The carnage continues in Zimbabwe.
It’s less than a month into 2011, and Zimbabwe has reportedly lost both white and critically endangered black rhinos to the illegal rhino horn trade. During the first week of the new year, a male black rhino was found murdered in Matopos National Park in Matabeleland South.
The rhino’s body was discovered by game rangers in the White Water area, with AK-47 cartridges nearby. He had been shot in the neck and his horns were chopped off.
Since then, intelligence reports from the area note that four white rhinos were also slaughtered in the Matopos area. Less than a week ago, another black rhino along with a two-year-old calf were reportedly killed.
144 arrests in Zimbabwe
According to The Zimbabwean, 144 arrests were made for rhino crimes in the country last year.
Among the poachers were 125 Zimbabweans, seven Zambians, three Congolese, three South Africans and six Batswana.
In addition, 31 rifles, 226 rounds of live ammunition were confiscated by authorities.
However, the courts have yet to follow through on administering effective deterrents for this scourge. Research conducted in 2009 by the wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC found that Zimbabwe’s conviction rate for rhino-related crimes was an abysmal three percent.
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.
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.
Incidents such as this brutal October 2010 killing of a critically endangered black rhino in Zimbabwe are sadly becoming all too common throughout Southern Africa.
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.
In December 2010, 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.
Throughout 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 cable, 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 revealed that most rhino horns leaving Southern Africa are being smuggled to China and Vietnam, where the price soars.
In Vietnam, a wildlife trade researcher found that rhino horn could command USD $40, 000 per kilogram. Other sources, including a 2008 Chinese research publication, suggest that the price could be even higher in China, perhaps as high as USD $60, 000 per kilogram.1
Average weights for rhino horns are three kilograms for black rhinos, and five and half for white rhinos.
2011 off to a disappointing start
Zimbabwe’s recent losses indicate that the worldwide total for rhino killings could already have reached fifteen. South Africa, India, and Nepal have also been hit by the demand for illegal rhino horn.
South Africa’s most recent killing occurred in KwaZulu-Natal. Prior to that, two rhinos were murdered in Kruger National Park, a pregnant rhino was slaughtered in the Hoedspruit area, and another near Musina. Still another was killed in the Eastern Cape, at Kariega Game Reserve near Kenton-on-Sea.
One rhino has been killed in Nepal and another in India since the start of 2011.
During 2010, 333 rhinos were slaughtered in South Africa, nearly tripling 2009′s total of 122.
Sources: “144 poachers arrested.” The Zimbabwean. 12 January 2011
K. Bewick, Anti-Poaching Intelligence Group, Southern Africa
Milliken, T., Emslie, R.H., Talukdar, B. (2009). African and Asian Rhinoceroses – Status, Conservation and Trade. CoP15. CITES Secretariat, Geneva, Switzerland.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Other references:
1. Yanyan, D., Qian, J. (2008). Proposal for Protection of the Rhinoceros and the Sustainable Use of Rhinoceros Horn. State Soft Sciences Project, Development Strategy for Traditional Chinese Medicine Research
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