Friends Of Ezemvelo - WE NEED you to comment on this link - if we cannot get Zuma to act - there will NOT be an Ezemvelu KZN Wildlife for you to be friends with - ACT NOW!!! Please!@!!
Here's something that needs a hotline of its own, Mr President. Please help us...
From: WAR (Warriors for African Rhino)
To: President Jacob Zuma
20 February, 2012
URGENT REQUEST FOR INTERVENTION AGAINST RHINO POACHING
Dear President Zuma,
In 2011 at least 488 rhino were butchered at a rate of 1.3 per day. Seven weeks into 2012 and 62 rhino have been poached that we know of, already at a higher rate than last year. A massacre is occurring before our eyes.
We turn to you again, Mr. President, on behalf of WAR - Warriors for African Rhino. As South Africa's largest civil society coalition against Rhino poaching - representing almost 40,000 SA citizens, and more than 30,000 foreign individuals - we respectfully ask that you to reconsider the implementation of a disaster management plan to prevent the annihilation of the South African Rhino, the last major Rhino population on Earth.
Given the current rate of poaching, it seems the additional measures announced by Minister Molewa during her January 15 media briefing are being ignored. The minister agreed to meet with us following that briefing – and we are looking forward to the opportunity to dialogue with her and provide her with whatever assistance we can offer through our member organizations. Time is running out, and unfortunately news reports on Rhino poaching are now a daily occurrence.
Mr. President, we at WAR, all 72.000 of us, beg you to help us stop the slaughter. We cannot do this alone, we desperately need your help. Our primary request is still that the Kruger National Park, Limpopo Province and Mpumalanga Province be declared disaster areas immediately. These regions are clearly under an unprecedented threat, and if this does not constitute a disaster in environmental terms, we must ask – what does?
Many commentators consider Rhino poaching to be a new form of guerrilla warfare.
Declaring these regions disaster areas under the Disaster Management Act would allow for critical emergency action which includes:
• Creation of a disaster management control centre;
• Increased mobilization of extensive security resources;
• Priority status for environmental crimes in policing and case management in the criminal justice system;
Heightened security for customs and border controls, not only for these three regions, but nationally. Most importantly, these measures would demonstrate South Africa's proactive approach to the world, showing that our national government is fulfilling its duty to protect South Africa's rich natural treasures.
Warriors for African Rhino will be conducting further media and other awareness and activism campaigns to expand the civic support base for our proposal, and to petition the courts to deal out the strongest possible sentences to poachers. Please help us win the war!
Respectfully yours on behalf of all members of WAR
Charles Webster (Chairman)
Warriors for African Rhino
rhinowarriors@gmail.com www.warriorsforafricanrhino.org
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