Rhino watch • News • Views • Updates • Debates
Text and Photographs: Tim Jackson. Article from the May 2012 issue of Africa Gepgraphic Magazine.
The official story
In late March, the rhino world was a-twitter with the news that the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) would be managing all communications regarding South Africa’s rhino situation, with many observers decrying what they saw as an attempt to muzzle SANParks, the country’s conservation agency – and the owner of more than half its rhino population.
On 4 April, Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa (right) released a statement detailing the government’s response to the crisis. To date, 90 arrests had been made, and 75 of the 150 new rangers destined for duty in the Kruger, the epicentre of the crisis, were completing an intensive six-week paramilitary course. The establishment of buffer zones between the Kruger and private reserves and farms in Mozambique was also under discussion with the Mozambique authorities.
The minister reported that the DEA had approached the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to request that it conduct inspections and verify that the white rhino trophies exported from South Africa to Vietnam were still in the possession of the hunters. ‘We are consulting at the diplomatic level and the outcome of this process will allow us to refuse all applications for white rhinoceros hunting by foreign hunters whose state of usual residence is Vietnam,’ said the minister, who then gave details of a case where hunting permits for five Vietnamese nationals were, eventually, not issued.
Molewa also discussed rhino-horn stockpiles – an area of considerable concern and relevance to the legal trade debates – confirming that an inventory of rhino horn in the possession of conservation agencies exists, but that security risks preclude the DEA from announcing the size of those collections. She urged private landowners to register their stockpiles with their provincial conservation authorities. Owing to either legitimate concerns about the trustworthiness of those authorities or deliberate attempts to withhold that information, it is not clear exactly how much horn lies in private hands.
If the country is to make a proposal to the 16th Conference of the Parties of CITES next March regarding the legal trade in rhino horn, all horn, whether in government or private hands, will need to be registered – and that is just one of a number of conditions that will have to be fulfilled (see ‘Conditions of trade’). While Molewa didn’t comment on the issue of trade itself, she confirmed that ‘the process to prepare for the 16th Conference of Parties has been initiated’. (And indeed, a feasibility study on whether to lift the domestic moratorium on rhino horn trade is already under way.)
She also reported that the proposed amendments to the regulations governing hunting permits – chiefly to clamp down on ‘pseudo-hunts’, in which rhino horn destined for the black market is legally obtained through a trophy hunt – would come into effect pending their publication in the Government Gazette. Among other considerations, a person may now hunt and export only one rhino for trophy purposes within a 12-month period and rhino hunts must take place under the supervision of a conservation official. When issuing a permit, the official now has to take into account the hunter’s country of residence (in other words, somewhere like Vietnam should set off alarm bells).
proposed amendments to the regulations governing hunting permits – chiefly to clamp down on ‘pseudo-hunts’ – would come into effect
The collection of DNA samples when live rhinos are darted for translocation, treatment or any other management purposes will become mandatory. Although many rhino owners have already voluntarily contributed to the RhODIS database, this is good news as DNA makes a key contribution to the successful prosecution of rhino-related crimes.
The minister concluded her statement by saying, ‘We are continuing to do research work to find more innovative mechanisms to curb rhino poaching.’
Conditions of trade
Before South Africa can petition CITES to open the legal trade in rhino horn, certain boxes will need to be ticked. These include:
- All rhino horn in private and government possession must be marked, registered and verified.
- Strategic engagements to be set up with regional and international partners.
- Trading partners identified and confirmed, and their legislation amended to permit them to legally import and sell rhino horn. (Rhino horn has been banned in China and other Asian states since 1993.)
- A proposed system for trade, including appropriate legislative provisions in South Africa and potential recipient countries, to be developed.
If the process is similar to the African elephant downlisting and ivory sale proposals, a Panel of Experts will be appointed to evaluate the status and management of South Africa’s rhino population, including its viability and sustainability; and the country’s capacity to monitor and protect it. The panel will also assess the nation’s ability to control the trade in rhino horn, including whether offtakes from both legal and illegal killing are sustainable; whether mixing of legal and illegal rhino horn can be prevented; and whether law enforcement is effective. Only once the panel has made its report will CITES consider the proposal, which must then garner a two-thirds majority to be approved.
The Wildlands Conservation Trust
The Wildlands Conservation Trust, a member of Project Rhino KZN, reports that a Cheetah light aircraft has been purchased and will be based in the Mkhuze area. The initiative, made possible with funding from WWF, the African Conservation Trust and the other Project Rhino partners, builds on the success of two aerial support models tested by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.
The first of these was the introduction of a Bantam Ultra-Light aircraft into Hluhluwe-lmfolozi Park, and the second was the provision of a helicopter in iMfolozi Game Reserve. The helicopter flies a minimum of 20 hours a month and is deployed on an ad hoc basis.
Statistics suggest that between October and December 2011 as many as nine rhinos may have been saved as a result of its presence.
Visit www.wildlands.co.za/partners/ project-rhino-kzn for more information.
From the Canine to the ridiculous
In April, the South African newspaper Die Burger reported that a ‘poacher’ had struck the Lombardini Game Reserve near Jeffrey’s Bay in the Eastern Cape province. In the wee hours of Monday morning, 2 April 2012, the reserve’s fibreglass mascot, a white rhino named Barendina, was pulled from her pedestal and her horns chopped off. Susan Lottering, co-owner of the reserve, discovered the crime and suspected that the perpetrator may have been fuelled by Dutch courage. ‘He was probably looking for money and when he couldn’t find it, he looked for refreshments in the bar.’ It would appear that ‘he had drunk some stroh rum and liqueur when his eye fell on the rhino horn’.
2012 Facts & Figures (as at 4 April)
159 the number of rhinos poached.
95 the number of rhinos lost in the Kruger National Park.
90 the number of rhino-related arrests.
Source: Department of Environmental Affairs
The new (hairy) face of counter-poaching
Three foxhounds are currently undergoing intensive training in tracking, with a view to joining counter-poaching teams in the Kruger National Park before the end of the year. Sponsored by the volunteer initiative SANParks Honorary Rangers, the pooches – named Kombi, Jetta (right) and Chico in honour of the Unitrans Volkswagen and Audi division that funded the project – will give the park’s rapid reaction team extra teeth when tracking poachers. Follow their progress at www.sanparksvolunteers.org
Not to be outdone, the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) also has a new canine staff member. Rico the sniffer dog is being trained to detect wildlife products and will be deployed as part of a partnership between the EWT and the African Consultants for Transport Security (ACTS), a cargo-screening company. Funded by the Hans Hoheisen Charitable Trust, Rico, a two-year-old Belgian Malinois, arrived in South Africa from Germany in March this year to take up duty at OR Tambo International Airport’s cargo and baggage sections.
Rico is the first of six dogs that will be deployed by the EWT at various high-risk border points of entry and exit during 2012. It is hoped that they will contribute to increasing the detection rate of wildlife contraband in transit and, therefore, the risk associated with wildlife crime.
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