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South Africa-Mozambique Cooperation Reduces Rhino Poaching

Marize de Klerk

   KRUGER NATIONAL PARK, SOUTH AFRICA - Officials at South African
   National Parks say cooperation with neighboring Mozambique has been a
   key factor in reducing rhinoceros poaching in the famous Kruger
   National Park. Kruger is home to the world's largest wild rhino
   population, and has proven a tempting target for poachers who for years
   jumped the park's borders.

   South African rangers, their Mozambique counterparts and private
   business people leasing land from Mozambique's government recently met
   with journalists on the border fence between the two countries, during
   a park-organized media trip to the Marula North region of the Kruger.

   This area used to see heavy rhino poaching originating in Mozambique,
   but rangers say they now see a positive trend.

   "Between 2018 and 2019, this area had 53 percent decline in incursions
   of rhino poachers, and we lost 47 percent less rhinos. That is a
   massive gain. And that wasn't coincidental. We've done that on the back
   of a growing rhino population in Mozambique here, and a stable rhino
   population in the Kruger Park in this area," said Steven Whitfield,
   Marula North regional ranger in Kruger National Park.

   Poachers have long targeted African rhinos for their horns, which fetch
   up to $60,000 per kilogram in Asian markets.

   But improved patrols, technology, and cross-border cooperation are
   helping to reverse rampant poaching that peaked in 2014, when nearly
   830 were killed in the park.

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