The Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Environment House 473 Steve Biko Road Arcadia Pretoria 0083 email: fshaik@environment.gov.za...
Has rhino poaching decreased, or are we running out of rhinos?
A strategic report on poaching just released by the Department of Environmental Affairs shows that fewer rhinos but more elephants are being killed. Of concern,...
DA calls for urgent action in rhino poaching crisis
DA MP Ross Purdon tabled a parliamentary motion this week calling on government departments to revisit this national rhino poaching crisis with the urgency it deserves....
Rhino Poaching Stats: Slight Decrease But still Far Too High
The small decrease in overall poaching in 2017 has been overshadowed by a growing concern for the increase and broadening of poaching elsewhere in South Africa as only 1 in 10...
Rhino horns under virtual hammer: Comment on the proposed online rhino horn auction
The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) is watching with trepidation the brazen online rhino horn auction (www.rhinohornauction.com) that was supposed to open today on Monday, 21...
First Legal Rhino Horn auction scheduled in South Africa
With the Department of Environmental Affairs stalling the first legal rhino horn auction actually happening remains to be seen. Update August 30th: On August 20th the DEA did...
Molewa outlines plans to sell rhino horn and wildlife
OPINION: Rhino - a commodity for sale? South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs is increasingly seeing wildlife as a commodity to be marketed rather than protected and...
How SA can lose the second rhino war
As South Africa continues to lose rhinos in the poaching war, it seems that the government is failing those fighting it. Although there has been some success in protecting rhinos...
FAILURE TO PROSECUTE AND MIXED MESSAGES: How South Africa can single-handedly lose the second rhino war – Report
RECOMMENDATIONS SOUTH AFRICA SHOULD APPOINT A SPECIAL COURT TO DEAL WITH ALL RHINO HORN CASES SOUTH AFRICA SHOULD VIGOROUSLY PROSECUTE MIDDLEMEN AND KINGPINS SOUTH AFRICA SHOULD...
Minister Molewa highlights progress on Integrated Strategic Management of Rhinoceros
This statement covers the period January through December 2016, which is inclusive of the period September to December 2016. As you will all know, rhino poaching is a...
A look at Nambia’s rhino horn syndicates
It is not hard to spot the successful rhino poachers in Okahao: at a time when everyone else in Namibia was suffering the effects of a crippling, four-year-long drought, they...
Tipping Point: Transnational Organised Crime and the War on Rhino Poaching – The Global Initiative – Julian Rademeyer
Six thousand rhinos have fallen to poachers’ bullets in Africa over the past decade and only about 25,000 remain – a fraction of the tens of thousands that roamed parts of the...
South Africa Conviction Rate ‘Pitiful’ for Rhino Crimes?
When it comes to statistics, the devil is always in the detail – or in the spin, when it come to politics. The fight against rhino poaching is no exception. On the 8th of May,...
Justice system in the crosshairs as alleged rhino poaching kingpin goes to court
While poaching in KwaZulu-Natal is in fast forward, the prosecutorial system in some areas appears to have gone into reverse. Many of the worrying poaching cases are linked to a...
‘Rhino poaching is a crisis of governance,’ says wildlife expert
Wildlife poaching and Illegal Wildlife Trade in Africa is not merely a calamity for animal populations, but has become a serious threat to governance in countries in which it...
Rhino Poaching in South Africa Declining, But Still Too Soon to Celebrate
South Africa has announced its first decrease in rhino poaching since 2007: “We are pleased to announce that for the first time in a decade the poaching situation in South Africa...
UN Meeting on Poaching in Africa: The Impact of Weapons Trafficking
Khristopher Carlson, senior researcher at the Small Arms Survey, presented today on the impact of the illicit transfer of small arms and light weapons on poaching in Africa at an...
Rhino horn trade central to draft government policy
A legal trade in rhino horns lies at the heart of a proposed new government policy for the conservation of white rhinos in South Africa, despite the fact that an official...
Congolese ivory kingpin wriggles out of yet another arrest
The video is shaky having been secretly captured. But the image of the table full of polished ivory artifacts and the merchant sitting behind them is clear. “How much?” asks the...
Will Synthetic Horn Save Or Destroy Wild Rhino Populations?
US based bio-engineering firm, Pembient, is one of three companies that plans to flood Chinese and Vietnamese markets with synthetic 3D-printed rhino horn in an effort to stem...
How poachers kill jobs
International tourism to Africa reached record levels in 2013, with 56 million tourists bringing in $34.2-billion (about R410-billion). Significantly, 80% of them came to see the...
International Statement sent to the Committee of Inquiry into a Possible Trade in Rhino Horn
To: Ms. M.E. Nana Magomola, Chairperson, Committee of Inquiry Cc: Minister Edna Molewa, Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) All rhinoceros species are threatened by...
Submission by Alejandro Nadal to Committee of Inquiry into a Possible Trade in Rhino Horn
INTRODUCTION Greetings to the Chair of the Committee of Inquiry and to all the members of the COI. I am Dr. Alejandro Nadal, Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies, El...
CRISIS MANAGEMENT: WORLD EXPERTS GATHER IN CAPE TOWN TO FIND SOLUTIONS TO RHINO POACHING
Cape Town – At a conference here at the end of May, experts from around the world gathered to discuss responses and solutions to the poaching crisis facing South Africa’s...
Poaching Rhino Horn in South Africa and Mozambique: Community and expert views from the trenches
This report illustrates attitudes garnered from nine focus groups in several poaching communities in and around South African and Mozambican game parks, and approximately 15...
Minister marches for rhino law reform
Edna Molewa, Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs joined the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos (GMFER) in Pretoria on Saturday causing conservationists to wonder if...
Memorandum of Demand for Proposed Amendments to SA Legislation (PALSA) to Combat Rhino Poaching
In the Proposed Amendments to South African Legislation (PALSA) participants urgently request the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to intervene in the rhino...
SA conservationists welcome stricter sentencing of wildlife criminals
Conservationists across South Africa have commended the severe penalty meted out in Cape Town last week to Cheng Jie Liang, a Chinese national for the illegal possession of one...
Mpumalanga community calls for harsher sentences against public servants involved in rhino poaching
White River, Mpumalanga - Approximately 400 people, mainly from rural areas in the Mbombela district attended a public hearing of the Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs...
More rhetoric from government won’t save rhino
In a Parliamentary debate on Tuesday on the rhino poaching crisis, government provided little hope for rhino as speaker after speaker lamented the rhino poaching...
Minister’s panel of experts all favour the selling of rhino horn
The Department of Environmental Affairs is clearly scratching around for the ‘good story’ in relation to rhinos. In its latest attempt to solve the poaching problem it had to...
Rhino Trade Panel: Window dressing by the DEA
The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) has finally issued an invitation to stakeholders to participate in its exploration of Rhino Horn Trade Feasibility. The long-awaited...
Are rhinos now a liability to South Africa?
I have recently read the May/June South African Journal of Science report on a Kruger National Park workshop aimed at finding a management solution to counter the escalation of...
High-level report calls SA wildlife trade policy reckless
TWO top international economists say those who advocate trade in rhino horn and ivory fail to understand world markets or the economic muscle of multinational poachers....
Lack of resources and skills hamper wildlife law enforcement in SA
Is the government really doing all they can to combat rhino poaching? In a report investigating the challenges facing the enforcement of South Africa’s environmental laws,...