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Kasungu is in Malawi but borders Zambia, and more than 260 elephants were translocated to the park more than two years ago in an operation spearheaded by Ifaw and African Parks, despite the glaring fact that there is no fence on the international frontier and much of the Malawian side. "It is with great concern that Ifaw has learned that five elephants have been found dead in Kasungu National Park between May and September 2024," Ifaw's statement read. It was also posted on Ifaw's site but not prominently.

However, due to long periods of over-hunting and poaching their meat (subsistence poaching) and ivory tusks, that number declined significantly across the continent between the 70s and 80s. It’s reported that an average of 100 000 elephants were killed each year during that time, and by 2016, experts estimated a drop in those numbers by 111 000 within a decade. Today, there are only 415 000 elephants across Africa, with Botswana being home to the world's largest elephant population.

"White rhino populations in South Africa are on the rise despite poaching," the report says. Curiously, the report does not mention private ownership of the species, which has been one of the driving forces behind this trend. The report notes that by 2012, there were more than 21,000 white rhinos on the planet, capping a remarkable comeback from the brink of extinction. A century earlier, there were fewer than 100.

In Namibia, despite famed conservation efforts, close to 300 rhinos have been poached over the past 4 years (2020 to 2023), according to wildlife reports from the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism.

South African National Parks has confirmed that lions have been targeted in a poisoning campaign in the northern Kruger Park by poachers seeking the animals’ body parts, presumably for the muti trade. The numbers are not huge, but in the wake of the rhino poaching onslaught, the targeting of another charismatic species in the iconic park will set off alarm bells among conservationists.

The Wildlife Justice Commission has published details of a rhino horn trafficking case that includes the use of frozen seafood and 'mishandled baggage', as well as the failure of authorities not to publicly report their seizure of the horn. 

Private and communal lands now conserve at least 50% of Africa's rhinos, according to a newly published paper in journal 'Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment', highlighting the need for 'adaptive policies' to build on this success. These trends have policy implications as debates rage about rhino-horn trade and trophy hunting.

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.

Rhino poaching declined sharply in South Africa last year, according to the latest official data, and the data also shows that rhinos on state land were far more vulnerable than those in private hands. In South Africa, if you are a rhino on a state reserve, your chances of getting whacked by a poacher are about nine times greater than if you roam a private one.

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…