On its own, the recent donation by the US Department of State in South Africa of a 4 x 4, ‘crime scene’ trailer to Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (‘Ezemvelo’) in Pretoria was a generous and highly practical gift. But as Sifiso Keswa, Ezemvelo’s Senior Manager: People and Conservation said in his speech afterwards, this was simply one of a whole host of offerings recently made by the US in support of Ezemvelo’s conservation efforts. “This is an opportunity to record and contextualise many other crucial interventions the US government, as well as the US Fish and Wildlife Service has done – and is doing - to support conservation in KwaZulu-Natal and in South Africa in general,” he said. For their part both Catherine Hill-Herndon, (U.S. Embassy Pretoria Deputy Chief of Mission and visiting Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment), and Catherine Novelli spoke of illegal wildlife trade helping fund many terrorist organisations. The donation of the two trailers (one other was donated to the Free State Parks Dept.) was part of a 10 million dollar African assistance package announced by US President Obama during his visit in 2013 to help fight wildlife crime on the continent. Keswa said the crime scene trailer indicated the “real insight” the US government held in the fight to combat wildlife trafficking: “It can carry all and every piece of forensic equipment to crime scenes to help us expertly collect evidence that is so critical in the investigation and prosecution of criminals”. If this demonstrated “informed assistance” then the US Fish and Wildlife Service recently added further proof of this by providing more than R1.1 million of a larger R1.7 million grant to support Mkhuze Game Reserve. This includes funding the salary for a specialised rhino monitor over a period of two years; a 4x4 vehicle; resources to execute critical monitoring and notching of the reserve’s black and white rhino populations and providing equipment, both infrastructural and surveillance. “This is a massive gesture of goodwill. Since receiving this money, we have already notched the ears of some 31 rhino, which, at this early stage, has resulted in expanding our previous estimate of Mkhuze’s rhino population from 74 to 85.” To demonstrate what Keswa termed the US’s “holistic oversight”, their assistance reached beyond “the nuts and bolts of the field” and extended to his organisation’s human resources. Over the past two years the US Consulate General in Durban sponsored three of Ezemvelo’s principal law enforcement and management staff to attend their International Visitor Leadership Programme, a new US initiative dedicated to wildlife trafficking and poaching. These staff spent three weeks engaging with American institutions and various departments as well as experiencing panel discussions and field trips. “The experience that Jabulani Ngubane (Manager: Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park), Lawrence Munro (Rhino Operations Unit Manager) and Dirk Swart (Section Ranger: Hluhluwe) gained was unprecedented ….an invaluable exposure to international conservation and intelligence expertise”. Last month the US Consulate paid for Mr Steven Galster of the ARREST programme, based in Thailand, to speak at Ezemvelo’s Annual Symposium of Contemporary Conservation Practice: “His insights and experiences of the latest global trends in wildlife crime and trafficking were captivating…amazingly informative”. Finally, he added that the recent success of September’s inaugural World Rhino Youth Summit held at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park had much to do with the US Consulate paying for children from Vietnam, their teachers, and a Vietnamese journalist to attend: “For obvious reasons their presence was particularly significant. This funding was fundamental to the overall success of the congress”. “Guests, intelligent – and ongoing - donations of support like all these supplied by the US also illustrate our organisation’s belief that the principle of partnerships, the engagement with others, is the “sure-fire route to success in this highly complex war”.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 10:51:43 +0000