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Save our rhinos!

Kathryn McConnachie
By Kathryn McConnachie, Digital Media Editor at ITWeb.
Johannesburg, 22 Sept 2011

Today marks the second annual World Rhino Day, on which people around the globe are encouraged to speak out against rhino poaching. The event is an initiative of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

“Rhino Day is the culmination of a month-long campaign by the WWF and other partners, encouraging the public to help support SA's rhino warriors - the men and women at the frontline who risk their lives daily against the sophisticated, ruthless and heavily-armed international criminal gangs who run the illegal rhino horn trade,” says the organisation.

This year alone, SA has lost at least 287 rhinos, including 16 or more critically endangered black rhinos. A majority of the poaching incidents have occurred in the world famous Kruger National Park, but privately-owned rhinos have also been targeted.

According to the WWF, the criminal syndicates operating are highly organised and use advanced technologies.

“The current wave of poaching is being committed by sophisticated criminal networks that use helicopters, night-vision equipment, veterinary tranquilisers and silencers to kill rhinos at night,” says the WWF.

The organisation says that as the poachers become more technologically advanced, it is imperative that anti-poaching efforts do the same.

“WWF recommends technologies that have proven abilities to assist with rhino monitoring and offer traceability of rhino trophies. These may include technologies ranging from GPS devices, conventional radio transmitters to much higher end telemetry devices.”

Uphill battle

Acting director and fundraising manager of Save the Rhino International Lucy Boddam-Whetham, says governments of rhino range countries should invest more financial resources in staff and equipment in reserves and national parks.

“The level of technology available to individual reserves is highly variable depending on the financial support available,” says Boddam-Whetham.

“Currently, most rhino horns leaving southern Africa are destined for end-use markets in southeast and east Asia, especially Vietnam and China. Since 2006, illegal rhino horn trade has progressively worsened and is concurrent with an increasing sophistication in poaching activities and a growing Asian footprint in southern and eastern Africa.”

Boddam-Whetham also notes that while rhino horn has long been used as an ingredient in Asian traditional medicine, it is now also being marked as a cure for non-traditional medical conditions such as cancer.

“There has also been a progressive decline in rhino horn recoveries since 2001, which suggests there has been a drop in the effectiveness of law enforcement in Africa, especially in Zimbabwe and SA,” says Boddam-Whetham.

“Across Africa as a whole, in 2001, 68% of all illegally procured horns were intercepted but, by 2009, horn recoveries had dropped to less than 8%.”

Satellite tracking

Boddam-Whetham says different countries have different protocols for dealing with rhino poaching, and these have recorded varying degrees of success.

“For example, in Zimbabwe there has been widespread de-horning of the country's rhino population in an effort to decrease the incentive to poachers. Obviously, where de-horning is the accepted protocol, the use of satellite tracking devices is not an option.

“That said, there are a number of benefits to being able to continually monitor the movements of individual rhinos. For example, anti-poaching and monitoring patrols are able to locate animals much quicker and thereby offer a more effective presence,” says Boddam-Whetham.

“There are also companies investigating the use of microdot GPSes in rhino horn. Unlike the units traditionally used, these satellite tracking devices would be sufficiently discreet that they are unlikely to be removed by poachers should a tracked rhino be killed and its horn removed.

“This would then allow for the horn to be located even after it has been removed from the rhino and, thereby, hopefully increase the chance of apprehending poachers.”

Funding is key

“The use of satellite tracking devices is, however, expensive and, therefore, may not be accessible to all rhino projects. As with many options to combat rhino poaching, it is part of a multifaceted tool kit that must be implemented in conjunction with other elements (for example increased pressure for harsher sentencing) to be effective.”

Boddam-Whetham says satellite tracking is just part of a multifaceted anti-poaching toolkit that must be implemented in conjunction with other elements such as increased pressure for harsher sentencing of poachers, in order to be effective.

“Funds are needed to tackle this poaching crisis and we also need to continue to raise awareness of the current situation,” concludes Boddam-Whetham.

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