Organised criminal gangs kill rhinos to sell the valuable horn that is
used as a traditional medicine in Asia and carved for ceremonial dagger
handles in the Middle East, Raoul du Toit, head of southern Zimbabwe’s
Lowveld Rhino Trust, said in a telephone conference call with reporters.
Zimbabwe’s rhino population declined from about 830 in 2007 to 740 at
the end of 2008 despite an excellent birth rate in monitored herds,
London-based Save the Rhino executive director Cathy Dean said during
the conference call.
Save the Rhino said at least 90 rhino were poached in 2008, twice the
toll of the previous year, and conservation groups had counted 18
killed so far in 2009. It called for concerted action by the Zimbabwean
government and international agencies.
Conservationists also reported a surge in poaching of zebra for their
hides. These, alongside illegal diamonds, gold and other contraband,
were smuggled through Zimbabwe’s porous borders.
Some zebra hides ended up as upholstery in Europe and the zebra
poachers were likely to encounter rhino in the same habitat and know
their value, du Toit said.
Du Toit said the rhino poachers were people with "cars, cell phones and expensive lawyers" and not villagers desperate for food.
Poaching "increased because of our lack of ability to investigate,
higher market prices and the growing Asian footprint in southern
Africa," he said.
Du Toit spoke of investigators lacking gasoline to drive suspects to
court. He said authorities were short of money but paid too little
attention to the crimes.
"The repercussions for the country’s international image and the
economic implications are a lot more serious than the politicians and
the ministers realise," he said.
He said conservation groups in southern Zimbabwe planned to relocate about 60 rhino from areas vulnerable to poachers.
Tourism and photographic safaris have dropped sharply in several years
of political and economic turmoil since the often violent seizures of
thousands of white-owned farms began in 2000, disrupting the
agriculture-based economy in the former regional breadbasket.
Longtime ruler President Robert Mugabe blames Western sanctions for the
economic crisis that has led to acute shortages of food, gasoline and
the most basic goods.
Poaching of small animals has intensified, with villagers torching the
bush to drive even rodents and rock rabbits into traps for food,
conservationists say.
Yahoo/Associated Press (AP)
Post published in: News