Environmental monitors help in fight against rhino poaching

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Pretoria - The deployment of environmental monitors to areas facing high incidents of poaching has played a demonstrable role in combating this crime, Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa says.

Speaking during the World Ranger Day commemoration in Marakele National Park in Limpopo on Saturday, Minister Molewa said 1 460 environmental monitors have been deployed countrywide since the inception of the programme in April 2013.

“All environmental monitors are trained as armed or unarmed field rangers through the Southern African Wildlife College in Hoedspruit, Limpopo. Further training, mostly non-accredited, is provided by various host institutions both in the public and private sector,” Minister Molewa said.

The key objectives of the programme are the provision of additional support for conservation corps through patrolling and monitoring and providing capacity to conservation communities to enhance their mandate for biodiversity and ecosystems services.

Through the deployment of environmental monitors, the Minister said, rhino poaching has decreased by an estimated 50% in private host institutions.

“These rhino ambassadors play the role of protector and educator interchangeably: and is testimony to the increasingly important role they play in wildlife management today,” said the Minister.

In 2016 South Africa will host the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES. 

Minister Molewa said this will provide South Africa with an opportunity to demonstrate not just the country’s conservation successes, but also to promote the sustainable utilisation of its natural resources as an integral part of conservation and economic growth.

World Ranger Day, marked internationally on 31 July, is a day set aside annually to commemorate rangers all over the world who have died in the course of their duties or who risk their lives daily as they work at the forefront of conservation.

The Minister was joined by more than 500 rangers, environmental monitors and members of the community in observing a minute of silence for ranged who have been wounded or killed in the line of duty worldwide in the past year. - SAnews.gov.za