File
The government says a total of 451 rhinos were poached in South Africa last year, 327 incidents recorded within government reserves, and 124 on private property.
“While there is a 24 percent decrease in rhino poaching compared to the pre-Covid period in 2019, there has been an increase in poaching on private properties,” said the Minister of the Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, Barbara Creecy.
She said in 2021, 209 rhinos were poached for their horns in SA National Parks, with all the incidents in the Kruger National Park.
Creecy said this was in fact a decrease in comparison to 2020 when 247 rhinos were poached within the national parks.
But, she said the steady decline in rhino poaching in Kruger Park is related to an increase in the intensity of anti-poaching activities in the Kruger National Park.
“One of the unintended consequences is that poaching syndicates are looking to other areas for easy prey and this has resulted in their targeting private reserves in Limpopo and Mpumalanga,” Creecy added.
She said last year there were 189 arrests in connection with poaching activities, compared with 156 people arrested countrywide in 2020.
“Over the last year conservation and anti-poaching efforts have intensified countrywide as a joint effort is made by state-owned conservation areas, government and private landowners to reduce the poaching of rhino in South Africa.”
