CAPE TOWN: A Thailand man has been convicted and sentence to 40 years by South Africa after he was found guilty of masterminding the killing and slaughter of rhinos in the country for their horns, which he smuggled back into Asia for the black market. Chumlong Lemthongthai pleaded guilty to 59 offenses against the South African Customs and Excise Act and environmental legislation in relation to the killing of around 26 rhinos in bogus trophy hunts. Five other coaccused were released – the charges against them dropped after Chumlong claimed that he alone knew the rhino horns were being exported for profit. Chumlong paid Thai commercial sex workers to pose as hunters and obtain export certificates for horns, which were in fact taken from rhinos killed by professional hunters. South Africa has reported that 430 rhinos have been murdered by poachers this year already, according to the Department of Environmental Affairs. “The latest rhino poaching statistics indicate that a total of 430 rhinos have been lost to illegal killings since the beginning of this year, with the total number of arrests at 205," said the department in a statement in early October. The Kruger National Park has lost 258 rhinos to poaching. Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and North West provinces continue to be the hardest hit by poachers, collectively accounting for the loss of 141 rhinos. Of those arrested, 177 are poachers. The department has urged members of the public to report incidents of rhino poaching. Saving South Africa's rhinos – more than 80 percent of the global population – is urgent, the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF-SA) has said. If poaching increases at the same rate as it has over the past two years, the species could go into decline from 2016, and become extinct in the wild by 2050, according to South African National Parks wildlife veterinary services head Markus Hofmeyr. “We believe that we owe it to the rhinos to be open-minded," said WWF-SA rhino co-ordinator Jo Shaw, at the Pretoria launch of the organization's five-point plan to combat poaching. The plan is to build growing and resilient rhino populations; work with communities that live adjacent to rhino rangelands to ensure they gain a vested interest in saving rhinos through benefiting from rhino conservation; supporting crime investigation and prosecution; encouraging bilateral co-operation between South Africa and states where rhino horn is a sought-after commodity; and deepening understanding of how the rhino horn trade works, and why demand is growing. Before 2007, South Africa lost fewer than 20 rhinos a year to poaching. In 2008, the rate of poaching started its upwards trend, with South Africa set to lose just less than 560 this year, Shaw said. Encouragingly, the poaching rate had slowed between 2010-11 and 2011-12, she said. The WWF-SA unveiled to the media a limited edition rhino sculpture, which can be bought in bronze or gold leaf, inspired by the 800-year-old rhino sculpture excavated at Mapungubwe in Limpopo in 1933. “The Mapungubwe rhino is probably South Africa's most priceless artifact," said WWF-SA business development head Andrew Baxter. The modern sculpture, by artist Noel Ashton, is to be sold to raise funds for WWF-SA's rhino program. Only 100 will be made, with the bronze-leafed rhinos selling for R15,000 and the gold-leafed ones for R35,000. A single solid gold rhino sculpture would be sold, on request, Ashton said. Ashton said he had been struck by how the Mapungubwe rhino was rendered whole, and buried with a king. “It's not a piece of skin, or a bone. It's a complete rhino, and the people who made it would not have made it like that if the rhino in its entirety did not mean something to them," he said.
