Cape Town - The US government has offered a R10 million reward for information to smash a Far East-based poaching network which is slaughtering endangered elephants and rhinos.
The US government’s aggressive stance was welcomed today by SANParks, whose spokesman, Ike Phaahla, said: “It’s about time that the entire world got together to fight this criminality around wildlife trade – it affects the ecology and our children’s future. It needs to be dealt with head-on, so we would welcome this wholeheartedly.”
The reward, the first of its kind by the State Department, was announced by US Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday, who warned that poaching “destabilises communities that depend on wildlife for biodiversity and ecotourism” – in which South Africa has a huge investment.
He said the Xaysavang network operated from Laos and operated between South Africa, Mozambique, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and China.
“The involvement of sophisticated transnational criminal organisations in wildlife trafficking perpetuates corruption, and threatens the rule of law and border security in fragile regions,” Kerry said.
Police in Zanzibar seized a 12m container yesterday hiding an estimated several tons’ worth of ivory.
Rhino poaching between 2008 and this year cost South Africa’s economy R1.1 billion, the Professional Hunters’ Association of South Africa (Phasa) said at the Biodiversity Economy Indaba in Polokwane yesterday.
Phasa chief executive Adri Kitshoff said about 400 000ha of game land had been lost to wildlife conservation because of the risks of keeping rhino and the expensive security measures needed to protect them.
“Poaching is proving to be a disincentive to owning rhino.”
South African and foreign hunters contributed about R6.6bn a year to the economy, but this figure was understated given the out-of-date statistics.
“There is a study under way at North West University to ascertain the exact number of foreign hunters who come to South Africa, as well as the economic contribution of the industry as a whole.”
South Africa has about 80 percent of the world’s rhino population, estimated to be more than 25 000.
Last week, the Department of Environmental Affairs announced that 825 rhinos had been poached in South Africa since January, of which about 500 were in the Kruger National Park.
The department held the first training workshop focusing on the use of forensics to end rhino poaching.