Latest news with #SouthernAfricanWildlifeCollege
IOL News
3 days ago
- Science
- IOL News
Study reveals cutting off rhino horns significantly reduces poaching
Donors from Friends of African Wildlife during a rhino conservation experience. Image: Southern African Wildlife College The best and cheapest way to protect rhinos, whose population has plummeted over the last 15 years because of poaching, is to cut off their horns, according to researchers who carried out a seven-year study in southern Africa. The analysis of poaching before and after the de-horning of almost 2,300 rhinos showed that removing the keratin-based protrusions cut the crime by 78%. The researchers are from three South African universities - Nelson Mandela, Stellenbosch and Cape Town - and the UK's University of Oxford. Over that period, poachers killed almost 2,000 rhinos in the area under study. It covered 10 reserves in South Africa's Greater Kruger region - a network of public and private conservation land that encompasses an area bigger than Israel - between 2017 and 2023, as well as an adjacent sanctuary in Mozambique. Together, the region hosts the world's biggest concentration of rhinos. 'De-horning rhinos is associated with large and abrupt reductions in poaching,' the researchers said in the study published in the Science journal on Thursday. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ In the first quarter of 2025, 103 rhinos were poached across South Africa, 65 of those within national parks. Although the country recorded a 16% overall decline in poaching last year, increases in key areas such as Kruger National Park underscore the need for continued vigilance and interventions such as dehorning. Image: Southern African Wildlife College Poachers have had rhinos in South Africa, where almost all of the world's population of the endangered animals live, under siege for more than a decade. They shoot the animals with assault rifles, often by the light of the full moon, and then hack off their horns. Those are ground down into powder and used in potions erroneously believed to cure cancer and boost virility, primarily in East Asia. The practice of de-horning also accounted for just 1.2% of the $74 million spent by the reserves on anti-poaching programs in the four years to 2021, the researchers said. That money went toward a range of measures including 500 rangers deployed across the reserves at any one time as well as cameras and tracking dogs. Still, even though de-horning cut the annual chance of an individual rhino being poached to 0.6% by the end of the study period from 13% at the start, there were instances of criminals killing rhinos to harvest the stumps that had been left after the horn removal, they said. That means that conservationists can't abandon other anti-poaching measures entirely, they said. Poachers could also start targeting other areas containing rhinos that still have horns. The number of rhinos - both of the white and less common black variety - killed illegally in South Africa last year fell to 420 from a peak of 1,215 a decade earlier. That improvement was partially due to de-horning exercises, according to Dion George, the nation's environment minister.
The Herald
28-05-2025
- General
- The Herald
Southern African Wildlife College gets accreditation for national diploma
The Southern African Wildlife College (SAWC) says its flagship diploma in applied natural resource management has now received all formal accreditations with an official registration number from the relevant national regulatory bodies. 'We will enrol our first group of first-year students in January 2026 and encourage interested parties to keep an eye on our website and communications platforms for further updates and application details,' the college said on Tuesday. It said the milestone followed a rigorous multiyear process to ensure the programme met the highest academic and professional standards. 'With accreditation secured from the Council on Higher Education at the end of 2024, and with the recent and subsequent registration of the qualification by the South African Qualifications Authority, the college is pleased to confirm that the diploma is now fully recognised as a nationally registered qualification at NQF Level 6.' The college said the three-year diploma had been developed to respond to the real-world needs of protected area managers and conservation practitioners working across Southern Africa. 'It blends academic learning (two years online with annual practical blocks at the SAWC campus) with intensive field-based application (third year fully applied), ensuring graduates are equipped with the knowledge and practical skills required to manage natural resources effectively and holistically.' TimesLIVE
TimesLIVE
27-05-2025
- General
- TimesLIVE
Southern African Wildlife College gets accreditation for national diploma
The Southern African Wildlife College (SAWC) says its flagship diploma in applied natural resource management has now received all formal accreditations with an official registration number from the relevant national regulatory bodies. 'We will enrol our first group of first-year students in January 2026 and encourage interested parties to keep an eye on our website and communications platforms for further updates and application details,' the college said on Tuesday. It said the milestone followed a rigorous multiyear process to ensure the programme met the highest academic and professional standards. 'With accreditation secured from the Council on Higher Education at the end of 2024, and with the recent and subsequent registration of the qualification by the South African Qualifications Authority, the college is pleased to confirm that the diploma is now fully recognised as a nationally registered qualification at NQF Level 6.' The college said the three-year diploma had been developed to respond to the real-world needs of protected area managers and conservation practitioners working across Southern Africa. 'It blends academic learning (two years online with annual practical blocks at the SAWC campus) with intensive field-based application (third year fully applied), ensuring graduates are equipped with the knowledge and practical skills required to manage natural resources effectively and holistically.'
