Going to war to save the last of Kruger's rhinos

Battlefields of Greed | Despite the efforts of 500 rangers, supported by soldiers and private contractors, the Kruger National Park is losing the battle to keep dwindling numbers of endangered rhinos safe from poachers.

Battles in fully-fledged war with dead bodies; nightly border crossings of armed insurgents; helicopters; soldiers and mutilated animals, are fought daily in the Kruger National Park - and rhinos are the innocent victims.

Last year, 47 poachers were killed in the park, but the rhino death toll was much higher.

It is estimated that of all the world's rhinos left in the wild, 60% are inside the borders of the Kruger National Park, Africa's second-largest game reserve. Poachers kill as many as three of them every day.

The poachers supply the horn to international crime syndicates, which pay between R300000 and R600000 a kilogram for it. The average rhino horn weighs 4kg to 6kg, making the trade more lucrative than smuggling drugs.

The Kruger is losing the war, despite the efforts of its 500 rangers, who are backed by soldiers and private contractors.

Five days ago, the rhino toll in the park for this year was 184. There are a further 34 dead in Limpopo, 10 in Mpumalanga, 32 in North West and 24 in KwaZulu-Natal. The total is higher than it was at the same time last year.

At this rate, at least another 500 rhinos will be killed in the Kruger over the next eight months.

This compares with 122 poached in the whole of South Africa in 2009, which was the worst year in two decades.

By the park's own estimate, it now has only about 800 black and 9000 to 10000 white rhinos. The black rhino is internationally listed as critically endangered and the white rhino as "near threatened".

Ironically, in the early '90s, rhinos from other African countries were brought to South Africa to save them from poachers.

Apart from the 47 armed poachers killed in 66 firefights in the Kruger last year, another 86 were arrested. In the first three months of this year, 30 have been either shot dead or arrested, and 108 positive sightings of poacher groups have been recorded.

There is not a single rhino left in Mozambique. At the rate at which rhinos are being killed now, South African conservation efforts could be too little, too late.

An investigation has revealed that:

If anti-poaching efforts are not dramatically stepped up in the Kruger, the tipping point - when the death rate overtakes the birth rate - for South Africa's black rhino will be reached in 2016 and white rhinos will become extinct in eight years;

Rhino poaching increases dramatically around full moon. Last month, when 55 rhinos were poached in the Kruger Park, almost half of them were shot in the week around full moon. On Tuesday this week - the first day of full moon - three rhino carcasses were found in the park;

About 80 armed incursions are made into the Kruger every month, between 70% and 90% of them from Mozambique;

Vietnam consumes 80% of the rhino horns poached in South Africa; and

Poachers, who usually operate in groups of three, can make R100000 a horn.

"This is a war," said Johan Jooste, a retired army general brought to the Kruger in 2012 to assist in stopping the scourge.

"We are in a war situation fighting armed insurgents crossing our border daily to shoot and kill rhinos," he said.

"This war is not going to be won in the bush. We can only win in the courts and in the boardrooms.

"This is not a South African problem - the world needs to get involved. The poachers are getting more and more hardcore because the demand is growing.

"These are not people poaching because they're poor and hungry - they're greedy," said Jooste.

Trading in rhino horn has been banned since 1976 under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species. This has had no effect on the demand for rhino horn, which has exploded in Vietnam and other parts of Asia. As the Vietnamese middle class grows, so does the demand.

Throughout Asia, rhino horn can be bought in powder or liquid form and it is often sold in pharmacies.

It has long been regarded in China and other Asian countries as a treatment for everything from night blindness and bad circulation to skin disease and fever. More recently, it has been touted as a cure for cancer.

In fact, rhino horn has no medicinal value. It consists mainly of keratin - the chief component in hair, fingernails, and horse's hooves.

Every day at least two armed groups of poachers enter the Kruger from Mozambique, mainly in the southern regions of the park.

Most of the park's rhinos are concentrated in the N'wanetsi, Houtboschrand and Kingfisher areas - the regions where most of them are killed.

Last month in N'wanetsi, the tracks of about 40 poacher gangs were found, four direct contacts took place and about 20 reports of distant gunfire were received.

The Kruger's 350km border with Mozambique stretches through poorly patrolled and seldom visited wilderness. Much of the land on the Mozambican side is occupied by private game farms.

"I grew up in the bush and always wanted to be a game ranger," said a tracker who works for one of the Mozambican private game farms.

"I love the bush and animals and taking people into the bush. Now I'm often scared.

"I no longer track animals. We track poachers," he said, adding that the poachers knew the bush like the back of their hands.

"These days I have to be a soldier, but I'm not. I'm a man who knows about animals, not a man who knows about criminals and killing," said the tracker.

"These people make lots of money and everybody knows how they're making money and how they can afford to drive expensive trucks or a 4x4 and build a proper brick house. I'm scared of them. They have guns," he said.

The tracker asked not to be named because he lives in one of at least four "poacher villages" along Mozambique's border with the Kruger.

In the south, close to Crocodile Bridge and the Lower Sabie area, is the town of Kabok. A small spaza shop there is known as a meeting place for poachers.

Further north is Mapulanguene, regarded by rangers as the main staging area for poachers launching raids into the park.

A short distance away is Magude and the fourth village is Massingir, where self-confessed poacher Justice "Nyapini" Ngovene was interviewed (see story below).

The young manager of a private game reserve near Massingir said the reserve's trackers came across the tracks of poachers every day.

"We have about 12 trackers and rangers working here," he said. "We suspect that, bar two or three rangers, all the personnel are involved in rhino poaching by providing intelligence to the poachers. There's very little we can do.

"It's a scary situation because we don't have equipment, training, weapons or resources to stop the poachers entering the Kruger Park. We know that nightly people cross into Kruger looking for rhinos."

The man also asked not to be named, saying he feared for his life. "We recently arrested two suspected poachers and took them to the police.

"On the way back, the poachers in two bakkies lay in ambush and shot at our vehicle ... we escaped, but this feels like a war," he said.

joubertp@sundaytimes.co.za