Cape Town – Terri Stander, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs, says that she has written to the Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, to ask her counterparts in Mozambique, Vietnam and China to implement similar regulations as the EU to implement control measures that help to disrupt organised crime using hunting trophies to traffic rhino horn and elephant ivory.
The DA welcomed the move by The European Commission to close a major loophole exploited by criminal gangs trafficking in high-value hunting trophies.
She said that illegal wildlife trade is in the top 5 organised crime earners estimated at over a billion dollars per year.
“South Africa, Mozambique, Vietnam and China all have very little control over the illegal wildlife products exiting, transiting or entering their countries,” Stander said.
She also asked the minister how the EU could implement such legislation so quickly when the problem states have taken little action since 2008, and have produced no tangible results.
“The minister needs to take a tough stance on her counterparts locally and abroad regarding the illicit trade in rhino horn. Only political will and collective action from the countries that are most affected by the scourge of rhino poaching can disrupt the chain of supply and demand to quell the trade on an international level,” she said.