At least 79 Rhinos were poached between 2007 and 2016 in the Eastern Cape.
This was revealed on Wednesday at a media briefing by the Provincial Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism on Wednesday.
The statistics, revealing trends in rhino poaching syndicates, come ahead of World Rhino Day on Friday.
The Director of Compliance Enforcement at the so-called Green Scorpions, Div De Villiers, said that collaboration between different entities including South African Police Service and the Public have helped keep the numbers low in the province.
"This number would have been far higher had it not been for the dedicated men and women who have walked patrols, sat in observation posts, worked undercover within organised crime syndicates, analysed data, compiled dockets, effected arrests, prosecuted poachers, distributed information pamphlets, raised funds, translocated rhino and showed their support for one of Africa's iconic species," he said.
"The collective efforts of these heroic Eastern Cape people have ensured that rhino still walk in the grassland, savannah and bushveld of the province," De Villiers added.
De Villiers said the main concern now is the change in the modus operandi used by poaching syndicates which entails the killing of a group rhinos at a time instead of just one like back in 2007 when the problem began.
"The poaching syndicates have excellent resources available to them. As law enforcement agencies we also require those resources and dogs have become increasingly important in the fight against rhino crime," De Villiers said.
De Villiers said getting such resources, sustaining the resources they have now and funding for doing training is an ongoing issue.
"Whether the efforts can be sustained for the next decade will be interesting. At this stage there is no other option if we want the rhino to survive," De Villiers said.
Meanwhile, the CEO of the Wilderness Foundation of Africa, Matthew Norval, said the South African government, in conjunction with Vietnam, can do more to curb rhino poaching.
"The South African government and the government of Vietnam have an agreement in place regarding attempting to curb rhino poaching. I do think more can be done between our government and Vietnam to increase enforcement on that side, but also to look some of the loophole regarding trade," Norval said.
He said that if having a rhino horn is completely illegal it will take care of undercover trading activities.
