Our Opinion

Wake-up call on wildlife

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A new report with poaching statistics for the Southern African region has painted a shocking picture of uncontrolled exploitation of wildlife, commercial greed and blatant annihilation.

Released by animal rights group, Animal Rights Africa (ARA), the report entitled Consuming Wild Life: The Illegal Exploitation of Wild Animals in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia, includes images of rhinos with severed horns and elephants with trunks partly torn off by snares.

According to ARA’s Michele Pickover, the statistics are proof that illegal trafficking in live wild animals and body parts is flourishing in the region – partly because of our relatively sophisticated infrastructure into which hi-tech international crime syndicates can tap with ease.

Interpol estimates this booming business is worth about R85 billion ($12bn) a year.

The problem is clearly far greater than subsistence poaching. Animals are being killed with automatic machine-guns by armed gangs with hi-tech equipment.

One would imagine that wildlife reserves are places of safety, but the ARA report reveals that the opposite is true. Reserves are often the specific targets of armed poachers. Sometimes park rangers are the poachers themselves.

ARA figures show that at least 70 rhinos have been killed in South Africa’s famous Kruger National Park in the past six years, and a park spokesperson admitted there had been a “slow and steady increase during the years”.

Elephants also continue to remain targets; the bulk of the 41 tons of ivory confiscated worldwide over the past year is from southern Africa.

There are several reasons why poaching continues to thrive. Wildlife laws are weak, sometimes prosecutors and magistrates are unfamiliar with them. Conservationists with limited resources are thinly stretched and the law is difficult to enforce.

There is also no comprehensive database that would identify trouble-spots and enable conservationists to measure the exact scale of a problem that Pickover believes has reached unprecedented levels.

Sadly, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo were the only two authorities in the entire southern African region that failed to provide ARA’s researcher with any statistics on poaching.

This is certainly not because the province is free of poachers. While Addo Elephant Park has successfully kept poachers at bay, it is well-known that our coastline is being raped by posses of techno-poachers in high-powered motorboats who easily outmanoeuvre conservation officials.

ARA’s report leaves us with no doubt that urgent action is needed. Policies and laws must be reviewed, a comprehensive anti-poaching strategy devised. A database must also be created and law enforcement capacity increased. Before it is too late.