More money offered, more poachers, more guns. So, you are correct in your conclusion, but you should expand your premise a bit:

Rhinos reproduce (thankfully), and there is a dynamic balance between births and deaths. Only when the mortality rate exceeds the natality rate do we see a decline in population. I, for one, believe we are close to that point, perhaps beyond it.

In a clandestine interview with a poaching boss, when it was pointed out to him that they were wiping out their own resource, he was reported as saying; "Yeah and I want the last one."

As rhino become scarcer, or as counter measures make horn more difficult to obtain, the more status will be afforded the end user who does possess horn. The price goes up, poaching effort increases. How much are we willing to invest in combating first-tier poaching? Is rhino horn that is still attached to a living rhino worth more to us than its $/kg value on the street? I'm not sure we can afford the battle in the long run.

A rather sad thought occurred to me: When we're down to the last few rhino, our cost to protect them will become affordable (per unit) and we'll probably avoid their extinction. But, they will be confined to high security enclosures and will only be seen by their guards. Then they may as well be extinct.

[Sprocky]

A rather sad thought occurred to me: When we're down to the last few rhino, our cost to protect them will become affordable (per unit) and we'll probably avoid their extinction. But, they will be confined to high security enclosures and will only be seen by their guards. Then they may as well be extinct.

Here I disagree, at least they will still be able to breed. Lets just hope that it never gets to this scenario.

[wynand]

Thanks for all your insightful comments Wynand!

I agree that protecting our rhinos is a massive task, and I thank all those who work so tirelessly doing just that. But at the same time, I'm sure all those rangers slogging it out in the field must sometimes wonder why they are not getting more help. To quote Bushcraft...

If I was the CEO of SANParks I would be on every news/documentary/etc type programme who would listen and be shouting for assistance on a large scale.

SANParks should be pushing this in our faces everyday, but it's almost as if they have closed themselves off from the rest of the world!

Flutterby: I agree. The big media campaigns are waged by the NGO's. I would like to see more political will from the state and perhaps SANPARKS should go beyond handing out press kits and releases, hoping that the media will run with it.

Take a look at a sister (brother?) organisation to the one I serve: http://www.zapwing.org/ Please run the video. Is that the kind of marketing you're talking about?