At any given time, there is an average of 12 poaching groups
active in the KNP, sometimes more, he says, “we are experiencing up to 80 armed
incursions per month,” he adds. “At the height of our war in the old days
something like this would have been unimaginable.” As the number of rhino
poached in Kruger alone this year soars to almost 500, and almost 800
nationally, Jooste says that nobody could have foreseen that it would escalate
like this.
The battle to be fought is not easy. “At more than 2 million
hectares, the park is massive,” he adds. Internationally, the norm is one
ranger per 20 square kilometres, and one per 10 square kilometres if the park
is under armed protection. To meet that standard, Kruger would need 2000
rangers. Currently, they already employ around 500 but even if they could train
and employ over a 1000 more, where would they stay? “building houses alone
would take years”.
The immense task resting on the shoulders of the rangers is
also taking its toll. “This is not a nice place for them to be at the moment,”
says Jooste. The training and payrolling alone are extremely demanding but the
psychological strain is also huge. Rangers have to stalk poachers in the bush
and are only allowed to shoot if they are being aimed at first, often with
something like a .375 that can shoot through a elephant. Consequently, SANParks
has established a rangers’ support group that includes psychologists, for them
and their families.
Jooste says the solution is multipronged. Essentially, this
is an international problem, he stresses. This is the last cache of these
animals in the world, and with a concurrent escalation in international
wildlife crime, South Africa, and particularly Kruger, is sitting at the exact
point where supply and demand meet. This problem is global, continental and
regional and affects all of government and our people, he says. According to
him the key is collaboration. “We are talking with the Council for Scientific
and Industrial Research, government, representatives from America and Asian
countries, Mozambique, all park neighbours and many more,” he says.
Their five-year plan includes a ranger of elements such as
the use of technology, an enlarged task force, creating an intensive protection
zone around core areas of the park and managing the rhino population itself.
Even though the anticipation was to see an improvement in the poaching numbers
after the first year (2013), Jooste says they can only hope that they are
putting the right strategies and building blocks in place to see the integral
results in four years time. The aim is to then see a 20% decrease in poaching
numbers per year.
In order to reach this goal, we need to throw everything
into the battle, he says, which means a joint, inter-agency, multinational
approach. Vitally, they also need you. “South Africans should match the contributions
of the rangers,” he says. While a child can throw R1 in a box, a director
general of a department can contribute more. “Now is the time”, he urges.
“We need partners, support and international collaboration.”
For the men in the street, the most important is to give their active support
to accredited funds, he says. They are placing big hopes on the support from
the recently launched Bavaria campaign, one of the first to carry the SANParks
seal of approval. This ensures that all money donated goes into a ring-fenced
fund to be spent where it is most necessary.
Secondly, people are urged to lobby support. “Wherever you
are, please spread awareness of the problem to facilitate widespread support.”
Jooste says their fear is that they will only receive the necessary support
after the tally has hit 3000 carcasses. “The biggest risk that we are running,”
he says, “is that too little would have been done, too late.”
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