While the slaughter of elephants and rhinos continues in many countries, slaughtered by poachers for the value of their tusks and horns, good news is coming from South Africa, where a team of mostly female rangers, the Black Mamba Antipoaching Unit, is achieving results. important in tackling poaching and illegal wildlife trade. An activity that earned her the Champions of the Earth award from the UNEP - United Nations Environment Program.
While in many countries the slaughter of elephants and rhinos continues, slaughtered by poachers for the value of their tusks and horns, good news comes from South Africa, Where a team of female rangers, the Black Mamba Antipoaching Unit, is achieving important results in countering poaching and illegal wildlife trade.
An activity that earned her the Champions of the Earth award from the UNEP - United Nations Environment Program. The Champions of the Earth award it is awarded every year to organizations and individuals who have distinguished themselves in protecting the environment and building a sustainable future, acting, in their respective fields of expertise, with tenacity and determination.
Features that are certainly not lacking in the rangers of the Black Mamba Antipoaching Unit, which has been awarded the prestigious award both for the courage shown in the fight against poachers and in the protection of biodiversity, and for the results obtained so far.
Founded in 2013, the team, made up of 26 people, contributed to the arrest of 6 poachers, resulted in a 76% reduction in the spread of traps and allowed for the identification and dismantling of over a thousand traps and 5 camps set up by poachers. .
The area in which the unit operates is the Balule Private Game Reserve, which is home to a huge variety of wildlife - in particular, rhinos, leopards, lions, hippos, cheetahs and elephants - and which is located within the Greater Kruger National Park.
To understand the importance and urgency of actions aimed at combating poaching, just think that, in 2014 alone, 1215 rhinos were killed across South Africa: a fact that scores an increase of 12.000% compared to 2004 and that allows us to understand the extent of an unprecedented massacre, dictated by greed, which is pushing this species, along with others, to the brink of extinction.
"The initiatives carried out by the community are fundamental for the fight against the illegal trade in wild species" - he declared Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP, explaining the reasons that led UNEP to award the Black Mamba the recognition - “and the rangers of the Black Mamba Unit demonstrate the importance and effectiveness of knowledge and commitment at the local level. Their many successes are the result of their impressive courage and determination to make a difference in their community. The people who make up Black Mamba are a source of inspiration, not only locally, but around the world, to all who work to eliminate the scourge of illegal wildlife trade. "
The work of the Black Mamba rangers consists of carefully monitor the area, checking the fences and walking up to twenty kilometers every day, looking for poachers, their tracks, their fields and their traps. In the time they don't spend patrolling the nature reserve, members of the unit contribute to feed the debate on the subject of poaching, showing its connections with organized crime and trying to raise public awareness as much as possible. Their goal is prevent poachers from recruiting new members within local communities.
Their intense, tiring and dangerous work aims to undermine the mechanisms of international poaching, which is seriously endangering the survival of some animal species, starting with elephants and rhinos.
"I'm not afraid, I know what I'm doing and I know why I'm doing it." - He explained her about it Leitah Mkhabela, one of the rangers of the Black Mamba Unit - “If you see the poachers, tell them not to try, tell them that we are here and that they are in danger. Animals deserve to live, they have the right to live. Do your part. If the demand for some products ends, the killings will stop as well. Say yes to life. Say no to illegally traded rhino horn and elephant ivory. "
An appeal that we cannot fail to share, in the hope that the presentation of the Champions of the Earth Award to this team of courageous women and men will contribute to to further raise awareness of the issues of poaching and the illegal trade in wild species.
Lisa Vagnozzi
Photo Credit Julia Gunther
Black Mamba
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