Sensors in the bush that can pick up unusual veld vibrations and even detect metal objects such as weapons are helping to turn the war against wildlife poachers. But the man leading the fight says only people can make that technology work.
Johan Jooste, a retired army general, says the game rangers fighting the antipoaching war need every bit of help, and for them technology is a force multiplier. What is available to them includes radar, good surveillance of large areas such as the Kruger National Park, an early-warning system, detection by drones — and those sensors.
About 17 years ago, Jooste swapped his army fatigues for those he wore as chief ranger of law enforcement and security at South African National Parks (SANParks) after a short stint in the corporate world. Now, at the age of 70, he is project manager of environmental law enforcement and security at the Peace Parks Foundation, an organisation that works to re-establish, renew and preserve large functional ecosystems. Jooste still speaks like a soldier and strategises like one, and he is proud of what the “troops” at SANParks and other state and private game parks have achieved to create protection zones for wildlife — rhino especially.
In 2009, soon after he had joined SANParks, 122 rhinos were killed. In 2010 333 were killed and in 2011 the total was 448. In 2015 South Africa lost 1,175 and in the decade after 2010 another 12,000. Today the figures are lower, partly because there are fewer animals left, but also because huge strides have been made to tackle the problem differently from the previous way of only hunting down the poachers. In the Eastern Cape no rhinos have been poached in the past four years. However, KwaZulu-Natal is still being targeted.
In its report to the World Wildlife Conference in Panama this week the International Union for Conservation of Nature says there are 22,137 rhinos left in Africa — 15,024 of them in South Africa. Of those, 6,195 are the critically endangered black rhinos (2,056 in South Africa).
The demand and the appetite for rhino horn internationally have not disappeared and if anything, the crime syndicates have become more sophisticated
— Johan Jooste
“The poaching problem has not gone away and we are still losing animals. We have to make do with less money, but we know where we are going. We have to work wiser with what we have, and that is where technology is crucial,” Jooste tells the FM.
“One should not become complacent. The demand and the appetite for rhino horn internationally have not disappeared and if anything, the crime syndicates have become more sophisticated. Corruption is alive and well on every level around us,” he says.
He says well-trained, well-equipped and well-motivated antipoaching units and rangers remain the base upon which the Kruger and other parks have set their fight against environmental criminals for the past 10 years. Added to that, connectivity and situational awareness are key to where technology fits in.
“But one shouldn’t only throw technology at a problem,” he says. “We have tested a lot of equipment and we made mistakes in the process too. With the development of technology you need a negative outcome sometimes to eliminate certain options as soon as possible.”
The sensors have been among the technological successes. Seismic ones detect unusual vibrations, acoustic ones pick up sound, and magnetic sensors identify armaments and metal. Optronic sensors and cameras, mounted strategically together with radar, can pinpoint the movement of poachers.
“You can place sensors under vegetation and on any structure — on vehicles and as part of the rangers’ gear. You also use them on aircraft. All provide critical information to enhance the rangers’ situational awareness. But you don’t overload rangers with technology when they have to concentrate on the task at hand. That is why you need an equipped operations room to share only the precise information the rangers need.”
Satellite technology is perhaps still too far in the future, Jooste says, but balloons that are moored to a ground platform and can soar to almost 5,000m can serve as relay stations for connectivity where there are no phone masts. Such balloons have been used along the borders of the US and Mexico.
A web services platform developed by the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research for the 2010 Soccer World Cup event has been incorporated by SANParks with success, says Jooste. It enables counterpoaching teams to share observations and information before any incursions are made or while an operation is under way. Developed for security at national key points, the system was also used by health workers during the pandemic to centralise data.
Co-operation with Mozambique has improved dramatically, says Jooste. Once 75% of rhino poachers in the Kruger Park operated from there, but the figure could soon be reduced to about 30%.
Tourists, too, will be watched. Kruger Park is using scanners and numberplate recognition at its entrances. Jooste would like facial recognition and movement tracking technology that would tell who is in the park, where they are and what they are doing. It may even help those who get lost.
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