Cape Town - If the rise in the rate at which rhinos have been poached in South Africa over the past four years continues, their population will start to decline, Environment Minister Edna Molewa warned on Thursday.
In a written reply to a Parliamentary question she said it was not possible to say when this might occur.
“If poaching continues to escalate in the manner it escalated from 2007 until 2011, the populations will decline. It is not possible to say if or when that will happen.”
Molewa said that at the current rate of poaching - about two percent of the population a year - white rhino numbers would not fall.
“The white rhino birth rate (five percent) exceeds the poaching rate.”
The same was true for black rhino populations, which had a birth rate of 4.8 percent, and were being poached at a rate of one percent a year.
The total rhino population was 20 000.
Molewa declined to respond to a part of the question - posed by DA MP Gareth Morgan - dealing with the estimated number of rhino in state-run protected areas compared to private ranches.
“Due to security reasons, the detailed information cannot be made available,” she said. - Sapa