“On World Ranger Day, we want to pay tribute to our rangers for the incredible work they do each and every day to keep our National Parks and our iconic species safe. We also want to pay tribute to eleven of our staff members at SANParks who lost their lives to Covid 19 over the past year,” said Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, Barbara Creecy.
“We find ourselves in a position where the efforts being made to combat wildlife crime, such as rhino poaching, are influenced to some extent by the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the battle to beat the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the Minister.
“In the battle to conserve our wildlife and halt poaching, it is our rangers who remain at the forefront, putting their lives on the line daily to conserve our environment and vulnerable species despite the additional risk of contracting Covid-19,” added Creecy.
They also paid tribute to Field Ranger, Checkers Mashego whose lifeless body was discovered at the Kruger Park late last year.
While the national lockdowns that curbed the movement of people to halt the spread of the virus in 2020 contributed to a decrease in rhino poaching, the lifting of the stringent lockdown regulations appears to have seen an increase in rhino poaching in the first six months of 2021.
From January to the end of June 2021, 249 rhino have been poached for their horn in South Africa. While this is higher than the number of rhino killed for their horns in the same period last year, at 166, it is less than the 318 rhino that were poached in the first six months of 2019.
During the six months, January to June 2021, the Kruger National Park experienced 715 poacher activities, an increase of 3.77% in comparison to the number in 2020, which was 689 for the same period. From January to end of June 2021, 132 rhino were poached for their horns in the Kruger National Park. One elephant was poached for its ivory in the Kruger National Park during this period.
A number of successful arrests and prosecutions have also been recorded in the past 6 months. This again underscores the success of the collaborative work being done by law enforcement agencies. These include the police, the Hawks, SANParks, the Environmental Management Inspectorate or Green Scorpions, customs officials, SANDF, provincial park authorities and the National Prosecuting Authority.
From January to June 2021, 40 alleged poachers were arrested within the Kruger National Park. A total of 125 people have been arrested for rhino poaching and rhino horn trafficking across the country in the past six months.
Numerous confiscations of rhino horn have also taken place since January, both within the country as well as at OR Tambo International Airport. The cohesive partnership with the South East Asian countries is also showing concrete results with the recent collaboration between the South African and the Vietnamese authorities resulting in one of the largest seizures of rhino horns and other wildlife products, thereby disrupting syndicate activities.
A total of 14 cases have been finalised since the start of the year with a verdict, representing a 93% conviction rate. The total of 14 convictions represented 20 convicted accused. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the finalisation rate in courts has slowed down as witnesses, accused and court staff in many instances are required to isolate or quarantine, and even court buildings in some instances need to be decontaminated. This has had an effect on the finalisation of cases.
“It is clear that the multi-disciplinary, integrated approach to investigating illegal wildlife trade is bearing fruit and that effective collaboration with critical role players remains key to our success,” said Creecy. “I congratulate the teams on a job well done.”
The Department, working with a number of communities, NGO’s and donors, continues with various community developmental programmes, in collaboration with its partners, SANParks, Provinces and neighbouring countries. The only long term sustainable solution to wildlife management and conservation is to ensure communities living on the outskirts of our national parks benefit from tourism and other opportunities.
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