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201210Dec21:39

New agree­ment between South Africa and Viet­nam — A turn­ing point in tack­ling rhino poach­ing cri­sis, say WWF & TRAFFIC

Infor­ma­tion
pub­lished 10 Decem­ber 2012 | mod­i­fied 10 Decem­ber 2012
Archived
White rhinoA piv­otal moment in efforts to tackle the cur­rent rhino poach­ing cri­sis took place today as the gov­ern­ments of South Africa and Viet­nam signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing to improve co-​operation between the two states on bio­di­ver­sity con­ser­va­tion and pro­tec­tion includ­ing tack­ling ille­gal wildlife traf­fick­ing.

The Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MoU) was signed by H.E. Edna Molewa, Min­is­ter for the South African Depart­ment of Water and Envi­ron­men­tal Affairs and H.E. Cao Duc Phat, Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture and Rural Devel­op­ment, Viet­nam dur­ing a visit by Min­is­ter Molewa to Viet­nam. The main ele­ments of co-​operation out­lined in the MoU include the field of bio­di­ver­sity man­age­ment, con­ser­va­tion, pro­tec­tion, law enforce­ment, com­pli­ance with CITES and other rel­e­vant leg­is­la­tion and Con­ven­tions. Based on equal­ity and mutual ben­e­fit it comes into force on the date of sig­na­ture and notes specif­i­cally that ille­gal wildlife traf­fick­ing remains a global chal­lenge.

The Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture and Rural Devel­op­ment, in co-​operation with related min­istries and agen­cies, are sub­mit­ting the Prime Min­is­ter to issue a Deci­sion on ban­ning the import of all rhino spec­i­mens to Viet­nam in 2012.
H.E. Cao Duc Phat, Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture and Rural Devel­op­ment, Vietnam »

Speak­ing at the sign­ing cer­e­mony, H.E. Edna Molewa said: “South Africa is look­ing for­ward to receiv­ing the close co-​operation from Viet­namese part­ners to stop the ille­gal trade of rhino horns from South Africa to Viet­nam.“

H.E. Cao Duc Phat, Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture and Rural Devel­op­ment, Viet­nam also recog­nised the impor­tance of co-​operation between the two coun­tries, stat­ing that: “Fight­ing against crime on wildlife reg­u­la­tions espe­cially on the rare, pre­cious and endan­gered species includ­ing rhi­nos and its deriv­a­tives are always of con­cern to the Viet­nam gov­ern­ment.”

Although the MoU between South Africa and Viet­nam refers only in gen­eral terms to address­ing ille­gal wildlife smug­gling, there are clear indi­ca­tions that rhino horn traf­fick­ing will be top of the new agenda on co-​operation between the two nations.

WWF and TRAF­FIC wel­come the new agree­ment, which marks a turn­ing point in efforts to pro­tect Africa’s rhi­nos and look for­ward to see­ing action being under­taken by both coun­tries to end the cur­rent rhino poach­ing cri­sis,” said Stu­art Chap­man, WWF-​Greater Mekong Con­ser­va­tion Direc­tor. He added, “South Africa and Viet­nam have pub­licly sig­nalled their inten­tion to get tough on the crim­i­nal syn­di­cates behind the rhino poach­ing spree.”

Cur­rently hun­dreds of rhi­nos are being poached each year in South Africa, their horns hacked off and smug­gled to meet the soar­ing demand in Viet­nam, where rhino horn is in demand as a sup­posed “mir­a­cle med­i­cine”, despite a lack of sup­port­ing med­ical evi­dence. Asian-​run crim­i­nal syn­di­cates are believed to be behind much of the crime, with couri­ers paid to smug­gle poached horns from Africa to Asia, where they end up in the hands of wealthy Viet­namese. TRAFFIC’s report released in August 2012 iden­ti­fied Viet­nam as the prime des­ti­na­tion for much of the ille­gal rhino horn.

Rhino poach­ing num­bers in South Africa have surged from 13 in 2007, to over 600 in 2012. In addi­tion, there have been 246 peo­ple arrested in con­nec­tion with the poach­ing of rhi­nos and the ille­gal trade of rhino horn in South Africa in 2012 alone. In 2010, TRAF­FIC con­vened a meet­ing between South African enforce­ment offi­cials and their coun­ter­parts in Viet­nam to estab­lish links between the two as part of a major effort to address the rhino horn cri­sis. This meet­ing and a sub­se­quent return visit by Viet­namese offi­cials to South Africa, laid the foun­da­tion for today’s inter­gov­ern­men­tal agree­ment.

“Rhino poach­ing is a key burn­ing con­ser­va­tion issue, and through the pub­lic com­mit­ments of the two gov­ern­ments at this sign­ing cer­e­mony today, we have seen promis­ing begin­nings of col­lab­o­ra­tive action. This com­mit­ment now needs to be turned into urgent action to turn the cri­sis around,” said Dr. Naomi Doak, Coor­di­na­tor of TRAF­FIC South­east Asia-​Greater Mekong Programme.

The world’s rhino pop­u­la­tions are hang­ing by a thread, and today the oppor­tu­nity was taken to throw them another lifeline.
(Dr. Doak)

WWF and its part­ner TRAF­FIC, the wildlife mon­i­tor­ing net­work, are cam­paign­ing for greater pro­tec­tion of threat­ened species such as rhi­nos, tigers and ele­phants. In order to save endan­gered ani­mals, source, tran­sit and demand coun­tries must all improve co-​operation, law enforce­ment, cus­toms con­trols and judi­cial sys­tems. WWF and TRAF­FIC are also urg­ing gov­ern­ments to under­take demand reduc­tion efforts to curb the use of endan­gered species products.

(Source: WWF Global news release, 10.12.2012; TRAF­FIC, 10.12.2012)
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Tiger range countries map

Tiger map” (CC BY 2.5) by Sander­son et al., 2006.

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