Subsistence poaching and illegal hunting in and around the Eastern Cape’s Addo Elephant National Park has reached a crisis point, says the Democratic Alliance.
In a statement last Thursday, DA environment spokesman Wilhelm le Roux called on Environment Minister Valli Moosa to intervene urgently ”to prevent this situation from deteriorating any further”.
He said the illegal trade in venison in the area could become a problem as severe as the illegal trade in abalone.
There were presently three main groups of poachers operating in the park, and on farms adjoining the park.
These included subsistence poachers; poachers who sold bush meat to illegal traders in the local townships; and farmers poaching and selling meat and biltong to the formal sector.
”One farmer has informed me that his total stock of kudu and bushbuck has been caught or shot by poachers. Another told me that, in one snare-clearing operation, he found no less than 350 snares in just one camp,” Le Roux said.
He said he would write to Moosa urging him to come to the aid of the local police and the park’s anti-poaching unit.
”The units are trying their best to clamp down on the illegal hunting and poaching, but without the much needed night-vision equipment and… motorcycles they are fighting a losing battle,” he said. – Sapa