@Being Human

Today instagram was flooded with the pictures of a lady rhino - HOPE, who survived a poaching attack.

Hope, a four-year old female rhino who survived a poaching attack recovers in Shamwari Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, May 26th 2015. Poachers tranquillised Hope, hacked off her horn and left her for dead. Major surgery by a specialist veterinary team took place to fit the protective plate that covers the wound. Hope is being cared for by Saving the Survivors, an organisation which works specifically to save rhinos. South Africa has seen three of the worst years on record for rhino poaching. In 2012 poachers killed 668 rhinos, last year this increased to 1215. It is expected that this number will be exceeded in 2015.

Credit: EPA #SouthAfrica #rhino #Shamwari#poachers

Poaching is the illegal removal of natural resources. That may sound quite simple. However, it can be a very complex issue. Poaching is undertaken by a variety of different people for a variety of reasons, and must be understood within a cultural context. Poaching can include the illegal removal from an ecosystem of; wild animals, wood, minerals, sand, water, plants – in fact the removal of any element of the natural ecosystem in contravention of local laws. Fighting poaching is not just a process of arresting poachers; it must be combined with a broad effort to motivate people towards a more positive relationship with the natural environment, for the benefit of both human and ecosystem health. This is underpinned by educating the human communities that produce the poachers, as well as the communities that consume the goods illegally obtained by poachers, as to the damage they cause to the local and global environment. With the above in mind we should first endeavour to understand why natural resources extraction is and should be allowed or disallowed by the law of the state, or by any individual or organization that has authority over natural resources.