Kruger consistently suffered heavy poaching loses, and so in the last few years, the government and international donors have channelled ever more funding and resources into securing the Park. Most illegal activity occurs in Kruger National Park, a 19,485 km 2 of protected habitat on South Africa’s north-eastern border with Mozambique. From 2007-2014 the country experienced an exponential rise in rhino poaching – a growth of more than 9,000%. South Africa has by far the largest population of rhinos in the world and is an incredibly important country for rhino conservation. While anti-poaching measures are still a high priority, it’s important that we don’t forget the other tools in the box: biological management, community engagement, capacity building, national and international coordination, and putting in place the long-term sustainable financing needed for important rhino conservation programmes. One of the challenges that the ongoing poaching crisis brings is that it diverts attention from other actions that are important for rhinos to thrive in the future. Without urgent action, their numbers could dwindle. The long-term impact of the poaching crisis, and the extended periods of drought, are taking their toll. They’ve had no time to recover from ruthless poaching that’s taken place throughout the last decade. Rhino populations, particularly in key strongholds such as Kruger National Park, in South Africa, have fallen dramatically. Many simply won’t be able to protect their rhinos much longer if they can’t secure more funding. Private reserves and national parks are struggling to have enough funds for everyday maintenance. Many rhino reserves have only just about made it through the pandemic so far, with income from tourism, their main source of support, almost entirely cut off.
And now poachers are moving into new areas that have been hit hard by Covid-19. South Africa’s rhino population has dropped dramatically in recent years. But these latest figures have confirmed our fears that the effects were short-lived. But are gangs simply now moving elsewhere? Are there too few rhinos left in South Africa to find and then poach? What does this mean for rhinos?Ĭathy Dean, CEO of Save the Rhino International, says, “In 2020 we were thankful that the pandemic had, at least, brought some good news for conservation. We’re thankful, at least, that the overall trajectory for rhino poaching in South Africa remains on its downward trend. Unfortunately, this meant that as those restrictions started to lift, criminal syndicates started to seize their opportunities to find rhinos again, causing poaching to increase by 13% since 2020. As lockdowns were in force across the world, and in particular, curfew laws in place in South Africa, it would have been much harder for poachers to get into a reserve to kill a rhino and then smuggle its horn out of the country, without being noticed. It’s likely that this change was due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s the first time in six years that the country has recorded an increase in rhino poaching incidents: an extremely sad reality. In 2021, 451 rhinos were killed in South Africa.
The latest poaching numbers from South Africa South Africa holds the majority of the world’s rhinos and has been the country hit hardest by poaching criminals, with more than 1,000 rhinos killed each year between 20. Yet, at least one rhino is still killed every day: there is a lot more that we must do.
Thankfully, poaching numbers have decreased across the continent since the peak of 1,349 in 2015. The current rhino poaching crisis began in 2008, with increasing numbers of rhino killed for their horn throughout Africa until 2015. *The 2021 African-wide poaching figure is estimate based on current official statistics (these have not been released for all countries).