Almost 500 rhinos poached in South Africa in 2023

South Africa continues to lose much of its rhino population due to poachers with 499 of them having been killed in 2023, 51 more than in 2022, said Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy on Tuesday.

Creecy briefed the media about the 2023 national rhino poaching statistics at St Lucia, KwaZulu Natal province on Tuesday. Last year, 448 rhinos were killed for their horns in the country. A total of 406 were killed on state properties and 93 on privately owned parks, reserves and parks. The government has helped those privately keeping properties to boost their security.

"The pressure again has been felt in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province with Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park facing the brunt of poaching cases losing 307 of the total national poaching loss. This is the highest poaching loss within this province. While KwaZulu-Natal province recorded 49 arrests and 13 firearms seized, multi-disciplinary teams continue to work tirelessly in an attempt to slow this relentless pressure," said Creecy.

Kruger National Park which is near the borders of Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Mozambique has in the past been the main target of poachers. They have strengthened the security systems at the part including security cameras and electronic monitoring of cars entering and leaving. It is suspected that poachers focused their attention on another Hluhluwe-iMfolozi.

She explained that the government is putting in place various measures to combat rhino poaching. These include working with countries in the region, China, Singapore, Qatar, Malaysia and Vietnam to tackle poaching and the sale of the proceeds from South Africa, said Creecy.

She said, "As part of the government's poverty relief program there are a number of fence monitors employed from neighboring communities that patrol the western boundary fence of the Kruger National Park and report fence breakages, illegal tracks and people entering the Kruger National Park as well as animals escaping from the Kruger National Park."

Creecy said they are collaborating with different government departments, the private sector and citizens to tackle rhino poaching. She mentioned that they are dehorning rhinos in areas targeted by poachers and radar detection systems that remotely track any illegal entry by poachers on foot into the Kruger National Park.

South Africa has established a court inside Kruger National Park to try wildlife crimes and ensure justice is delivered quickly. Last year, 36 rhino poaching-related cases were handled by the courts with 35 resulting in guilty verdicts and one found not guilty. This resulted in the 97 percent conviction rate where 45 accused rhino poachers/rhino horn traffickers were convicted. Some of the criminals were linked to the crimes through ballistics tests of the rifles which were found in their possession and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) tests on the hunting equipment linked to the rhinos.

Isaac Phaahla, a communication expert from South African National Parks told China Daily that they installed cameras in Kruger National Park where there is a high concentration of rhinos, and they are monitored 24 hours a day. He said they have retrained the game rangers, introduced a pack of tracking dogs with a global positioning system (GPS) installed on their necks with a helicopter carrying armed rangers in the air ready to react.