Tag: poaching

Worth a watch

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This is about Nelson Mandela Bay (Gqeberha), but there’s no shortage of poachers around Cape Agulhas and Cape Town. Robben Island is a huge hotspot.

They are very well funded, and treat the coastline and the law with complete impunity. And, because of SA’s issues with poverty, even when a poacher pops his clogs and joins the choir invisible – which they do on a fairly regular basis: this isn’t a low risk occupation – there are many, many others ready to step in and take their place.

No quick fix?
More like no fix at all for this right now.

Succulent issue

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Not much time today, so here’s something someone else has written (and filmed).

Just another way in which a lack of will or effort to carefully use a unique natural resource to benefit the impoverished local communities has allowed organised crime to take hold, even in the smallest dorpies in the Karoo.

A biodiversity hotspot in a remote part of South Africa has become the hub of an illegal trade in protected plant species, with organised crime groups capitalising on overseas demand.

“They’ve not just stolen our land or our plants, they’ve stolen our heritage as well,” a livestock farmer angrily tells the BBC, as she expresses dismay at the social and ecological crisis that the poaching has caused.

It’s a sobering read.