Give rangers right tools to fight poaching (SA)

We salute the rangers, worldwide, who have been harmed or killed while protecting the treasured possessions of mother nature says the writer. Image: Game Rangers Association of SA / As originally published by SowetanLIVE

Reader Letter/Batsirai Kativu, SowetanLIVE | August 6, 2021

After we celebrated World Rangers Day last month, we are reminded to accelerate our fight against poaching that has been posing an existential threat to our beautiful wildlife.

We salute the rangers, worldwide, who have been harmed or killed while protecting the treasured possessions of mother nature.

Rangers are sometimes vulnerable to poachers because they are under-equipped. However, I appeal to wildlife conservation authorities, worldwide, to give rangers enough equipment to execute their duties safely and triumphantly.

The rangers need enough arsenal to be both defensive and offensive, for they are fighting a much longer battle than our political wars. If we don’t arm rangers sufficiently, the most endangered species will quickly vanish into oblivion.

It will be regretful to future generations to talk about a white rhino in the past tense. We wouldn’t like to see our children learning about a white rhino-like they are learning about the dinosaurs – through films and books.

Read the original story here.