The Foreign Service Journal, October 2018

Top: Representatives of the Water Stewardship Programme, supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature and SANParks, make a field visit to a vegetable farm in Belfast, near Kruger National Park. The programme enables farmers to access water from the river inside the park. Center: The fence surrounding Kruger National Park. Bottom: During the same field visit, Water Stewardship Programme representatives inspect a pump located within KNP that irrigates a local farmer’s land. two traditional approaches to combating this scourge—law enforcement and denial of markets—are now being comple- mented by a critical third: the organization and empowerment of communities adjacent to wildlife sanctuaries to assist in the preservation of this invaluable source of natural diversity and vital part of Earth’s ecosystem. Scope of the Illegal Trade Hundreds of thousands of live animals and wildlife-derived products are illegally traded, amounting to an annual total esti- mated value of between $8 billion and $10 billion. The effects of wildlife trafficking are far-reaching. Poaching results in the decline of animal populations, which in turn can cause the degradation of whole ecosystems. The proliferation of syndicates associated with the illegal wildlife trade promotes corruption, undermining not only state security but also the economies and development of affected countries—especially those with sectors that rely on wildlife, such as nature-based tourism. Poaching of elephants for their ivory and rhinos for their horns are some of the most evident representations of the illegal trade in high-value wildlife products. The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA) is rich in biodiversity, encompass- ing the world-famous Kruger National Park in South Africa, Limpopo National Park in Mozambique, Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe and associated private or community-owned protected areas. With more than 80 percent of Africa’s rhinos, South Africa—and Kruger National Park, in particular—has borne the brunt of the upsurge in rhino poaching incidents since 2008. Over the past three years, there has been a slight decline in the number of rhinos poached—from a national record of 1,125 animals during 2014 to 1,028 in 2017, of which almost half were killed in Kruger National Park. While the slight decline in KNP is encouraging, there appears to be a shift to poaching of other spe- cies, as well as in other areas, such as the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The increase in elephant poaching in KNP to 67 elephants in 2017 from 46 in 2016 is particularly concerning. The GLTFCA also reports an increase in wildlife poisoning incidents, which have a detrimental impact on vultures and other species. 34 OCTOBER 2018 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL