Fear for rhinos as poachers kill 500 in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — Conservationists raised the alarm on Tuesday as South Africa reported a sharp increase in rhino poaching, with almost 500 animals killed last year. 

The country is home to a large majority of the world's rhinos and a hotspot for poaching, which is driven by demand from Asia, where horns are used in traditional medicine for their supposed therapeutic effect.

The environment ministry said that, despite government efforts to tackle the illicit trade, 499 of the thick-skinned herbivores were killed in 2023, mostly in state-run parks. This represents an 11% increase over the 2022 figure.

The figures paint "a worrying picture," conservation group Save the Rhino International said, calling for more resources to be urgently deployed against poaching rings. 

"There isn't an overnight solution, but with a rhino poached every 17 hours in South Africa, we can't afford to lose any more time," said Jo Shaw, the group's CEO. 

The lion's share were poached in eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, with the Hluhluwe–Imfolozi park — Africa's oldest reserve — alone losing 307 animals, according to the government. 

"This is the highest poaching loss within this province," said South Africa's Environment Minister Barbara Creecy. "Multi-disciplinary teams continue to work tirelessly in an attempt to slow this relentless pressure." 

Hopes and concerns

In recent years authorities have tightened security, particularly around the Kruger National Park, a tourist magnet bordering Mozambique that has seen its rhino population fall drastically from more than 10,000 to less than 3,000 over the past 15 years.

This has resulted in lower losses there — 78 rhinos were killed in 2023, 37% fewer than in 2022.

But it has also pushed poachers towards regional and private reserves like Hluhluwe–Imfolozi.

Law enforcement agencies arrested 49 suspected poachers in KwaZulu-Natal last year, Creecy said.  

Across the country, 45 poachers and horn traffickers were convicted in court, she added. 

Among them was a former field ranger sentenced to 10 years behind bars for killing a rhino he later claimed had charged him. 

As of 2023, the national parks authority requires new employees to take a lie detector test amid concerns that some workers might be in cahoots with poachers. 

Rhino horns are highly sought after in black markets, where the price by weight rivals that of gold and cocaine.

Nevertheless, in September last year the International Union for Conservation of Nature reported that thanks to conservation efforts rhino numbers had grown across Africa. 

Nearly 23,300 specimens roamed the continent at the end of 2022, up 5.2% on 2021, the union said, adding the increase was the first bit of "good news" for the animals in over a decade.

About 15,000 live in South Africa, according to a separate estimate by the International Rhino Foundation. 

"While these updated IUCN population figures provide hope, these gains remain tenuous as long as the poaching crisis continues," Jeff Cooke of the World Wildlife Fund warned Tuesday.

And he described the spike in killings in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal, in particular, as "of grave concern."

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By UMBERTO BACCHI Agence France-Presse

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