Rhino poaching has been declared a national priority crime - but it continues unabated, with 1063 of the rare animals killed in South Africa this year so far. The Kruger National Park has borne the brunt of the onslaught, with 785 killed in the reserve.As Mario Scholtz, SanParks' anti-poaching head, waited to address a wildlife crime discussion panel at Unisa in Pretoria yesterday, he was informed of the killing of four more rhino."We are 42 rhinos short of last year's 827 rhinos killed in the park," he said.Last year 1215 rhinos were killed in South Africa.Scholtz said 20 rhino- poaching groups operated in the Kruger National Park daily.The panel agreed that current anti-poaching efforts were misguided and no match for the work of sophisticated syndicates that had government officials and game reserve staff, including rangers, on their payrolls.Werner Booysen, Deloitte risk advisory manager, said South Africa's current anti-poaching approach was "outdated, sentimental and emotional".He said an aggressive approach to counter poaching was needed"We need to channel our energy, funds and everything we do in this space towards countering those syndicates that operate in wildlife trafficking."Julian Rademeyer , author of Killing for Profit, said dealing with poaching was only a priority on paper."My concern is over cross-border organised crime, and the fact that syndicates are not limited only to rhino poaching. They are tied to other crimes that allow syndicates to entrench themselves in South Africa."Rademeyer stressed the role of intelligence in fighting the scourge and said the focus should be on those who created the market for the illegal rhino horn.Colonel Johan Jooste, operational commander of the Hawks endangered species unit, said environmental crimes were the third-most committed crime in the world.Jooste said that the sad part of wildlife crime was that the extinction of species was final."Rhino poaching is a priority crime. Our focus is collating efforts and getting role-players together to implement a wildlife trafficking strategy," he said...