Poverty to blame for poaching

Most people convicted for wildlife poaching and trafficking in South Africa commit the crimes due to poverty and joblessness, a study by an international wildlife conservation group, Traffic, has shown.

A report published yesterday and compiled after interviews with 73 convicted wildlife offenders in South African prisons, concluded that 70% were forced into crime just to make a living.

“A variety of reasons led offenders to become involved in illegal wildlife trade, one frequent motivation being a desire to provide for their families given the lack of viable legal economic alternatives,” said Traffic.

One study respondent told Traffic: “I just wanted to give my children a better life than I had.”

Another said he just wanted to send his “first-born to school so that he could get education”.

He said: “I wanted him to have the opportunity which I was denied as a child.”

Another said: “If I were working, I would not have gone and done this.”

Yet others took the risk just to keep up with well-to-do friends.

“My friends... used to poach. They were driving cars and I wished to be like them,” said one, “so I ended up doing illegal things. I was fooled, and I regret it.”

Offences committed included poaching, transporting, processing, storing and selling the illegally gotten wildlife commodities.

Of the surveyed offenders, 74% were serving sentences for rhino-related offences and the rest for crimes linked to abalone and cycad trafficking.

South Africa, which for years has battled a scourge of rhino poaching fuelled by insatiable demand for their horns in Asian countries, is also facing high unemployment levels of more than 30%.

At least 8 200 rhino have been poached for their horn in the past decade in South Africa, according to Traffic.