KZN records highest number of rhino poaching in past year

KwaZulu-Natal has recorded the highest number of rhino poaching in the country in the past year. Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy said on Tuesday (February 27) that Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park faced the brunt of poaching cases losing 307 of the total national poaching loss.

Last year, 499 rhinos were poached across South Africa, 406 were killed on state properties and 93 on privately owned parks, reserves and/or farms, said Ms Creecy. This was 51 more than the 448 rhinos poached in 2022.

The minister addressed a media briefing on the 2023 national rhino poaching statistics in St Lucia, KwaZulu-Natal, she said the province recorded 49 arrests and 13 firearms were seized by multi-disciplinary teams that continue to work tirelessly in an attempt to slow the pressure on rhino poaching. The Kruger National Park (KNP) recorded a 37% decrease from 2022 with a total of 78 rhino poached in 2023. No rhinos were poached in any other National Parks.

“As part of the government’s poverty relief programme there are a number of fence monitors employed from neighbouring communities that patrol the western boundary fence of the KNP and report fence breakages, illegal tracks and people entering the KNP as well as animals escaping from the KNP,” Ms Creecy said.

She said the decrease of rhino poached at KNP in 2023 can be attributed to a number of interventions, including:

• Strong collaboration between external stakeholders permanently based in KNP and attending to various Wildlife Crime cases such as the Skukuza Stock Theft and Endangered Species Unit, Skukuza South African Police Service (SAPS) and SAPS forensic teams;
• An extensive and ongoing dehorning programme, which focuses on the dehorning of all rhino in core areas;
• The continued implementation of the KNP Ranger Services Integrity Management Plan, which is a holistic approach that assesses the drivers and dynamics of corruption, and then addresses these with a comprehensive set of actions that focuses on building individual integrity and organisational resilience to corruption;
• Improved access control through the installation of Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras and gate cameras; and
• Radar detection systems that remotely track any illegal entry by poachers on foot into the KNP.

The minister commended the work performed by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation - the Hawks - in several regional and transnational engagements to enhance the government’s integrated approach to combat wildlife trafficking.

“Responsible partnerships between the public and private sectors, and the financial and transporting sectors remains critical in combating international wildlife trafficking,” said Ms Creecy.

“The approach is not exclusive to South Africa but is followed within the region and transnationally working with the transit and end user countries in South-East Asia, especially with the People’s Republic of China, Singapore, Qatar, Malaysia and Vietnam.”

Of the 36 verdicts handed down in connection with rhino poaching, 35 were guilty and one not-guilty.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Environmental Working Group (EWG) meets on a biannual basis to share best practice in the investigation and prosecution of environmental crime and to address challenges experienced.

These meetings also foster closer collaboration between the provincial conservation authorities dealing with wildlife trafficking cases and to help identify repeat offenders moving around the country to further the implementation of the National Integrated Strategy to Combat Wildlife Trafficking (NISCWT) strategy.

In the 2023/24 financial year, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) embarked on a consultative process to revise both the Black and White Rhinoceros Biodiversity Management Plans (BMP) in line with the provision of the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act.