Search results

Tiny plants in plastic pots, each carefully labeled, cram a South African greenhouse. Each is the evidence of at least one crime. These are strange plants without typical stems or leaves. Some look like greenish thumb-tips, others like grapes or rounded stones. Some sprout small, bright flowers. Few are more than an inch tall. I've agreed not to disclose this location because the plants, confiscated from poachers and smugglers, are valuable and could be re-stolen by the same criminal networks that first dug them from their natural habitats to traffic overseas.

As several stories have revealed across different platforms of late, most pertinently in the long delayed release of the Rhino Report in Daily Maverick of 31 May, poaching in the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park has boomed. There is little argument among conservation bodies about the numbers - some 95 rhinos have been poached in the park so far this year. It drew to mind an interview I recorded with former Environmental Affairs Minister, Edna Molewa, in about 2013 for a multimedia eBook I was producing called, iRhino.

South Africa’s drive to use wild animals as commercial trade goods has been ratcheted up a notch with the appointment of a high-level panel to review the policies, legislation and practices of breeding, hunting and trading of elephants, lions, leopards and rhinos. The panel’s terms of reference and the people appointed by Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy make it extremely unlikely to support wildlife welfare and conservation. The appointment of the panel follows the almost surreptitious listing late last year of 32 wild animals under the…

The illegal wildlife trade (IWT) has developed into a diverse and lucrative form of transnational organized crime, placing serious pressure on fauna and flora worldwide. The hidden costs include lost ecosystem services (such as carbon storage and water filtration for example), the loss of potential revenue from the sustainable use of natural resources and depriving local communities of resources they rely on for their livelihoods. Wildlife crime erodes rule of law and undermines governance, especially in remote areas and border crossings, but also at key ports.

The illegal wildlife trade (IWT) has developed into a diverse and lucrative form of transnational organized crime, placing serious pressure on fauna and flora worldwide. The hidden costs include lost ecosystem services (such as carbon storage and water filtration for example), the loss of potential revenue from the sustainable use of natural resources and depriving local communities of resources they rely on for their livelihoods. Wildlife crime erodes rule of law and undermines governance, especially in remote areas and border crossings, but also at key ports.