As the Chinese presence grows in Southern Africa, the demand for rhino horn has become dangerously close to the supply.
A chilling similarity: Just as elephant killings surged near Chinese road projects in Kenya, there are increased reports of rhino killings in areas where Chinese newcomers are working and settling in Southern Africa.
The rhino killings appear to be concentrated along the Mozambique-South Africa border, the eastern border of South Africa’s Kruger National Park, down to KwaZulu-Natal, and into Zimbabwe.
Mozambique border a ‘hot zone’ in battle to protect rhinos
The open international boundary which runs through the Great Limpopo Transfrontier is an area of particular concern.
National Geographic’s Leon Marshall wrote that the boundary has become a “hot zone” in the war to protect rhinos.
He cited a figure of 60 rhinos slaughtered along the South Africa-Mozambique border, just over 30 percent of the total rhinos killed during the first seven months of 2010.
Recently, intelligence sources from South Africa have linked the expanding Chinese workforce in Mozambique to concentrated killings of rhinos and elephants in the region of Zimbabwe, the eastern border of Kruger National Park, and KwaZulu-Natal.
The same reports mention that a contingency of Chinese road workers are based near the southeast corner of Cabora Bassa Dam, situated in the Tete Province of northern Mozambique. It is believed that “orders” for rhino horn are originating from this area.
Rhino killings increase in KwaZulu-Natal
Perhaps not coincidentally, five people of Chinese origin were arrested in 2009 for illegally entering the Ophathe game reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, where at least 11 rhinos were killed.
The Chinese suspects were believed to be shop owners in Ulundi.
At least 17 rhinos were killed in KwaZulu-Natal during the first ten months of 2010.
Demand ‘perilously’ close to the supply
An eerily similar situation had already emerged in Kenya.
Last year, it became well known that elephant killings had surged in the areas where Chinese workers were constructing roads in Kenya.
Moses Litroh, elephant program coordinator for the Kenya Wildlife Service was quoted as saying that more than 50 percent of the dead elephants had been found in the vicinity of Chinese road projects, and that the coincidence was of “great concern”.
Not surprisingly, China has staunchly denied any connection to elephant poaching in Kenya.
Wildlife service officials also said that the majority of ivory smugglers arrested at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi were Chinese nationals, some of them carrying up to 110kg of raw or carved tusks.
The Financial Times cited Barbara Maas, CEO of Care for the Wild International, who said that the rising number of Chinese nationals in Africa has placed the frontline between supply and demand for ivory perilously close.
And the same deadly market forces appear to be working against rhinos.
Adapted from: Larson, R. (2010). Rhino Killings on the Rise: A troubling correlation between rhino killings and the spreading Chinese footprint in Southern Africa. Saving Rhinos LLC, San Francisco, USA.
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