Cape Town - While rhino poaching statistics are still making for bleak reading, there has been a slight decline compared with last year.
But conservationists warn taking the spotlight off of the poaching crisis won’t make it go away.
Today marks World Rhino Day and in the first half of 2019, 318 were poached in South Africa, while over the same period last year 386 rhinos were poached.
The Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries changed its policy in recent years from releasing poaching statistics four times a year to only twice
a year.
According to Rhino Review, between 2009 and 2018 more than 7 700 rhinos were poached, with 4 500 of them coming from the Kruger National Park.
Rhino poaching forms part of a larger crime syndicate with links to other illegal activities and products derived from endangered species around the world.
In Africa, these criminal networks prey on poor communities with high unemployment rates that live close to the game parks, and draw people into rhino poaching and other crime.
During last month’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species conference in Geneva, Switzerland, more than 100 countries blocked efforts to loosen a ban on the trade of rhinoceros horns, which has been in place for more than 40 years.
It is said to cost $3 500 (R52 000) a year to protect a single rhino’s horn from poaching.
Dr Jo Shaw, senior manager of the wildlife programme at World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa, said acknowledging the complex web of organised crime behind each dead rhino and acting for the long-term benefit of people would help stem the poaching.
“These issues threaten far more than our rhinos and wild places. Good governance is foundational for human well-being too.”
Ecologically the presence of rhinos is more than a “nice to have” and goes beyond the concern that the next generation won’t be able to see one in its natural surroundings.
The decimation of the rhino populations of Africa and Asia has had devastating effects.
The way in which rhinos feed - by eating the ends of low trees - helps to shape the environment to make it hospitable for other animals.
When rhinos are taken out of the picture, plant life changes and this can lead to other species moving away because their ability to live in the environment will have been negatively affected.
Added to this is the valuable role animals such as rhino have to play in tourism.
According to Statistics SA, the tourism sector directly contributed 2.9% to the South African economy in 2016.
“Conserving our unique wildlife is crucial for the expansion of the country’s tourism sector,” said Brett Hendricks, general manager of the Thebe Tourism Group.
Tanya dos Santos, head of the Investec Rhino Lifeline said poaching was the only way impoverished communities could survive.
“We get rhino fatigue and that’s a problem because when we stop talking about it is when things get worse. Through our programmes we are educating the youth in rural communities to care about wildlife and the environment, which develops the rhino custodians of the future.”
The lifeline was created in 2013 and since then it has invested more than R22 million in rhino conservation efforts.