RUSTENBURG - A South African-based non-governmental organization involved in rhino conservation, Coalition for the Survival of Endangered Species (CSES), is planning to host a regional conference involving Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Mozambique in order to discuss new methods to combat rhino poaching.According to CSES spokesperson, Russel de Kock, the conference is likely to take place in June this year in South Africa and will bring together more than 20 organizations from the region involved in rhino conservation efforts.
We have to explore new ways of combating the poaching of the black rhino and the conference will, essentially, focus on this. We hope that by coming together we will be able to share our different experiences and challenges, said de Kock.
Zimbabwe, South Africa and Zambia, in particular, face numerous challenges from rhino poachers, who make a living from selling horns mostly to buyers on the Asian black market.
The poachers continue to come up with more subtle ways of killing the rhinos and this has made it difficult for most countries to curb their activities.
Expected to come under the spotlight during the conference are the technological advances that South Africa has made in combating rhino poaching and how other countries can benefit from such breakthroughs.
South African has the largest rhino population of all the countries in the region and is the main target for poachers.
In 2010 alone, the Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces of South Africa lost a total of 130 rhino to poachers while the overall figure for the country stood at about 310.
In Zimbabwe, some Chinese companies have been accused of killing rhinos, whose horns have a ready market back home. Rhino conservation efforts in Africa have seen the continents rhino population shooting up from a low of 2 100 in the early 1990s to the present figure of about 4 700.
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