African Wildlife & Environment Issue 81

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

Due to the rampant poaching, the decision was taken to move these animals to more secure locations. Does this sound familiar? Many thousand White Rhinos were captured and relocated over the years. That this was a runaway success story there is no doubt, as the White and Black Rhino thrived in their new homes and the population grew to over 10 000 White Rhinos and over 400 Black Rhinos in the KNP alone. Once the severe poaching onslaught started in 2008, however, there has been a major impact on the rhino population in the KNP. More than 70% of them have died, with the majority being poached. The number of rhino poached each year is coming down; however, this is most likely because there are less rhinos for the poachers to find. What is the future of these magnificent pachyderms, if we cannot secure them in the world-famous KNP? Part of the ongoing problem is the integrity of some officials who have succumbed to the lure of big bucks offered by the crime syndicates, who continue to control the rhino poaching levels. Corruption is rife at many different levels. Are we at the tipping point that Umfolozi Game Reserve was at 60 years ago? Should SANParks be considering setting aside exclusion zones within the KNP, or should some rhinos be moved to other areas where they could be more secure? The problem is that Bovine TB has been picked up in the KNP rhino population, and this will make any translocation out of the affected area very difficult. Due to the great demand for rhino horn, many private reserves and game farms, that might have considered taking rhino, are now refusing because of the exorbitant costs associated with securing them. There is still a debate around the international trade of rhino horn, which many private owners are pushing for, to raise funds to plough back into security measures, but this is a non-starter currently, because South Africa is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and its aim is to ensure that international trade will not threaten the survival of a species. Many believe that even by flooding the market with rhino horn you will not meet the demand, and the chance is extremely high that the crime syndicates will buy up these surplus horns and continue to manipulate the

black-market prices. Unfortunately, there is no simple solution. In South Africa, there are many private game reserves that also have rhino populations, and these contribute to the overall rhino population of the country. The private reserves have also been hit hard by poaching; however the collective efforts to combat this have been exemplary, and vast amounts have been spent on security efforts. This has all been done without any assistance from the government, and for most private reserves this is not sustainable. Some of the Associated Private Nature Reserves (APNR) that link up with KNP on the open western boundary, started with de-horning programmes to try and mitigate the constant poaching threat. What happened was that the poaching was then deflected to those reserves that were not dehorning. There is currently a far wider blanket approach to dehorning, even in the provincial and national parks, which will hopefully slow down the intense poaching threat. The fences were dropped between the APNR and KNP in the early 1990s, and since then the wildlife has moved freely back and forth between the reserves and the KNP. The rhino in particular move far more than was ever thought before, and water availability in the dry winter months plays a part. There are many other private reserves that are not adjoining the KNP, that also have significant numbers of rhino, and with that they have sky-high security costs, just to try protecting their populations. The Selati Game Reserve along with other reserves have also dehorned all of their rhinos. The maintenance of dehorning, which needs to be done every 18 months is essential, because of the horn regrowth. This is very expensive. This mitigation measure could deflect poachers to other areas where no dehorning has been done but is one of the desperate measures being taken in these desperate times. Further drastic actions as taken by Natal Parks Board 60 years ago might have to be repeated if we are going to save the species. If a National Park that is world famous like the Kruger, cannot say with confidence that they will prevent rhinos from becoming locally extinct, what is the solution? This is where people with passion, commitment, drive, and necessary expertise all work together to find a workable solution. Where reserves are fighting daily battles on their

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