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(TIMES, LONDON) - Wildlife experts are alarmed at a dramatic upsurge in rhino poaching in South Africa’s game reserves that may threaten the survival of the creature in one of its last redoubts.

Just 10 rhinos were poached in the whole of 2007, but last year the number reached 100. On Christmas Day alone, 13 rhinos were killed by poachers.

“We’ve always had subsistence poaching,” said George Hughes, a former head of the KwaZulu-Natal Parks Board. “But serious poaching for large game by professionals selling rhino horn or ivory to Far Eastern syndicates is far more alarming.”

In order to steal the lucrative horn, the poachers hack at the rhino’s skull with pangas, the African machete, causing horrendous injuries.

“It’s a terrible thing to come across the poachers’ handiwork,” said Frank Reardon, a wildlife enthusiast. “To see one lying dead with the carrion feasting off it is an awful sight.”

Former army professionals with modern weapons are thought to be involved. Recently, a Vietnamese diplomat was caught on camera taking delivery of contraband rhino horn outside the Vietnamese embassy in Pretoria.

Elephant and rhino poaching are endemic in the game reserves of Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia. In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe’s “land reform” has seen a wildlife holocaust since 2000. The only supposedly secure reserves left are in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa.

Only 3,500 black rhinos are left in the world and 3,000 of them are in South Africa.

“The rhino is actually a gentle and friendly animal,” said Hughes. “They are vegetarians, not predators, and only man preys on them.”

For Hughes, the fatal step was the international ban on rhino horn sales in 1977. “It was like prohibition. Prices shot up and so did poaching.”

In Botswana, where they once flourished, there are only about five white rhinos left. Poaching has now reached South Africa’s Hluhluwe-Umfolozi game reserve – in Gaisford’s words, “the holy ground of the rhino”. Although it still has 1,600 white rhinos, black rhino numbers are down to 300.

The golden era of the giant state reserves, like the 5m-acre Kruger National Park, may be over. Not only is much of their land under claim by local peasants, but the scale makes the parks difficult to guard.

David Cummings, a Zimbabwean wildlife expert, said private reserves held the best hope of survival for many species but they face government opposition. “Many African regimes don’t like the idea of losing monopoly control of their wildlife,” he said.

“Corrupt game rangers are also a problem. In Zimbabwe, we’ve seen rangers caught poaching rhino allowed to go scot-free, despite a mandatory 25-year sentence.”

Labels: poaching, rhinos

CAPE TOWN- A total of 94 animals, including 20 white rhino, were killed by poachers in the Kruger National Park last year, Environmental Affairs Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Friday.

Also on the list of animals poached in South Africa's flagship reserve were 35 impala, 15 buffalo and three lions, according to a written reply by the minister to a parliamentary question.

The list covers the twelve month period from April 2006 to the end of March this year.

Other animals poached included four zebra, three waterbuck, one elephant and a crocodile, Van Schalkwyk said.

Labels: poaching, rhinos

BUSHBUCKRIDGE- A stray rhino was rescued on Tuesday from villagers who wanted to kill it for its meat.

Rangers from the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency rescued the rhino in Cunningmore village in Limpopo.

One resident, Velly Mnisi, 33, said he was on his way to work about 07h00 when the rhino came charging towards him and broke through the fence of a mealie field and destroyed crops.

Mnisi said he ran for his life and shouted at other villagers, telling them to flee. But residents, including school children, later banded together and chased the rhino.

Mnisi said: "They were shouting: Kill it! Kill it! It destroyed our crops. We want its meat!"

He said the villagers began throwing stones at the rhino and waving hoes, axes, pangas, sticks and jungles knives.

Animal not harmed

Mnisi said another local resident, Richard Khosa, 46, contacted police, who alerted game rangers.

Mpumalanga tourism and parks agency (MTPA) spokesperson Jimmy Masombuka confirmed on Thursday that rangers had removed a white rhino from the area after anaesthetising it.

"I don't have all the details with me, but the animal was not harmed. It was taken to one of our parks."

Masombuka said officials had not established where the rhino had escaped.

"There was speculation that it was from the Kruger National Park because of its proximity to the area, but we are not sure," he said.

Kruger Park spokesperson William Mabaso said: "I am told that we were not directly involved, but one of our investigators contacted the MTPA which removed the animal."

Labels: acornhoek, bushbuckridge, escaped animals, poaching, rhinos

CAPE TOWN- Two suspected poachers, one armed with an AK47, fled into the bush after being shot by rangers on the eastern boundary of the Kruger National Park.

Rangers were patrolling the area on Tuesday as a rhino had been poached earlier this year when they saw two men climbing over the boundary fence, which also acts as the international border between Mozambique and South Africa, said South African National Parks spokeswoman Wanda Mkutshulwa.

"One of the suspects was armed with an AK47 assault rifle. The rangers instructed the men to stand still but the suspect with the rifle turned around.

Interpreting this as a threat the rangers opened fire on the suspects who managed to climb over the fence back into Mozambique, said Mkutshulwa.

"On further investigation, drops of blood were found, suggesting that at least one of the suspects was injured," said Mkutshulwa.

The KNP rangers were still investigating the scene for more evidence.

Labels: central kruger, poaching, rangers

The Pafuri-Banyini pan in South Africa's north-eastern Kruger National Park teems with game. Elephant bulls amble among clumps of marula trees and impala leap gracefully across the grassland, where buffalo graze.

Located in the triangle between the Limpopo and Luvuvhu rivers where South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique meet, the pan is more than an idyllic corner of the Kruger park. It will ultimately lie at the heart of the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park. This conservation area will encompass 35,000 square kilometres, allowing animals to follow ancient migration routes between the Kruger Park in South Africa, the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique and Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe.

The pressures that are being brought to bear on the pan are indicative of problems that the Transfrontier Park as a whole will have to grapple with- a matter of increasing importance as the deadline approaches for dropping another stretch of border fencing to create the conservation area.

The first section of fence to be taken down was a 15km strip in 2002, between Mozambique and South Africa- just north of where the Shingwedzi River enters the Kruger Park. This year, a 30km section of fence will be dropped south of the Shingwedzi- also between South Africa and Mozambique- after the presidents of Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique open the border post at Giriyondo.

This post, between the Kruger and the Limpopo Parks, is the first to be opened under the Transfrontier Park initiative. The ceremony is scheduled to take place in October.

Jack Greef, a former special forces operative who has worked in wildlife security in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Tanzania- and who now runs a crack ranger unit in the Kruger National Park- believes dropping the fence without beefing up patrols on both sides of the border will worsen poaching.

Reports have already surfaced of rhino poachers from Mozambique driving into the Kruger park through areas where the first section of fencing was dismantled. And, even though the Pafuri-Banyini pan lies some way north of Giriyondo- where the next stretch of fence is to come down- poachers are already taking a toll in the area.

"Zimbabweans cross the river, lay snares and sell bush meat in the villages in South Africa. Then they buy groceries here to take back to Zimbabwe," Greef said during a visit to the pan, pointing to one of several well-trodden footpaths leading to the Limpopo River.

In May, Greef's team of eight rangers found 79 snares at a spring near the Pafuri gate into the Kruger that had been set three nights before. By the time they reached the scene, a buffalo calf, hyena and impala had been killed.

"If we hadn't detected these snares, it would have been a slaughter house," said patrol leader Prison Manganye.

Two months later, Kruger rangers caught a poacher transporting 129 genet skins by car from the Mozambican border post at Pafuri to the Punda Maria gate into the Kruger park.

"That's virtually the entire population of genets along the Limpopo," noted Greef.

Mozambican park official Hernando Vukeya said 36 poachers armed with AK47 assault rifles have been arrested in the district during the past five years. Most were war veterans turned poachers. But, he said, the situation is under control.

"We are dealing with poaching very efficiently here."

There are currently about 70 rangers in mobile units in the Limpopo National Park who are in radio contact with their counterparts in the Kruger.

"Generally bigger is better," Greef concluded at his headquarters. "And with increased cross-border cooperation between ranger units, we can catch more poachers who escape by slipping across the border."

But, he is not as sanguine about the situation as Vukeya is.

Poaching is only part of the problem, however.

Just 30km east of Pafuri-Banyini pan, in the Limpopo National Park, lies Shikumba village: one of a string of settlements along the Limpopo River housing up to 20 000 people.

Inhabitants of these villages have refused to move elsewhere.

"We debated this issue and decided we would rather be fenced in and stay here," said Maria Nyampuli, one of the villagers. "We are not happy about it, it but we will adhere to the law."

However, certain villagers have also threatened to take up arms if the number of elephant in their area increases as a result of park fences being taken down. Elephant may kill people or trample crops, no small matter for communities that rely on subsistence farming for their survival.

"People were saying to me, 'We hear on the radio they will move elephants in here. If the animals come, we will take them out,'" says an ecologist who conducted field work in the area. "It's a war zone out there."

Given the number of weapons that are in circulation in the aftermath of Mozambique's 16-year civil war, the villagers' threats cannot be taken lightly.

"This place is awash with guns from the war, including AK47s," said a South African police inspector at the Pafuri border post. "You will see what happens if you try to force them to move."

Steve Collins, a development worker with extensive experience of communities living next to parks, is also concerned.

"Community development issues have become secondary to conservation," he said. "This is colonialism by conservationists."

Nyampuli and her family members were among thousands who fled the area next to the Limpopo during the war, some going as far as Johannesburg. Many returned when the conflict ended in 1992. By then, trading stores established by Portuguese colonists had been burned down and most game had been slaughtered and eaten. The only means of survival for people in Shikumba and neighbouring villages is farming, but drought has pushed them to the edge of starvation.

"There's no rain," sighed Nyampuli. "Only hunger."

Villagers acknowledge that the transfrontier park may help them escape poverty -- even if it also causes headaches in terms of incoming elephants.

"If it can give our children jobs, if it gives us water and arable lands, then we support it," said one inhabitant of the area, pushing his bicycle down a deeply rutted track that passes for a road.

However, a community in South Africa is less optimistic about the eventual benefits of the Transfrontier conservation area.

The Makuleke ethnic group is the first community to have won back land in one of the country's national parks, under a restitution system that was set up to assist people who were forced off their land during colonialism and apartheid.

It now leases this land to lodge operators, including Wilderness Safaris, with substantial revenues flowing back into the community. The Makuleke are concerned their animals will be poached when they wander into Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

"We need to come up with programmes of direct benefit to communities in Zimbabwe and Mozambique," said community spokesperson Lamson Maluleke, who also complains that the Makuleke have not been adequately involved in decisions about the regional park.

However, the Peace Parks Foundation- which originated the idea of the Transfrontier conservation area- insists that community benefits lie at the heart of its work.

The foundation is based in Stellenbosch, in the southern part of South Africa. It was founded in 1997 to help create cross-border parks and promote regional stability. The foundation assists governments to create these conservation areas by securing grants from donor agencies.

To date, six Transfrontier parks have been established, all in Southern Africa, but there are plans to expand the concept throughout the continent.

The Limpopo villagers, says Ari van Wyk- transfrontier park coordinator in Mozambique- will probably stay in the park, but be allocated hunting quotas.

"There will always be subsistence hunting when people are hungry," he said.

As the amount of game circulating between Kruger and the Limpopo parks increases with the dropping of fences, Limpopo villagers may find that their settlements fall within migration routes. With this in mind, a grant of about $8.7-million has been provided by France to relocate villagers to the edges of game corridors- and to provide them with irrigation systems.

Another group of people inhabiting the Limpopo National Park- 6,000 people living in eight villages along the Shingwedzi River- will benefit from a grant of about $7.5-million made available by the German government.

Part of these funds will be used to establish an irrigation scheme outside the park where soils are better, says Van Wyk, by way of an incentive to get villagers to leave the conservation area.

"Most have already accepted resettlement because they live in remote areas without services," he noted. Resettlement is expected to take three to five years.

In addition, certain camps for tourists in the Mozambican section of the Transfrontier park are to be run by villagers.

"We have calculated Limpopo has a carrying capacity of about 1,000 beds for 300,000 potential visitors a year," Peace Parks Foundation chief executive Willem van Riet said. "That translates to about 3,000 jobs."

According to Van Riet, the Limpopo National Park has already created 250 jobs where previously there were none.

Maluleke's concerns about Zimbabwe are echoed among staffers at the Peace Parks Foundation, however.

The country has become increasingly isolated over the past five years, in the wake of a controversial programme of farm seizures, and three elections marred by allegations of human rights abuse and vote rigging. These events have taken their toll on Zimbabwe's economy, creating mass unemployment and triple-digit inflation. Certain Zimbabweans have turned to poaching in a bid to make ends meet.

"Until Zimbabwe comes back into the fold, nothing will happen there because donors are not going to put up money," said Van Riet.

Wildlife operators such as Wilderness Safaris acknowledge that communities living alongside and in the parks will have to be catered for by the transfrontier initiative if it is to succeed. For all this, the park remains an ideal tourism opportunity for them.

"Eventually you will be able to visit three national parks in three different countries without a passport as long as you exit on your side," said Gary van Rensburg, manager of the newest Wilderness Safaris lodge, which opened at Pafuri last month. "That's really attractive from a tourism point of view- and we're right at the centre of it."

Read more about the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park here.

Labels: giriyondo, great limpopo park, greater limpopo park, levuvhu, luvhuvhu, pafuri, poaching

MUSINA- Five endangered white rhino have been poisoned along with scores of other large game in Limpopo's worst single poaching tragedy.

The five rhino were poisoned at a natural waterhole on Nwanedi Nature Reserve near Musina, in what police are describing as an "extremely well-planned slaughter" of 26 large game and scores of smaller animals such as baboon and birds.

The horns had been chopped off all five rhino by the time game rangers discovered the killing field on Monday morning.

The dead animals included 10 nyala, three blue wildebeest, two zebra, one kudu, three impala, and seven waterhogs, valued at roughly R2M.

"The animals were found lying dead next to the waterhole, and must have died shortly after drinking.

"There were even numerous dead birds, which looked as though they had dropped out of the sky while trying to fly away," said police superintendent Ronel Otto on Tuesday.

"We analysed the water, and have found traces of a poison called Temic. It definitely looks like premeditated poaching."

Rangers and police trackers managed to follow the poachers' trail to nearby Solovhodwe village, but the tracks were lost in the village centre.

Otto said: "We are following a number of other leads, and are also actively encouraging villagers to help us trace these killers.

"This kind of poaching endangers tourism, which is the biggest employer in the region.

"There is also the danger that poisoned water contaminates supplies used by humans in the area. This could turn out to be a really serious threat."

Otto said the incident was the largest single poaching case on record with Limpopo police, but was not able to give figures on the extent or regularity of illegal hunting or poaching in the province.

Nwanedi Nature Reserve is 9 300ha in area and boasted 15 white rhino and an unspecified number of leopard, but no other 'big five' game.

Reserve staff, who declined to be named, said Nwanedi was plagued by petty poaching of kudu, eland, and impala to supply illegal butcheries.

No rhino had been poached before, and the slaughter on Monday marked a new and "terrifying" change in tactics.

Limpopo environment department general manager Fixon Hlongwane expressed shock at the incident on Tuesday, urging police to arrest everyone implicated in the slaughter and pledging an in-depth government probe into security at Nwanedi Nature Reserve.

Labels: limpopo, poaching, rhinos

HOEDSPRUIT (Kruger Times)- Five poachers, responsible for the killing of three rhinos in the Kruger National Park and adjacent Mozambique, have been arrested. This comes after a successful joint operation by SANParks Corporate Investigation Services (CIS) and the South African and Mozambican police.

In November last year, the poachers shot the first rhino in the Sabie Game Park on the Mozambican side of Kruger’s south eastern border.

Another rhino carcass was found at the end of September this year just south of the Sabie River in the Crocodile Bridge section of the KNP.

While CIS was investigating the incident, a second rhino was killed in the same area and a third two weeks later.

Shortly thereafter CIS identified the group and had gathered sufficient information to carry out an operation and make arrests.

With this information in place, a cross border operation with the Mozambican and South African Police was undertaken.

The joint operation, at the beginning of November, led to Kaboko, a village at Koromana Dam in Mozambique where two suspects were arrested. An AK47 and a Mosine Nagant rifle, as well as bloodied clothes and other evidence were confiscated.

The suspects confessed to killing the rhinos in KNP and the rhino that was shot in Mozambique in 2003, as well as other armed poaching incidents in the area.

A second operation, based on further information obtained by CIS, took the joint investigative team to Ngungwa village, about 50km north of Koromane Dam. Three more arrests were made and another AK47 and Mosine Nagant rifle were found.

“With these arrests we thought the problem had been solved,” said Don English of CIS Special Operations.

However, on 22 November and barely two weeks after these arrests were made, two more rhino carcasses were found shot by a second group of poachers in the same area in the Crocodile Bridge section of the Park.

“A joint cross-border follow-up operation into Mozambique in conjunction with the Mozambican Police provided valuable intelligence and arrests are imminent.

Furthermore, the success of these operations would not be possible without the support of and excellent working relationship with the Mozambican and South African Police,” said Don.

by Lynette Strauss, Kruger Times

Labels: crocodile bridge, poaching, rhinos