Portfolio Committee seeks solutions for rhino poaching

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In order to address this problem, government and various other role-players have initiated various interventions to address the surge in rhino poaching. The workshop comes as the number of rhino poached for their horn, since January 2013, increased to 919.

So far this year, 560 rhino have been poached in the Kruger National Park, while the provincial figures stand at a total of 359. In Limpopo alone, 105 rhino have been poached, 82 in North West, 79 in KwaZulu-Natal and 77 in Mpumalanga. The total number of suspected poachers arrested has increased to 316.

Need for cooperation

The meeting was opened by Water and Environmental Affairs Minister, Edna Molewa, who emphasised the need for cooperation by various stakeholders and indicated the government's plan moving forward. She reiterated that continuing to do more of the same is not working. The solution to rhino poaching is complex and needs innovative solutions.

Members of the Portfolio Committee, under the chairmanship of advocate Johnny de Lange, were briefed on all issues related to rhino conservation, management, safety and security, trends, structure, nature of black markets in wildlife products, consumer behaviour, and rhino economics. Discussions also focussed on possible solutions to destroy or at least seriously debilitate the existence of a lucrative, rapidly growing, underground black market illegally trading in rhino horn.

Proposed solutions

Some of the proposed solutions included:

• Increased involvement of communities, including community ownership of rhino and benefit-sharing by communities.
  
• Emphasis on cross-border collaboration, including cross-border enforcement operations to disrupt local criminal networks.
  
• Enhancing actionable intelligence to enable South Africa to disrupt transnational criminal networks involved in the illegal trade in rhino horn.
  
• Implementation of a mechanism to increase the conviction rate in rhino-related cases.
  
• Converting the present ranger corps into the best anti-poaching force in Africa.
  
• Implementation of mechanisms to improve communication and cooperation between private landowners, security forces and the environmental sector.
  
• The continued use of the DNA project, RhoDIS, to enhance enforcement, prosecution and the creation of a national rhino DNA database.
  
• Incentivise the strictly limited and regulated trade and possession of rhino as a live commodity.
  
• Strategic, targeted culturally sensitive demand reduction initiatives.
  
• Introducing a strictly limited and regulated trade mechanism for rhino horn through which only legal horn from legitimate stockpiles, and not harvested horns, are sourced.

De Lange emphasised that the committee expects that all interventions should be based on and support protection, conservation and sustainable use, which are the cornerstones of the environmental rights afforded to the people of South Africa in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution. The principle of sustainable use as an integral part of conservation is not only enshrined in the Constitution and the country's environmental legislation.

It was emphasised that all parties present shared a common concern and interest, and that more similar engagements need to be held as the government prepares to table its proposal regarding the trade in rhino horn to CITES COP17 in 2016.