The fight against rhino poaching is being taken up not only nationally, but internationally through engagement with SADC countries and the Far East. This was the message from Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Buyelwa Sonjica, during her speech at the opening of the Rhino Summit held at the Reserve Bank Conference.
The minister said: “It should shock us that to date about 227 animals have been killed illegally. In light of this trend we would not be that off the mark to project that the current rate of poaching could see an increase to more than 300 animals by the end of 2010.”
Anti-poaching Initiatives developed and implemented by the department over the past two years have included the establishment of a national moratorium on the sale of individual rhino horns or any derivative or products within SA and the publishing of national norms and standards for the marking of rhino horn and hunting of white rhino for trophy purposes.
Mostly recently, an interim National Wildlife Crime Reaction Unit was established, which will be fully operational once the secondment process is finalised. The unit is led by the Department of Environmental Affairs, along with SANParks.
The minister said: “The National Wildlife Crime Reaction Unit will, among others, react immediately when a serious wildlife crime has been committed and be able to detect and investigate smuggling of wildlife and wildlife products. The South African Police Service has designated an endangered species co-ordinator for each province and a select team of the SAPS Hawks, at national level, has been designated to focus on rhino poaching related activities.
“Although we are tackling this challenge locally, we are also taking our efforts beyond our country’s borders.” She said the department was engaging with SADC partners through the SADC Rhino and Elephant Security Group which meets annually, as well as the Rhino Management Group which has facilitated the implementation of an SADC regional rhino strategy.
“Also as part of our international engagement programme, I am happy to announce that we are also planning a bilateral visit to Vietnam to discuss issues of concern regarding the smuggling of rhino horn and the legal export of sport hunted white rhino trophies. The Department of Environmental Affairs is also in consultation with the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) on bilateral engagements with China and Japan on wildlife law enforcement, capacity building, and improved technology to aid in detection of illegally traded wildlife products,” she added.
