Our never-ending war with poachers continues. In recent months, our efforts have significantly reduced incidents of poaching within the town of Bazley. Many residents in the town have commented that the numbers of animals seen in the town seems to have increased quite substantially – we like to believe that our efforts to combat the scourge of poaching/snaring are paying off.
However, the same cannot be said for our neighbour and fellow Conservancy member – Illovo. Regrettably, over the past month, numerous incidents of poaching have been observed and reported on their property. Large groups of poachers and hunting dogs have been regularly spotted. In addition, while evaluating the alien vegetation along the Ndesingane river (on Illovo property), our Bazley Conservancy team recently discovered multiple meticulously laid snares and the carcasses of two bushbuck. Ultimately 16 snares were found in the area and removed by our team.
This worrying spike in poaching incidents led to us engaging Illovo on multiple occasions and at multiple levels. We have been in contact with their security team, farm management and executive management. Illovo has committed to evaluating their security set up and has committed to come back to us with proposals to address this problem. We will keep you updated.
We have had both Illovo security and farm management added to the Bazley Emergency WhatsApp group. If you witness any potential poaching incident, please immediately post your observation on the Emergency group and action will be taken. Please provide as detailed a description as possible and, most importantly, provide a location (preferably a pin).
