Pretoria – At least 499 rhinos were poached across South Africa last year, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment revealed Tuesday.
As many as 406 were killed on state properties and 93 others on privately owned parks/reserves/farms.
This was an increase of 51 in comparison to 448 rhinos poached in 2022.
“The pressure again has been felt in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province with Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park facing the brunt of poaching cases losing 307 of the total national poaching loss,” said Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister Barbara Creecy.
“This is the highest poaching loss within this province.
“While KZN recorded 49 arrests and 13 firearms seized, multi-disciplinary teams continue to work tirelessly in an attempt to slow this relentless pressure.”
However, the minister said 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 program there are a number of fence monitors employed from neighboring 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,” said Minister Creecy.
She also commended the work performed by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation – Hawks – in several regional and transnational engagements to enhance the government’s integrated approach to combat wildlife trafficking.
Minister Creecy said responsible partnerships between the public and private sectors, and the financial and transport sectors remains critical in combating international wildlife trafficking.
She said the approach was not exclusive to South Africa, but was followed within the region and transnationally.
This involves working with the transit and end-user countries in Southeast Asia, especially with China, Singapore, Qatar, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
In relation to rhino prosecutions, verdicts were handed down in 36 cases of which 35 resulted in guilty verdicts and one in a not guilty verdict.
The cases resulted in the conviction of 45 accused rhino poachers/rhino horn traffickers with a conviction rate of 97%.
Various combined interventions can be attributed to the decrease of rhino poached at KNP in 2023 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 SAPS, and SAPS forensic teams.
- An extensive and ongoing dehorning programme that 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.
- Radar detection systems that remotely track any illegal entry by poachers on foot into the KNP.
