'On my watch, our rhinos will not go extinct'

17 August 2014 - 02:02 By Pearlie Joubert
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Edna Molewa did not grow in a place of unspoilt natural beauty inhabited by wild animals. But the township in Warmbaths, now known as Bela-Bela, in Limpopo, did make the minister of environmental affairs tough and streetwise.

And she does not mind taking difficult and controversial decisions about the environment. She endorsed the Transkei coast toll road and has, with reservations, come out in favour of fracking in the Karoo.

This week, she tackled another difficult decision and cleared up the confusion around plans to protect South Africa's beleaguered rhinos.

"Yes, I took charge. The poaching of rhinos is unbearable to me," she said.

"Things are going to change. You can't just carry on doing things when you see it's not working. We now know the rhino-poaching statistics [658 killed in South Africa this year, 418 in the Kruger National Park]. We now have the population statistics. It's clearly telling us to do something even more drastic than what we've been doing. Our rhino population is now so sensitive. We need to make a bigger difference. The police need to step up [their efforts]. The board [SANParks] needs to speak up."

Do you care for rhinos or are you just doing your job?

My job is to protect rhinos and I enjoy doing my job. South Africans did so much to ensure the existence of rhinos. I will not see that investment go to nothing. On my watch, our rhinos will not go extinct.

Rhinos are one of a kind. Hundreds and thousands of people from across the world are coming here to see rhinos. For them, for our own children and the ecosystem, I will, as the minister, look after rhinos. South Africa will be a failure if we don't ensure the survival of the rhino. That will not happen while I'm here.

Because of the SANParks board's decision to deny permission for rhinos to be evacuated from Kruger, they will continue to face the poaching onslaught that intensifies towards the end of the year - 400 to 500 could be killed between now and the end of the year.

Everybody understands clearly that the translocation of rhinos out of the Kruger will happen.

Yes, there's a time frame and particular conditions need to exist to move rhinos. We are now in the hot and rainy season and we have missed out, to some extent. A spike in poaching can be expected. But we're moving as swiftly as possible. Moving some of our animals away from the poachers in the Kruger is happening this year - before it's too hot and too late.

We'll make it impossible for a poacher to get close to a rhino inside the Kruger. It's a massive space and there's real work that needs to be done. We will protect those rhinos remaining in the park.

The board suspended the head of conservation services, Dr Hector Magome, because of the selling of 250 Kruger rhinos - a decision that was part of plans for moving rhinos away from the poaching threat.

The removal or translocation of rhinos has always happened in the park. The money made from this is ploughed back into conservation. It's necessary that we do the translocation. I understand that the board had issues with proper processes not being followed.

SANParks has said that the police and the courts are not doing enough to fight rhino poaching. Policemen have been caught assisting poachers. Very few kingpins are caught.

The police are going to do their job. They're going to be working harder still.

The 198 people arrested on charges relating to rhino smuggling [is more] than ever before. Those people didn't walk to a police station and hand themselves over - they were arrested by the police.

All the departments need to work together - intelligence, justice and the police. General Johan Jooste [a retired army general employed by SANParks to lead the anti-poaching campaign] is making a difference. He has real powers and I have faith in him.

We have to stop the people before they get into the park, and to do that we need additional technology.

Are you talking about using drones in the Kruger park?

Yes. It's happening. We will have a [meeting] with the transport minister as soon as possible to clear the use of drones.

You cancelled a contract with Pathfinder to provide rhino-poaching intelligence.

We couldn't have a situation in which we are paying for intelligence that should be gathered by the Secret Service and our other own established intelligence services. We'll increase intelligence [capabilities].

There is tension between development and conservation interests, with proponents of development asserting that if you care for animals, you don't care for the poor.

People say to me: "Why do you make such noise and want all this effort to fight people killing animals?" We know there are very poor communities and we know there's a strong connection between poverty and poaching.

At all times, I have to fight poverty, but I also have to safeguard our environment. I have both priorities at heart.

We're under attack. I will not allow one of the big five - our rhinos - to be threatened with extinction like this. If you remove one of the big five from our parks, you will lose tourists. And if you lose tourists, you will have more poverty. The rhino is an iconic animal. We have to take care of these animals because they draw tourism to our country.

You announced a new strategy for looking after rhinos this week. You also announced you were moving them to safe locations and creating population-growth nodes.

We went to the cabinet - we now have a decision to keep on translocating rhinos out of the Kruger.

We will increase our rhino numbers by taking them to safer areas in this country and in neighbouring states [such as Botswana and Zambia];

We will increase international co-operation - we are talking to the Chinese and there's a ban on Vietnamese [and Ukrainian] trophy hunting;

We're deploying the security cluster - more intelligence, more cops, the dog unit and other measures - and intervening in anti-poaching initiatives aggressively; and

We're looking at long-term sustainable measures that include the creation of economic alternatives [to poaching] for communities.

Are any Kruger rhinos going to end up as stuffed trophies on a hunter's wall? I understand that some of the Kruger rhino are going to be sent to people who allow rhino trophy hunting.

Thirty-five percent of our rhinos are on private game farms. When we translocate Kruger rhinos, there's an agreement between the buyer and SANParks.

There's a different objective to selling some of the Kruger's rhinos now.

There are four categories for the translocation of rhino:

Moving them to strongholds in the country - to other parks and to communal land;

Moving them to private game farms;

Moving them to neighbouring states; and

Moving them to safer areas in the Kruger park.

We have oversight on how many, and by whom, rhino may be shot as trophies every year.

Are you being pressured by the strong lobby, including some SANParks board members, to support the lifting of the ban on selling rhino horn?

I'm pressured by the dying rhino. Nobody else is pressuring me. Even the group lobbying for the legal selling of horn has to start thinking out of the box because rhinos are dying.

I have not arrived at a stage where I have a preference. We have to investigate the possibility of trading in rhino horn ... [we] have to understand the black market and the culture of those using horn before we reach conclusions.

I'm not there yet. I'm at the place where I'm saying: "Leave our rhino alone."

 

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