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Syndicates smuggling rhino horn as trinkets – study

Publish date: 19 September 2017
Issue Number: 525
Diary: Legalbrief Environmental
Category: Conservation

Both sides of the rhino poaching war are getting smarter and sneakier about reaching their goals, writes Legalbrief. Chinese syndicates are setting up small home-based workshops in Johannesburg and elsewhere to chop up rhino horns into smaller pieces, mainly to dodge South African airport and harbour smuggling checks. According to a TimesLIVE report, to beat tougher security measures, some horns are sawn up into beads, bracelets and other small trinkets – and in some cases into powder – as part of a new black-market smuggling tactic that has the added advantage of providing ready-made rhino jewellery products for buyers in China, Vietnam and other Eastern nations. This is according to a new report released yesterday by TRAFFIC, a global wildlife trade monitoring network set up by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the WWF. TRAFFIC project director Julian Rademeyer said senior security officials and investigators had confirmed a number of home-based horn workshops had been raided in Germiston and Johannesburg. Rademeyer and report co-authors Sade Moneron and Nicola Okes said they had found new evidence that ‘criminal networks of Chinese origin’ operating in SA had started to process rhino horns locally into smaller pieces, beads, bangles and rough ‘discs’. Colonel Johan Jooste, national commander of the endangered species unit in the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation, urged security and border officials to be on the lookout for the new modus operandi.

– TimesLIVE

Study

Meanwhile, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife is tightening its security in an effort to prevent rhino poaching. According to an SA News report, KZN MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Sihle Zikalala, said: ‘Ezemvelo has strengthened its manpower by recruiting an additional 18 security personnel, who will be deployed in 10 rhino reserves.’ Zikalala unveiled the province’s anti-rhino poaching plans at a joint briefing by the department and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife at Spioenkop Nature Reserve. ‘The province had also partnered with the Department of Environmental Affairs at national level to appoint 412 Environmental Monitors, who had been dispatched to 23 Ezemvelo Protected Areas,’ Zikalala said. The function of the monitors is to educate communities living next to the protected areas of the importance of conservation and rhinos. Zikalala praised communities living near game reserves, who blow the whistle on poachers. Ezemvelo has also strengthened its own internal controls to ensure that its staff members do not collude with poachers.

Full report on the SA News site

The five rhino horn confiscated at OR Tambo International Airport this month were not linked to the recent online auction of rhino horn, Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa has confirmed. According to a News24 report, the Minister dispelled speculation that the rhino horn confiscated on 8 September were linked to the online auction saying: ‘The online auction was closely monitored by an Environmental Management Inspector from the Department and horns that were approved for sale during the auction are currently still in the possession of John Hume.’ She emphasised that as part of the criminal investigation into the arrest ‘the horns have been sent for DNA testing in order to determine their origin’. Molewa welcomed the arrest of a Chinese national in connection with the rhino horn, saying: ‘The arrest and confiscation of the horns is yet another example of the success of the Integrated Strategic Management of Rhinoceros Approach being implemented by government to combat rhino poaching and related crimes in South Africa.’ A Mozambican rhino poacher caught at the Kruger National Park has been jailed for 20 years, police said. Mapoyisa Mahlauli (30) was sentenced last week following his arrest last year in the game reserve, says another News24 report.

Full City Press report

Second News24 report

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