Skukuza - There’s a small sign above Major-General Johan Jooste’s desk at his office in Skukuza, the headquarters of Kruger National Park. It says: “Think Big, Start Small, Act Now”.
It’s an apt credo for the man in charge of anti-poaching at South African National Parks. The 61-year-old ex-army general joined the organisation last year, and has been tasked with one of the country’s biggest challenges: combating the scourge of rhino poaching.
Last year, 606 rhino were killed in Kruger, out of a total number in South Africa of 1 008. This year 433 rhino have been killed in Kruger so far.
“We are fighting a war,” says Jooste, who retired from the army in 2006 after 35 years of service, but also has an MBA and has worked in business development in the arms industry.
“Mozambicans are making regular armed incursions into South Africa, our sovereign country, plundering our resources, and leaving. To me, that’s an act of war.
“These rhinos in Kruger are the most valuable cache of environmental assets in the world. Rhino horn is more valuable than gold or platinum. Gram for gram, it’s the most expensive commodity on the planet.”
There are between 10 and 15 groups of poachers operating in the park at any one time, spending up to four days inside. Each group comprises three men, mostly in their twenties.
“As much as I despise them, the poachers survive well in the bush, and their bushcraft is remarkable. Their tracking is good, and their resilience is impressive. They are a formidable opponent with no rules.”
The rewards are big, and the risks are relatively low. The poachers as a group can earn between R100 000 and R150 000 for a few days’ work.
“If you’ve grown up in destitute poverty, just one poaching excursion changes your life,” says Jooste.
This never-ending flow of money into Mozambique comes from international crime syndicates, mostly in Asia or eastern Europe.
Jooste has about 400 rangers under his supervision. The 20 000km² Kruger National Park – bigger than some small countries – has one ranger for every 50km², but the international norm is one for every 10km².
The paucity of resources available to Jooste means his team has to fight smart, as well as hard.
“We are training and equipping the rangers to act as a military force,” Jooste explains. “We have expanded the force to include an airwing, a group of special rangers, an army company and a dog reaction unit.”
Jooste is working on establishing alliances with Kruger’s neighbours, including the parks in Mozambique, the private lodge concessions and the communities. This will create a buffer zone around Kruger, and allow intelligence to be shared across the region.
“The philosophy will always be to clear the park of poachers from the outside,” explains Jooste. “Once the poachers are inside the park, it’s too late.”
Jooste has also set up three distinct protection zones in Kruger. An intensive protection zone in the south of the park will protect the biggest rhino population in the park.
“A quarter of the world’s rhino live in the south of Kruger, with one rhino for every square kilometre. This is where 60 percent of the park’s rhino occur, on 20 percent of the land.”
By the end of next year rangers in the intensive protection zone in the south will be using cutting-edge military technology to detect poachers.
The south will also have a dedicated, night-flight adapted helicopter that will ensure a sub 15-minute reaction time to a poaching incident.
While the south is a priority, Jooste emphasises that the rest of the park’s rhinos are not going to be neglected, but he has to focus his efforts.
“Every rhino in this park is critical, but we have to create a safe haven in the south – a fortress – to make sure that we safeguard this core population.”
Jooste says that a “shoot-to-kill” strategy is not going to stop poaching, and a fence won’t necessarily keep poachers out, although he says a fortified, monitored fence will be erected in the south.
To stop the poaching in the short term, Jooste says, the biggest gains are in removing the so-called Massingir middlemen. They live in the town of Massingir just to the east of the park’s border in Mozambique, and are the conduits for the money between the crime syndicates and the poachers.
Jooste says his team knows exactly who these middlemen are, where they live and how they operate.
“It’s very tempting for my teams to go across the border and arrest them and bring them back here, but we can’t do that. It’s totally unacceptable that nothing is happening in Mozambique yet, but that’s out of my control.”
The new appointment to the rhino task force of Lieutenant-General Vineshkumar Moonoo, the police’s head of detectives, is a big positive.
“We are hopeful that some of the pressure to remove the middlemen will materialise soon, now that Moonoo has joined us. Soon we will work with the Mozambican police to pursue them.”
In the long term Jooste says there are only two ways to reduce poaching of Africa’s wildlife.
“First, we have to give total ownership of Africa’s parks to the surrounding communities, so they take responsibility themselves for the wildlife. And second, we have to reduce demand for rhino horn in Asia.”
I ask Jooste if he and his rangers will win this war.
“Yes,” he says, without hesitating.
l Ramsay is a photojournalist focusing on protected areas in southern Africa. Partners include Ford Everest, Goodyear, Cape Union Mart and K-Way. See www.yearinthewild.com for more.
Cape Times