Khama Sanctuary no longer safe haven
Mompati Tlhankane | Monday February 27, 2023 06:00
KRS has been known for an excellent security system in place to protect these endangered animals and was thought to be a safe haven for the relocated rhinos and existing rhinos until the first ever poaching incident between October and November. KRS was regarded as a positive example of a reserve, where not a single animal has been poached since its foundation.
KRS, a community based wildlife project, established in 1992 to assist in saving the vanishing rhinoceros this time could not shield highly endangered rhinos from poachers’ guns.
The facility’s aim from the onset was to restore an area formerly teeming with wildlife to its previous natural state and provide economic benefits to the local Botswana community through tourism and the sustainable use of natural resources.
Covering approximately 8,585 hectares of Kalahari Sandveld, the sanctuary provides prime habitat for white and black rhinos as well as over 30 other animal species and more than 230 bird species. Over the years before the poaching incident, it was a joy to see this sanctuary provide the safety and the ecological requirements that rhinos need in order to breed, hence pulling the species back from the brink of extinction.
When last year’s poaching matter was still fresh, KRS was sketchy about the details surrounding the incident and efforts by this publication to inquire about the incident hit a snag at the time.
But this week in Parliament, Assistant Minister of Local Government & Rural Development Mabuse Pule confirmed that indeed two rhinos were poached from KRS during the period October to November 2022. Although the Pule said investigations into the poaching incidences are still ongoing, reports indicate that poachers posed as tourists in order to gain access to Botswana’s top animal sanctuaries where they killed and dehorned two rhinos. “It would be premature to make any conclusions,” Pule highlighted.
Pule who was answering a question on behalf the Minister of Environment and Tourism Philda Kerengalso confirmed that some rhinos were translocated from the Okavango Delta into safer locations. These translocations were regarded as fundamental to secure the ongoing survival of the endangered species. While Pule said he could not divulge locations to where these rhinos were translocated as that would only increase the very risk of poaching, KRS is one of the safer locations where rhinos were translocated to because it was said to be beyond the reach of rampant poaching.
Asked to state interventions, if any, being carried out to control poaching and possible extinction of endangered species, Pule said the ministry in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies has put in place many interventions that are geared towards curbing the incidences of poaching.
He said the current trend where very low numbers of animals poached is a demonstration of the positive result of the actions. However, Pule said he could not divulge the interventions and strategies as that would alert the poachers and put to risk the very animals they are trying to protect.
The targeting of the KRS as a ‘safe haven’ is now a major concern not only for KRS but also for the department of wildlife and national parks. In an interview with Mmegi this week, the director of the department Kabelo Senyatso pointed out that since the poaching incident at KRS, several interventions have been put in place in and around the sanctuary and for security reasons he couldn’t disclose these. Senyatso said what they are working on, in an inter-agency approach, is to continually fine-tune their interventions to match current and future poaching threats.
“All poaching, regardless of species poached is of concern to the Department of Wildlife and National Parks. This is why the National Anti-Poaching Strategy addresses poaching in a holistic manner, ranging from subsistence hunting (where people kill animals to eat), to commercial poaching (where people kill animals to sell) and to highly organised poaching (where people kill animals such as elephants and rhino to supply international markets).
Our counter-poaching measures address all types of poaching, and that is why all types of poaching are of concern to the Department of Wildlife and National Parks and other law enforcement agencies with whom we co-implement the National Anti-poaching Strategy,” he revealed.
In general, Pule further indicated that Botswana experienced a significant increase in incidences of rhino poaching in 2020.
She said these incidences can be attributed to a number of factors including, an increased demand for rhino horn in the international market hence poachers looked for places where rhinos are around and also a displacement of international criminal syndicates from other Southern African states.
“In 2018 Botswana lost seven rhinos to poachers. In 2019, a total of 30 rhinos were poached. In 2020 we lost 62 to poaching. In the year 2021, following an increased anti-poaching interventions 33 rhinos were lost to poachers and only six rhinos poached during the year 2022.
On account of these trends, it is evident that the interventions being implemented are bearing fruit. Therefore a total of 138 rhinos were lost to poachers from 2018 up to 2022 in terms of animals that have died due to natural causes a total of 76 rhinos were lost to natural causes. The country lost five in 2018, 18 rhinos in 2019, 22 in 2020, 15 in 2021 and 16 in 2022 rhinos. Most of these mortalities are from old age, disease and/or injuries sustained during rhino fights, mostly amongst males fighting for breeding territories,” she highlighted.
Speaking of interventions bearing fruit, Senyatso emphasised that as Kereng had mentioned, the fact that they only lost six rhinos to poaching in 2022, against 62 in 2020, shows that the measures they have put in place are working.
Senyatso also said they are not complacent, but the trajectory of the poaching trends clearly demonstrates that the counter-poaching interventions have addressed the threat of poaching such that in 2022 only six rhinos were lost to poaching versus 16 that died due to natural causes.
“This is clear evidence that poaching is not the most important threat to rhinos in Botswana at the moment, but instead natural causes (such as adult bulls killing females and/or young) are more important threats. In this regard, the Department of Wildlife and National Parks’ Veterinary and Research Divisions are working with sanctuaries that hold rhinos to improve the biological management of these animals so as to reduce deaths due to natural causes,” he further indicated.