National Geographic announced yesterday that we have lost a staggering 443 rhinos to poaching this year – a number that seems to climb exorbitantly on a daily basis. It’s with open arms that the country welcomes the sentencing of Hsu Hsien Lung to six years imprisonment for his part in rhino horn smuggling.

The Germiston Magistrate’s Court yesterday sentenced Chinese accused, Hsu Hsien Lung, who was arrested in May with almost 10 kilograms of rhino horn, to what some are calling a paltry six year prison sentence.

However, the Hawks’ MacIntosh Polela believes the sentence couldn’t have come at a better time:

I hope this serves as a warning. They will no longer be able to get away with just paying fines because they have a lot of money. They will sit and rot in jail for their crimes.

Ken Maggs, head of the Kruger National Park’s anti-poaching unit, says 21 poachers have thus far been killed in battles with park rangers and soldiers from the anti-poaching force, while a further 78 arrests have been made.

Unfortunately, the fatalities are a by-product of the value being put on rhino horn. The poachers come into the park armed with hunting rifles and assault weapons. We operate under the legal prescription of arrest, not to shoot to kill, but the poachers come prepared to fight.

They switch tactics, such as coming in by night rather than by day. And in the dark, you need to make split-second decisions, or risk leaving your family without a father.

Considering the fact that only 13 recorded rhino poaching incidents took place in 2007, the figures we attempt to digest today suggest the problem is very much out of control.

Maggs continues:

Unfortunately, there are still too many people who think of the target as just a rhino and therefore of such killings as simply another wildlife crime. It should in fact be seen as organized crime and get treated in the same way as gun-running, armed robbery, heists and hijacking.

It is not surprising that, considering the odds of getting caught or killed when committing those other crimes, more and more criminals are getting into the rhino-poaching business.

Chief executive of South African National Parks, Dr David Mabunda, wants co-operation with Mozambique’s police and military because he says that more often than not, more than 95 per cent of poaching incidents in the Park involve Mozambicans.

In 95 per cent of the cases – no, even more – Mozambicans are involved in the poaching. Many return in body bags. We don’t boast about killing people. Our purpose is to arrest them, also to gather information.

They should know the risk by now, but still they keep coming and the gangs keep multiplying.

The answer should come through joint operations between the South African and Mozambican security forces. Their Limpopo National Park [which forms part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park with Kruger National Park] is supposed to serve as a buffer. It isn’t, and we need to talk to them about it.

According to Mabunda, South African Deputy President, Kgalema Motlanthe, and the national minister of environmental affairs, Edna Molewa, may have talks with the Mozambican government soon.

[Sources: EWN, NationalGeographic]