SADC needs to fight wildlife crime

SADC needs to fight wildlife crime

By BRIAN KAJENGO

Those were the words from a philanthropist, and main funder of Mozambique’s Gorongosa National park Greg Carr.

He says southern African governments and the private sector need to collaborate more to stop wildlife crime which threatens the region’s rhino and elephant.

The Southern African region said to have more rhinos and elephants than any other region in the world. The region, according to TRAFFIC, has around 95% of all white rhino and 40% of all black rhino.

The report indicates that 25,000 African elephants killed in 2011, while 22,000 were killed in 2012 and just over 20,000 in 2013. This is out of a population estimated between 420,000 and 650,000.

“We need to arrest people who are involved, we need to arrest the big fish who are involved and not just the people who are working on the ground...We need to share information and make sure that the people who are involved are accountable and go to jail,” Mr Carr said.

Mr. Carr believes that Tran boundary and intergovernmental collaboration could solve the problem of wildlife crime.

“I have been seeing some hope as governments of Southern Africa and East Africa are working together to stop the rhino trading, to stop the products before they leave Africa and go to Asia,” said Carr.

Carr says that strict punishment meted on all those involved in rhino trade, and hose involved in rhino trade claim the animal’s horn has some rich medicinal properties is a lie.

“People all around the world should stop buying rhino horn, they have no medicinal properties, it’s a waste of money to buy rhino horn. I hope that the illegal trade in rhino stops,” he told IPS.

Several experts among the 3,000 delegates attending the IUCN World Parks Congress in Sydney have called for increased transboundary and multi-stakeholder partnerships to address wildlife crime.

The establishment of transfrontier parks has widely been viewed as a step towards finding solutions.

The Head of Ezemvelo KZN Wild Life in South Africa Dr. Bandile Mkhize told IPS that “everything possible” done to conserve Southern Africa’s rhinos.

“What we can say is that rhinos cannot be extinct on our watch, it would really be a bloat on the legacy of people like Nelson Mandela and Ian Player if we allow rhinos to be extinct,” said Dr. Mkhize.

“We definitely have to make sure that these transfrontier conservation parks really work, that is why we are in constant engagement with our counterparts in the region to ensure that the scourge of rhino poaching does not interfere with the good cause of transfrontier conservation,” said Mkhize.

Speaking during a side event on rhino conservation during the ongoing World Parks Congress, South African Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa said that South Africa has scaled up efforts to work with neighbouring countries to curb rhino poaching. These efforts include the signing of an MOU with Mozambique to tackle poaching on the Limpopo Transfrontier Park.

The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), through its Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) Programme is currently working with governments and other stakeholders across the region to strengthen collaboration in the protection of natural resources.

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