POLITICS

52 rhinos poached in 2012 thus far - SanParks

Kruger National Park worst hit, with 26 animals lost

Latest on Rhino Poaching in South Africa: South African National Parks announces that 52 rhinos have been poached and 30 arrests effected throughout South Africa to date

The hardest hit areas continue to be the Kruger National Park (KNP) and Limpopo province with 26 and 13 rhinos poached in both areas respectively. 

The CEO of SANParks, Dr David Mabunda, said "it is worrying that we are still losing such a high number of rhinos throughout the country. The most encouraging area in this whole saga is the increasing number of arrests and the steeper sentences that are being imposed on convicted criminals.". 

Conservation agencies and the police are seeing increasing cooperation from the public which has resulted in arrests in the KNP and some provinces being effective before the criminals even enter the parks. The difficulty is pinning a suspected criminal to the actual crime because we are dealing with very wily and sophisticated individuals. 

Below are the current statistics for: 

Poaching Stats for 2009 to 2012

South Africa

2009

2010

2011

2012

KNP

50

146

252

26

MNP

0

0

6

2

GP

7

15

9

0

LIM

16

52

74

13

MP

6

17

31

0

NW

10

57

21

4

EC

3

4

11

0

FS

2

3

4

0

KZN

28

38

34

6

WC

0

0

6

1

NC

0

1

0

0

Total

122

333

448

52

Arrest for 2010 to 2012

South Africa - Arrests

2012

2011

2010

KNP (KNP)

3

82

67

MNP

0

0

0

Gauteng (GP)

4

16

10

Mpumalanga (MP)

9

73

16

Eastern Cape (EC)

0

2

7

Limpopo (LP)

3

34

36

North West (NW)

10

21

2

Free State (FS)

0

0

0

KZN (KZN)

0

4

25

Western Cape (WC)

0

0

2

Northern Cape (NC)

1

0

0

Total

30

232

165

Statement issued by Wanda Mkutshulwa, Head of Communications, SANParks, February 14 2012

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