Six more innocent lives lost because of medicinal myths about rhino horn.
At least six rhinos have reportedly been killed at the Nyamaneche Game Sanctuary in Zimbabwe.
According to local sources, the killing occurred in an area close to Chinese chrome mining operations.
The [Zimbabwe Conservation] task force’s chairman Johnny Rodrigues said he believed a Chinese firm was mining chrome in this ecologically pristine area.
The three remaining rhinos at the Sanctuary are being moved to a safer location.
A critically endangered black rhino was brutally slaughtered last month in Zimbabwe as he drank from a watering hole (warning: the photos are extremely graphic).
Zimbabwe rhino population decimated
The rhino killing epidemic of Southern Africa has hit Zimbabwe hard, and it is now estimated that only around 700 rhinos remain in the country. Decades of rhino conservation are at serious risk of being undermined by crime syndicates funded by the demand for illegal rhino horn, which is still used in traditional Chinese medicines.
Last year, the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC found that Zimbabwe lost over 25 percent of its rhino population between 2006 and 2009 to illegal killing. This troubling figure includes 89 percent of all black rhinos killed on the continent.
Spreading Chinese footprint in Africa
Incidents linking the spreading Chinese footprint in Africa to both rhino and elephant killings have been escalating in recent years.
Earlier this week, a critically endangered black rhino was killed in the world-famous Serengeti National Park, amid growing concerns that Tanzania’s warm relationship with China could lead to further problems with its precious pachyderms.
In Southern Africa, there are increased reports of rhino killings in areas where Chinese newcomers are working and settling. 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.
Regarding elephants, 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 in a recent Wikileaks document, American Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger noted that elephant killings increased near Chinese labor camps and that Chinese nationals comprise the majority of those arrested for ivory trafficking.
Continued use of illegal rhino horn in traditional ‘medicines’
Illegal rhino horn is in highly sought after for use in traditional medicines in China and Vietnam, despite the fact rhino horn has been extensively analyzed and contains no medicinal properties.
Research conducted by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC found that most rhino horns leaving Southern Africa are being smuggled to China and Vietnam.
Sources:
“6 rhino poached in Zim game reserve.” Eyewitness News. 15 December 2010.
Milliken, T., Emslie, R.H., Talukdar, B. (2009). African and Asian Rhinoceroses – Status, Conservation and Trade. CoP15. CITES Secretariat, Geneva, Switzerland.
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.
“Shopping habits of China’s ‘suddenly wealthy’.” FT.com | Financial Times. 21 August 2009.
“US worried by China exports to Kenya.” Capital FM Kenya. 09 December 2010.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
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