UNDER THREAT: White rhino in a game ranch in neighbouring South Africa Picture: JAMES OATWAY
The number of rhinos poached in South Africa this year stands at an "alarming " 159, Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa said yesterday.
"The Kruger National Park continues to bear the brunt of these losses, with the rhinos poached in the park having reached a staggering total of 95," she said.
"This is no longer only an environmental management problem.
"It has become a matter in which we have involved all law-enforcement agencies."
She said 90 people had been arrested for poaching.
"The continued arrests of rhino-poaching suspects reflects the coordinated enforcement efforts across the government aimed at addressing the scourge of rhino poaching."
Molewa said the government was looking at new initiatives in the fight against rhino poaching.
"It is at [Kruger] that the first group of 75 of the 150 new rangers is currently undergoing a six-week, intense paramilitary training course."
The 150 rangers will be deployed in the Kruger Park.
Molewa said the fence on the eastern boundary of the park was too expensive and difficult to maintain.
"Instead, we are looking at a buffer zone between the Kruger and the private reserves and farms in Mozambique - the same as on the northeastern boundary of the Kruger, where there is a transfrontier conservation area arrangement," she said.
"This was discussed with the Mozambican authorities and our respective teams are busy with planning."
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Vietnam has been asked about conducting inspections to verify that white rhino trophies exported from South Africa to Vietnam were still in the possession of the hunters.
"We are consulting at a diplomatic level and the outcome of this process will allow us to refuse all applications for white rhinoceros hunting by foreign hunters whose state of usual residence is Vietnam."
- Times Live
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