Global response needed to contain poaching

Global response needed to contain poaching

 

Picture: African migrants – World Press Picture of the year

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The number of rhinos at Sanbona is not revealed; the rangers describe their locations in code – precautions in these places against poachers. A careful watch is also kept on the elephants as well as a group of exotic residents, white lions, which this reserve was one of the first to introduce back into the wild.

I am on holiday after meeting a friend from Kabul while covering the funeral ceremonies for Nelson Mandela in December; accepting with alacrity his invitation to spend a bit of time here along with a few others in a group with the common experience of working in Afghanistan. I came to South Africa with limited knowledge but with curiosity and an interest in wildlife. I was not fully aware of the scale of the depredation taking place or the startling rise in the scale of killings.

What is clear is the value placed by those in the frontline of conservation on awareness of what’s going among people abroad, the damage being done and the daunting challenges faced by those trying to battle an illicit industry worth $19bn a year, serviced increasingly by organised crime.

“Getting the message across to an international audience is obviously pretty much a key. It is, of course, the demand in China and other parts of Asia which is making these vast amounts of money possible, bringing in the criminal syndicates” Paul Vorster, the general manager at Sanbona, stressed. “The poachers who are genuinely local here make comparatively little money, the millions are further up the chain, that is why the action needs to be international.” There is a view among some that an impoverished population simply does not have the luxury of being concerned about wildlife in their daily struggle for a livelihood. International aid, it is held, should primarily focus on the plight of humans, not animals.

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Tags: Africa, international journalists, poaching, protect rhinos