Rhino poaching - The African Mirror

Feb

2024

Rhino poaching in South Africa increases in 2023

SOUTH Africa recorded 499 rhinos poached in 2023, 51 more than the previous year, despite efforts to protect the animals, the government said. South Africa is home to nearly half of the critically endangered black rhino population in Africa and to the world's largest population of near-threatened white rhinos. Rhinos are poached for their horns, which are used in East Asian countries for making traditional medicines and jewellery. In 2023, 406 rhinos were killed on state properties and 93 on privately owned parks, reserves and farms, South Africa's Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment said in a statement. "The…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Rhino poaching sees slight decline in South Africa

NEWS

THE number of rhinos poached for their horns in South Africa decreased slightly in 2022 but more must be done to save them in provincial parks, the environment ministry said. A total of 448 rhinos were illegally killed countrywide last year, three fewer than in 2021. However, the figures are still higher than they were the year before when COVID-19 restrictions in South Africa led to a fall in poaching. Demand for rhino horns has decimated their population over the decades in South Africa and neighbouring Botswana and Namibia. The poaching often involves international criminal syndicates and local poachers, who smuggle the…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Namibia rhino poaching surged 93% in 2022

NEWS

THE number of endangered rhinos poached in Namibia reached an all-time high last year after 87 animals were killed compared to 45 in 2021, official government data showed. Africa's rhino population has been decimated over the decades to feed the demand for rhino horn, which, despite being made of the same stuff as rhino hair and fingernails, is prized in East Asia as a supposed medicine and as jewellery. The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism spokesperson Romeo Muyunda said poachers killed 61 black and 26 white rhinos mainly in Namibia's largest park, Etosha, where 46 rhinos were found dead.…

Aug

2021

By The African Mirror

Rhino poaching returns to after COVID-19 lull

NEWS

RHINO poaching in South Africa rose by 50% in the first half of 2021 compared to a year earlier when poaching plummeted due to COVID-19 restrictions, according to the environment ministry. From January to the end of June 2021, 249 rhinos were poached in Africa's most industrialised economy, home to the largest white rhino population in the world, compared with 166 during the same period in 2020. "While this is higher than the number of rhino killed for their horns in the same period last year, at 166, it is less than the 318 rhino that were poached in the…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Intelligence helps Namibia turn tide against rhino poachers, government says

NEWS

INCIDENTS of rhino poaching in Namibia have been dropping steadily as timely intelligence work has helped nab hunters before they shoot in known hotspots, the government has said. Joint police and government task forces have proven "extremely successful", the spokesman for the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism said, with intelligence enabling a proactive, rather than reactive, response. "Instead of the discovery of a dead rhino initiating an investigation, would-be poachers are now regularly arrested while they are still conspiring to kill a rhino," Romeo Muyunda said in a statement celebrating World Rhino Day. It said just 22 rhinos have…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

Rhino poaching in Namibia down 63% on tougher policing, penalties

NEWS

NYASHA NYAUGWA RHINO poaching fell 63% year-on-year in Namibia, the ministry of environment said on Friday, citing intensified intelligence operations by authorities and tougher sentences and fines for poachers. Elephant poaching, which takes places to a lesser extent, also decreased, with 2 incidents reported this year compared with 13 in 2019, the ministry said. The southern African nation is home to the second-largest white rhino population in the world after South Africa, the non-profit organisation Save the Rhino says. Namibia also holds one-third of the world's remaining black rhinos. Rhino poaching has plagued the southern Africa region for decades, especially…