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Succulent poaching is not a new problem in South Africa; collectors have been stealing our unique plants for decades.

Government is working around the clock to fight wildlife crime and corruption, especially in the Kruger National Park, says Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister, Barbara Creecy.

Extinction is probably a rarely used term in your vocabulary - perhaps only in primary school when referring to the dinosaurs - and certainly never applied to the modern day. But subtly, slowly our rare fauna are being erased and some have even already disappeared: although not as drastic as a meteor, we are witnessing extinction. The act of poaching is defined as the illegal capturing or killing of wild animals and is a prominent practice in South Africa, particularly due to the wildlife that can be found there.

There are concerns that cases of wildlife poaching in Botswana could increase, following the government’s decision to allow game farming on land that has no security or fencing to control the movement of wild animals.

Since 2011, about 9 885 rhinos had been killed across Africa. Shaw said in a statement that while poaching in South Africa peaked in 2014 at 1 215 incidents, 394 rhinos were killed by poachers in 2020.

It's clear why the illegal wildlife trade exists. Where there's consumer demand for products from endangered species, there are bound to be networks seeking to profit from that demand. But what about the motivations of individual offenders? TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade NGO, decided to simply ask them. The researchers interviewed 73 people in South African correctional centers, who had been convicted of crimes related to rhinos, abalone, or cycads (ancient palm-like plants that have been called "the world's most endangered plants").

The International Rhino Foundation (IRF) has awarded emergency grants totalling nearly $150,000 to six wildlife organisations in Southern Africa following severe budget shortfalls as a result of the loss of tourism income in the region.