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Poaching research launched in 4 provinces

GRAVELOTTE – SOUTH AFRICA

During the last five years poaching on privately owned game farms and provincial reserves has increased drastically and millions of rands have been lost as a result of many wild animals being indiscriminately killed by commercial bush meat poachers.

As poaching increases the interest from conservation departments and the criminal justice system seems to be decreasing and in today’s court of law, poachers if found guilty, walk away with insignificant fines, leaving private landowners and conservation managers to deal with their frustrations and financial losses.

The recent arrest of a Gravelotte game farm manager for attempted murder after a poacher allegedly disappeared on the farm Vygeboom, once again highlighted the urgent need for cooperative action between private landowners, provincial conservation authorities, the police and criminal justice system. Sadly the cooperation from the conservation authorities, police and criminal justices system with private game farmers has been inadequate to curb the growing criminal activities of commercial poaching for the bush meat trade in particular.

Although the poaching of elephants, rhinos, abalone and cycads are given a high profile in the media and are prosecuted effectively by the criminal justice system the poaching of general game species such as warthogs, impala, kudu, zebra and other plains game species has a very low priority. Rare and endangered species are not protected from the cruelty of poaching and many sable and roan antelope amongst others have been killed indiscriminately. Other endangered species and rare animals such a the elusive, but amazingly interesting creatures such as brown hyenas and pangolins are targeted by means of snaring while other more unfortunate animals such as warthogs are cruelly hunted down with dogs, burnt alive from their burrows and are hacked to death with pangs. Many injured and orphaned animals are left victim as a result of the increasing poaching incidents. In some cases the aborted foetuses of animals such as giraffe and zebra are left behind by poachers next to the bodies of their slain mothers after only the most sought after pieces of meat had been removed from the carcasses.

Many judges and public prosecutors on local levels seem to be totally disinterested and ignorant to successfully prosecute bush meat poachers in a court of law.

The growing frustrations experienced as a result of poaching on privately owned land has resulted in many game farmers loosing hundreds of thousands of rand annually and the extremely cruel manner in which wild animals are killed or are allowed to suffer for weeks as a result of snaring or hunting with dogs, have shocked many people.

In an attempt to try and alleviate the suffering of hundreds of wild animals, the SanWild Wildlife Trust this week launched an extensive research project that will ensure that all poaching incidents reported in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northwest and Gauteng Provinces be captured on a database specially created for this purpose. The objective behind the research project will be to call on private game farm owners to join the initiative and become project participants free of charge. Members will be asked to liaise with the Trust and report all poaching on their land along with a criminal case number, the investigations officer name and court district. Data captured over a period of 6 months will be used to draw up a legal memorandum to the Minister of Police, Justice and also the Minister of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism to highlight the extent of poaching in the mentioned provinces and to prove beyond doubt that at this stage poaching on private land is not regarded by the criminal justice systems as a serious offence.

The research could also prove to become a valuable tool to be used in possible damages claims against the Minister of Police and Criminal Justice system in the future should private land owners decide to take legal action to force the various departments to deal with bush meat poachers in the strongest possible manner to ensure compliance of existing laws.

Private game farm owners will further be asked to record all poaching incidents by means of digital camera and to report all poaching incidents to their local police to obtain a case number.

Once a landowner’s property has been registered in the research project, the Trust will ensure that follow ups are doing on behalf of the project members and that data is captured efficiently by international volunteers appointed specifically for this purpose.

Wide international awareness will be created by means of a special website created for the purpose of recording and reporting the poaching incidents so that the international community can be made aware of the growing problems. Digital images received from project members will be used for this purpose

The SanWild Wildlife Trust in conjunction with the Murry Foundation in the United Kingdom has also announced the construction of an anti-poaching rangers training facility in Gravelotte that will recruit and train rangers with military precision from January 2008. Trainee rangers will be deployed on private land as part of their course training. On completion of their training successful candidates will be taken up in the prestige’s SanWild Eco-rangers battalion and will be given shares in a closed corporation specialising in supplying anti-poaching rangers to private landowners and provincial game reserve on contract.

If you are interested in becoming part of this important research project kindly please contact the SanWild Wildlife Trust by email on poaching@sanwild.org The research study and project membership is available to all private game farmers and conservation managers absolutely free.

For more information please contact:

Louise Joubert on louise@sanwild.org
John Botha at john@sanwild.org
Website: www.sanwild.org and also www.afritrust.com
Telephone / Fax +27 (0) 15-3187900/1

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