Cape Town - The Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DFFE) says it has intensified its joint conservation and anti-poaching efforts to conserve rhino species.
This follows after the department reported an increase in rhino poaching recently.
It reported in August that a total of 259 rhinos were poached for their horns in South Africa in the first six months of 2022.
“Over the last year, conservation and anti-poaching efforts have intensified countrywide as a joint effort is made by the collaborative initiatives of state-owned conservation areas, government and private landowners to reduce the poaching of rhino in South Africa,” the department said.
The department, in co-operation with the provincial conservation authorities, SANParks, private rhino owners and the SAPS, have been focusing on a more proactive and integrated approach and increasing situational awareness and sharing of information.
“From a biological management point of view, the department in partnership with the Rhino Management Group and all relevant stakeholders are in the process of revising the Biodiversity Management Plans (BMPs) for black and white rhinos respectively. An additional important measure of recent success in the management of the rhino meta-population has been the successful translocation of 27 rhino from South Africa to the Zinave national park in Mozambique.
Working to a two-to-three-year time line, the project is already well on its way to relocating more than 40 rhinos to Mozambique in a series of highly co-ordinated and carefully managed rewilding operations. The first 20 white rhino and seven black rhino introduced to Zinave earlier this year are thriving,” the department said.
Cape Times