Rhino capture in Kruger National Park
Social responsibility and Corporate Social Responsibility are the ultimate driving forces that aid a mutual relationship between a firm and the immediate society. Kruger National Park is the largest of the members of the South African National Parks which majors particularly in rhino capture. It has a large family of professional staffs that ensure proper execution of the social relationship between the firm and the society.
The park’s main duty is, therefore, to ensure that its staff’s welfare is well catered for in order for them to aid the execution of social responsibility strategies. They should be paid in time, offered job security, and quality working conditions as a way of motivating them towards their duties. Therefore, Kruger National Park should ensure that a good amount of its budget is directed towards the economic welfare of its stakeholders. Stakeholders should be the first beneficiaries of the revenue accumulated from sale of captured rhinos together with the allocated budget funds from the SANPark.
Being the world’s largest rhino home, the Kruger National Park is also obliged to abide by all the laid down regulations of rhino capture. It sells rhinos in accordance with the South Africa’s National Environmental Management Act (2004), which mandates sale of wildlife. The park also forbids poaching of wildlife just as the SANParks’ Clause 55(2) (b) of the Protected Areas Act No. 57 of 2003 strongly prohibits that practice (Strickland & Mixon, 2010).
In an attempt to benefit the society, the park has, in conjunction with the SANParks, accepted hunting of wild animals by the society as a mode of benefiting from the wildlife. In addition, they sell some of the rhinos to private owners for hunting and tourist attraction (Strickland & Mixon, 2010). Some amount of the accumulated revenue by both Kruger National Park and SANParks is donated to the government in aid of providing additional funds for education, infrastructural expansion, employment creation, economic expansion, and improvement of health facilities for South African citizens (Strickland & Mixon, 2010).
The SANPark has also allocated more than $5 million for training and preparation of the Environmental Crimes Unit and South African Police Service, in order to aid conservation of the environment. The Kruger National Park only captures rhinos, unlike poachers who dart rhino with M99 to kill them. On the contrary, the Kruger National Park uses a drug combination which only makes the rhino unconscious and a partial antidote to awake the darted rhino. Poachers usually dehorn the rhino and leave the carcass on their poaching locations (Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble, & Strickland 2012).
Notably, however, it can be claimed that the SANParks fails in enforcing regulation governing hunting wildfire. Instead, the entire responsibility is assigned to the provinces of the country which may fail to advocate for all the hunting activities carried out by the people (Strickland & Mixon, 2010).
Problems arising from rhino capture
As result of rhino capture, poachers have adopted new techniques of claiming wildlife such as using M99 to kill rhinos. In cases of poaching, the abandoned rhinos deteriorate the environment though decay. More resources that could have been used to cater for other basic needs are also directed towards fighting poaching (Infographics Showcase, 2012).
The Triple Bottom line
KNP only captures rhinos using environment-friendly methods which do not lead to pollution. The park is also concerned with the welfare of the society as outlined by its responsibilities towards confining captured rhino which may attack people, compliance to the laws and regulations, and offering job opportunities. The park also generates a lot of profits through sale of captured rhinos. Both the KNP and the SANParks work in collaboration to regulate the amount of rhinos captured so there are enough resources for the future generations (Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble, & Strickland 2012).
Factors Leading to Poaching
Mostly, rhino poaching is encouraged by human greed and ignorance. Rhinos do not have real predators that can attack and kill them. Given the greedy nature of human beings, they often kill rhinos to take their horns for selling. Rhino horns fetch relatively high prices and are even more valuable than gold. A single horn would fetch as high as $246,000 while gold is prized at a half of that amount. Moreover, other people poach rhinos because they believe that their horns posses other extra qualities. Such is the belief that a rhino’s horn powder can be used to cure typhoid and also boost the fertility in humans (Infographics Showcase, 2012).
Ways of Reducing Poaching
There are certain practical ways that can be enforced in an attempt to reduce and even eradicate poaching of endangered animals. For instance, policies and regulations can be formulated and enforced. These would include but not limited to arresting those found poaching and imposing high fines on poaching. Tagging can also be used as a way of identifying the endangered animals and facilitating the monitoring process. Moreover, anti-poaching campaigns can also be put in place in order to sensitize people against the practice.
Infographics Showcase (2012). The Rhino Poaching Crisis. Retrieved from:
http://www.infographicsshowcase.com/the-rhino-poaching-crisis/
Strickland A. J. & Mixon, W. E. (2010). Rhino Capture in Kruger National Park. USA:
The
University of Alabama.
Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble, & Strickland (2012). Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility,
Environmental Sustainability, and Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage,
Chapter 9. UK: McGraw-Hill Education.
