Melanie Gosling
Environment Writer
The rate of rhino poaching has increased by 9 300 percent in the last seven years.
Last year, 1 215 rhinos were killed in South Africa, compared to just 13 in 2007.
But Major-General Johan Jooste, the man who heads the anti-poaching activities in the Kruger National Park, has said the rhino death toll would be far higher had it not been for the co-ordinated anti-poaching initiatives.
Jooste said yesterday the high rhino death rate was an “uncomfortable truth” for him personally and for the country. There was just a “thin green line” of law enforcement staff that stood between South African rhinos and poachers.
“But we’ve saved a lot more rhino than have been killed,” he said.
The number of rhinos killed in 2013 was 1 004 and in 2012 it was 668. Last year’s death toll represented a 21 percent increase from 2013.
Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa said at the briefing the increase in the rate of poaching had slowed since 2012.
“Nevertheless, the figures remain worryingly high. We are confident that the integrated strategic management of rhino is bearing fruit.
“However, in the light of increased poaching numbers, it is clear that existing interventions need to be strengthened,” Molewa said.
Rhino poaching was part of a growing multibillion-dollar illegal wildlife trade run by highly organised international syndicates.
Her department was working with provincial, national and international law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system to fight poaching.
Last year, 100 rhinos were moved from poaching hot spots in Kruger to two neighbouring states as part of the plan to protect the animals.
Another 56 rhinos were moved from Kruger hot spots to more secure areas within the park. Molewa said this was to create rhino “strongholds” where the animals could be protected and where they could breed.
For security reasons, Molewa would not name the places where the rhinos had been moved. Another 200 would be moved to safer locations this year, some to private parks in the country, some to state and provincial parks.
The department has a rhino sales programme, where the animals would be sold to suitable privately owned reserves, and the money from the sales would be ring-fenced for conservation.
In April, the Green Scorpions will be stationed at the Oliver Tambo International Airport in a bid to reduce the illegal trade of rhino horn and other wildlife at ports of exit.
Last year the number of poachers, couriers and members of syndicates arrested rose from 343 in 2013 to 386.
Jo Shaw, rhino programme manager for WWF South Africa, said:
“We need to keep working together on the strategic interventions which will have the greatest impact.”