From Sanctuary to War-zone: Rhino Poaching in South Africa
Billi Krochuk ♦ South Africa, home to nearly 80% of the
world’s rhino population, is also home to one of the most volatile wildlife
poaching epidemics in the world.
The world has been taken aback by the
dramatic increase of rhino poaching seen in Southern Africa, most notably in
The Republic of South Africa, in the past three years. Although rhino poaching
has raised red flags in the eyes of conservationists for over half a decade,
the past two years have shown a dangerous growth in the exponential trend of
animals killed for their horns. A nearly 33% increase was seen between 2011 and 2012
alone. So far 2013 is showing that it will blow by 2012’s numbers as soon as
September. Last year 668 rhinos, a combination of White and Black Rhinos, were
poached – mainly in the famous Kruger National Park. As of June 8th,
levels had already reached 394, over 50% of the rate seen last year. 2012 saw a
rate of about 56 rhinos killed per month while 2013 is at a rate of 65 rhinos
per month.
Although poaching incidences are on the
rise, anti-poaching efforts are strengthening and becoming more advanced. The
armed battle between illegal poachers and conservationists rages on as the
years advance and 2013 has already proven to be eventful and potentially
revolutionary within the world of wildlife conservation.
Investigations undertaken in the rhino horn
supply chain have shown that the demand for rhino horns comes from Southeastern
Asia, mainly in Vietnam. With growing market demands and a powerful drive for
profit pushing the industry, hunters from all over Southern Africa (mainly from
South Africa and Mozambique) as well as dangerous pseudo-hunters (illegal
hunters posing as trophy hunters) are most active in some of the most
well-known parks and protected areas. These contributors are providing horns to
a trade worth millions of dollars. It has been said that the street value of
rhino horn is equal to that of cocaine in the United States.
Vietnamese
traditional medicine tells that ground rhino horn, which is made of keratin,
can be used as a cure for nosebleeds, strokes, convulsions, and fevers among
other relatively minor ailments, but is now being advertised as a possible cure
for cancer. Medical science has shown that the product has no effect on any of
the aforementioned illnesses and is in fact no more effective than a placebo. South
African and Vietnamese government officials signed a Memorandum of
Understanding early this year to establish a partnership to help cure the rhino
horn addiction and stop the trade. The drive comes from extinction, because if
the current rates of poaching was to persist over the years the extinction of
Black and later White Rhinos would be seen within a decade. Vietnam has also
launched its own awareness campaign featuring rhinos with hands and feet as
horns – playing off of the keratin in horns and in finger/toenails.
To the north-east, South Africa’s neighbour
Mozambique is contributing to the issue immensely. Poor citizens are driven to poach rhinos in
Kruger National Park, the location for the most severe poaching statistics, and
supply the consumer demand. By doing so they are able to make more money than
the majority of conventional jobs offered in that country and unfortunately
legislation is not in place and that in place is not properly regulated.
Because of this, wildlife protection at the borders or within the country is
negligible. South Africa has begun to work towards strengthening the
Mozambique-SA border to deter poachers from entering although with little
avail.
The South African government and law
enforcement have been actively involved in the arrest and prosecution of
poachers and other wildlife criminals although arrests outweigh the
prosecutions so numerous guilty contenders get off without even a fine or brief
jail time. That being said, the majority of this action has been taken on
grassroots-level members, the poachers or smugglers. The Asian contenders
involved, although in some cases identified, are rarely prosecuted even with
the Vietnam-SA agreement in place.
Note: Rhino horn is labelled as an illegal
trade commodity by numerous organizations and governmental amendments.
South Africa is often considered the “sanctuary
gone warzone” for wildlife conservation due to wildlife trafficking. The armed
battles that often occur when opposing parties clash can be lethal. Recently a
well-respected anti-poaching ranger was shot by a Mozambique poacher and has
been in hospital since. Bullets have been shot from both sides, though, and
miniature war-like skirmishes are not out of the ordinary. Unfortunately
poachers are so desperate and wealth-motivated that they will do whatever they
must to achieve their goal. We must look at all levels of involvement, though,
and consider too the other members at play. For example, there are numerous
veterinarians that have been known to assist the illegal rhino horn farming
industry seen within private wildlife reserve in South Africa. Private reserve
owners who have a rhino population on their land may choose to cut the horns
off and allow them to grow back, a practise similar to cutting fingernails, to
help deter poachers and trespassers. Instead of destroying the horn, however,
they have been stockpiling them so that they may cash out when they deem it
fit. Stockpiling is an international issue and investors are beginning to count
on extinction so that they make maximum profit possible off of their horns.
Beyond ripening practices such as those
detailed above, 2013 has seen major events and technological breakthroughs for
conservation.
CITES CoP16
In March of this year the international
CITES CoP16 was held in Bangkok, Thailand. This gathering of officials allowed
for numerous global wildlife issues to be discussed, including a 3-part program
hosted by South Africa on the plight of rhino species. This program included
talks about “Rhino Conservation”, “Rhino Safety & Conservation” and “Rhino
Economics”. The formers noted mainly South Africa’s recent successes seen in
2012 through their progressive anti-poaching programs and techniques but the
latter proved to be more controversial within the group. The Department of
Environmental Affairs has noted that they would like to support the research
and implementation of a legalized international rhino horn trade. Speakers in
support included one of the prominent private reserve owners. This concept
though possible is far from being conceivably successful considering the fact
that the hunting industries in supplier countries are not stable and regulation
has begun to decrease. This would put a major stint in conservation efforts and
we could see a result similar to that of the tuna fishing industry – quotas
being ignored and populations plummeting.
The regulation of this trade would be
very difficult considering the already prominent and well-established illegal
trade chains and related gangs going cross-boundary and working heavily
underground and through corrupt wildlife management sectors. The topic was
briefly discussed and the government’s interest in the idea was established
within the international community (they also noted countries who would be in
support) although will not be considered until CITES CoP17 which will be hosted
in South Africa in 2016. Obvious contradictions in legislation with the Vietnam-SA
partnership to lessen the impacts of rhino poaching have been identified by
many groups.
Secretariat Summary from CITES CoP16
"- Illegal rhinoceros horn trade is conducted by
sophisticated organized crime groups and involves the use of
specially-recruited couriers and fraudulent hunters, money-laundering,
fraudulent applications for hunting licences and CITES documents, violations of
currency controls and corruption of officials.
- Adequate legislation and enforcement controls
to ensure that trophies remain in the possession of their owners for the sole
purpose indicated in the CITES export permit is essential and enforcement
authorities should be legally empowered to conduct inspections to ensure that
such trophies remain in lawful possession.
- The
Secretariat believes that draft decisions related to anti-money laundering,
controlled deliveries and the establishment of Wildlife Incident Support Teams,
as proposed in other enforcement and species-specific documents prepared for
the present meeting, will also positively impact on the prevention of
rhinoceros poaching and illegal trade in rhinoceros horn and that they will
complement the draft decisions proposed in Annex 1 below.
All Parties should:
a) report rhinoceros horn seizures to countries
of origin if origin can be determined, to enable such countries to conduct
appropriate follow up investigations;
b) fully exploit rhinoceros horn seizures by
using innovative investigation techniques, such as controlled deliveries and
the forensic technologies at their disposal, as appropriate, in cases related
to illegal rhino horn trade;
c) advise the countries of destination when they
issue permits or certificates authorizing the movement of specimens of
rhinoceroses, including pre-Convention certificates, so that the true nature of
the trade may be scrutinized.
All areas where rhinoceros horn is consumed
should engage in public awareness and demand reduction campaigns highlighting
the current serious levels of criminality associated with illegal trade in
rhinoceros horn and the impact of illegal trade on the species.
Demand-reduction strategies should be implemented for an adequate duration and
on a large enough scale to achieve a measurable change in consumer behavior
that will reduce consumption of rhinoceros horn of illegal origin.
Viet Nam should expeditiously adopt legislation
to strengthen its control of trade in rhinoceros horn by implementing control
mechanisms to verify that individuals who import rhinoceros horn trophies do
not use it for other purposes. An investigation should be initiated where
individuals that are no longer in possession of the horns they had imported." (CITES Secretariat, 2013)
Near-revolutionary technologies have been
introduced to the field this year, some as recently as early this month.
Dinokeng Pink Horns
In the populous province of Gauteng in
Northeast South Africa, just a hop, skip and a jump from Swaziland, is the Dinokeng
Wildife Reserve. The large private reserve has been causing a lot of buzz in
the rhino poaching community by revolutionizing biological tools. Through a project
developed by a local veterinarian, a pink dye which is derived from
tick-controlling substances in livestock is injected into the horns. The catch: it’s poisonous to humans. This parasiticide is inserted into the keratin by
drilling a small hole into the horn, thus dubbing that animal’s horn dangerous
for human consumption. Though not lethal, the parasiticide causes nausea,
stomach aches and diarrhea in humans and can be detected on the animal as well
as when ground into a powder at the end of the supply chain. It also triggers sensors in
airport scanning devices. The results? Zero rhinos poached since the opening of
the reserve. Beyond that, microchips are inserted into the horn with can be
used to track the animal’s movement or the movement of the horn should it be
poached.
Falcon-UAV
International involvement in the protection
of rhino species in South Africa has continued to grow in the past 5 years and
as of June 3rd, American-inspired unmanned air drones were
introduced to the fight. Used to monitor mine fields during Taliban raids,
Falcon is able to send high-resolution images and GPS coordinates at any given
time to information centres nearby. The light-weight aircraft can also carry an electro-optical daytime camera or thermal infrared camera to help with identifying possible illegal camps,
many of which are dotted along the Mozambique-SA border. With a price tag of
USD20 000 (USD80 000 cheaper than the military grade) reserves and parks are
finding them more and more affordable as sponsors support the project and overall
rhino-protecting efforts.
Coordinator of
the Johannesburg-based Endangered Wildlife Trust, Kirsty Brebner, said that “We
know there’s no silver bullet and that this won’t on its own solve the poaching
problem, but it’s another tool in the toolbox. As another ‘eye in the sky’
there’s definitely potential to it and we can certainly see the value.”
And so 2013 has
drawn a mixed hand of cards in the game of wildlife conservation so far. That
being said, successes cannot be overlooked. There have been great successes in the
field with over 117 arrests of wildlife criminals; supply chains detailed, current
acts in place have been made stronger, anti-poaching teams have gained more
technology, support and members, and so on. Overall, the rhino conservation
community grows stronger as international awareness and national efforts
increase. Continued efforts are however required to keep the increasingly
growing poaching community at bay and to help lessen the demand for the
products internationally. Corruption within the wildlife sector of various
countries must be controlled.
We’re only half-way
through June. With how jam-packed 2013 has been so far there’s no telling what
we might see come from this issue for the remaining months.
--------
CITES Secretariat. (2013, March). Sixteen th meeting of the
conference of the parties bangkok (thailand), 3-14 march 2013 . Retrieved
from http://www.cites.org/eng/cop/16/doc/E-CoP16-54-02.pdf
CITES official publication on notes made from the CITES CoP16; large
quote used from the document.
Both sources above were used to gather data on statistics of animals
killed, poachers arrested and details on TRAFFIC. Details on the MoU were
collected as well.
Collected mainly details on stockpiling and the contribution of private
land owners.
CITES CoP16 summary and outline from a conservationist’s point of view.
Details on the Dinokeng Wildlife Reserve project.
Republic of South Africa Environmental Affairs. (2013,
February 28). Rhino poaching interventions and the position of south africa
to the 16th conference of parties of the convention in international trade in
endangered species of fauna and flora (cites). Retrieved from https://www.environment.gov.za/content/rhinopoaching_interventionsandpositionofsa_16copofthecites
South African government plans for CITES CoP16
(prior to the event happening).
WWF Global. (n.d.). African rhino poaching crisis. Retrieved from
http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/rhinoceros/african_rhinos/poaching_crisis_african_rhinos/
Information used from this source was for general issue information,
sources, reasons, etc.
Falcon-UAV notes and outline.
