South Africa has been mindful of any attempts by international criminal syndicates to expand their elephant poaching operations across the country's borders, the government said on Friday.

Safety and security measures have been developed, and actions taken, alongside steps to address the menace of rhino poaching, to ensure elephant poaching does not increase in South Africa, the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) said.

South Africa was warned at the 16th Conference of Parties to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Bangkok, Thailand, in March 2013, that elephant poaching was expected to become a problem as of the start of 2014.

South Africa's Kruger National Park, which is battling a high number of rhino killings, has recorded its first case of elephant poaching in more than a decade.

Ivory poaching is rife on the African continent but South Africa had escaped the onslaught. Neighboring Zimbabwe and Mozambique have reported an increase in the number of cases, including some where some animals were killed by cyanide poisoning.

"The cross-border crime of rhino and elephant poaching, as with all wildlife crimes, requires coordinated and joint responses not only by individual countries and environmental authorities, but also by domestic, regional and international security agencies to ensure that terrorist groups and well-organized cross border crime syndicates are unable to benefit from particularly endangered species such as the rhino and elephant," the DEA said.

The department said it is important to note that South Africa's elephants were not affected by poaching for more than a decade following the once-off sale, approved by the CITES in 2007.

The sale of ivory by South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe in November 2008 to approved buyers was authorized by CITES, and was the first sale permitted following a ban on the trade in elephant and elephant products by CITES in 1989.

"While South Africa has been fortunate to escape the onslaught on elephant populations by poachers across Africa in recent years, the country is ready to deal with any elephant poaching incidents, " the DEA said.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)