Get this: After it was uncovered that he was a serial cycad thief, an Eastern Cape farmer was forced to give up two of his vehicles and donate part of his farm to the Addo Elephant National Park.

His case was just one of the many examples included in the Department of Environmental Affairs’ 2016/17 national environmental compliance and enforcement report, explains Times LIVE.

The revelations were announced on Monday.

But the good news about the rhinos was announced back in February by Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa, when she explained there had been a decline in the number of poached rhinos:

Last year the number of poached rhinos declined to 1054 – from 1175 in 2015 and 1215 in 2014, according to the report.

Many of 2016’s cases were registered by SANParks (662), KwaZulu-Natal (162) and Limpopo (90).

Of course, that’s still way too many for anyone’s liking, but other high-risk species included in the recent report that are often overlooked include elephants, pangolins and cycads:

A man known only as R Dicks and three others were arrested in connection with “theft and illegal harvesting of bakkie and trailer full laden with Longi Folius cycads”.

The same name pops up in another case involving a similar crime. This time it appears R Dicks was happy just to facilitate the crime instead of taking part in it.

“While the accused was [awaiting trial] on a previous case, he allowed another accused to pick cycads on his own farm,” says the report.

As a result, he was sentenced to a 10-year jail term, suspended for five years:

He was also slapped with a R100,000 fine and had to forfeit his bakkie, an R80,000 truck and donate part of his farm to the Addo Elephant National Park.

You see, the reason for his harsh sentence is because there are only 100 cycads left in the wild. They are those ancient-looking low-growing plants harvested illegally for landscaping purposes and private collections, mostly to satisfy a domestic market.

And there you thought Asia was to blame.

Rather, avid local collecting has devastated many wild cycad populations and cycads are listed as Threatened or Protected Species (TOPS) as a result.

Then, there’s the issue with pangolins.

The adorable scaly mammals are the most hunted animal in the world and it is estimated that around 100 000 pangolins are captured every year from across Africa and Asia.

You can read more about the pangolin here.

Lastly, there’s the African elephant – more, from Getaway:

In 1989, after two decades in which the world’s elephant population was halved, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) banned the trade in elephant ivory. Eight years later, after pressure from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia, it down-listed elephant protection and allowed a one-off sale of ivory stockpiles from these countries. In 2007, it approved another stockpile sale.

A report, Making a Killing by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), has highlighted the tragedy of these decisions. Since the sales, there’s been a dramatic decline in wild elephants and poaching has escalated to a point where the future of the creatures is in doubt. (The numbers of secretive Central African forest elephants are down by 62 percent from 2002 levels and, while poaching is low in South Africa, it’s high on its borders, so it’s just a matter of time.)

Of course, the matter of rhino poaching is still a massive one, but it’s important to consider other animals whose lives are under as much threat.

According to the report, all in all 1526 dockets were opened in the reporting period and 1 092 arrests were made by the Green Scorpions:

The NPA received 416 dockets and convictions increased from 52 to 76.

One arrest at a time, I guess.

[source:timeslive&getaway]