AFP

The rhino’s survival remains in grave danger despite Covid-related drops in poaching and the illegal trade in their horns, a conservation body said on Monday.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said that poaching was still “an acute threat” to the survival of the species.

A total of 2,707 rhinos were poached in Africa between 2018 and 2021, according to the IUCN, the vast majority of which were killed in South Africa, mainly in the Kruger National Park.

South Africa is home to nearly 80 percent of the world’s rhinos.

Rhino poaching rates in Africa have declined from a peak of 5.3 percent of the total population in 2015 to 2.3 percent in 2021, the Swiss-based organisation said.

“The overall decline in poaching of rhinos is encouraging, yet this remains an acute threat to the survival of these iconic animals,” said Sam Ferreira, scientific officer with the IUCN African Rhino Specialist Group.

He told AFP there was no formal analysis into why poaching rates were declining.

“A number of factors could lead to this slowing, including improved local cooperation in law enforcement, international collaboration between range and consumer states, as well as changes in the demand for rhino horn”, said Ferreira.

– 2020 blip –

The IUCN said 2020 was an abnormal year, with lockdowns and restrictions due to the Covid pandemic seeing several African countries witnessing dramatically-reduced poaching rates.

South Africa lost 394 rhinos to poaching in 2020, while Kenya recorded no rhino poaching at all that year, it said.

However, as Covid-19 travel restrictions were lifted, some countries reported new increases in poaching activities: 451 rhinos were poached in South Africa and six in Kenya.

“These numbers are still significantly lower than during the peak in 2015, when South Africa alone lost 1,175 rhinos to poaching,” IUCN said.

The rhino population in Africa has fallen by 1.6 percent annually, from 23,562 in 2018 to 22,137 at the end of last year.

IUCN said the number of white rhinos — which it classifies as vulnerable on its Red List of Threatened Species — declined by almost 12 percent from 18,067 to 15,942 during this period.

However, the number of black rhinos — deemed critically-endangered — rose by 12 percent to 6,195.

“It is essential to continue active population management and anti-poaching activities for all subspecies across different range states,” the IUCN said.

Data also suggests that, on average, between 575 and 923 rhino horns entered illegal trade markets each year between 2018 and 2020, compared to approximately 2,378 per year between 2016 and 2017.

However, in 2019, before the pandemic, the reported seized weight of illegal rhino specimens reached its highest point of the decade, possibly due to increased regulations and law enforcement efforts.

– Javan, Sumatran rhinos –

IUCN said the numbers of one-horned rhino, found mainly in India and Nepal, and the critically-endangered Javan rhino, had increased since 2017.

Their numbers in India and Nepal increased from an estimated 3,588 in 2018 to 4,014 at the end of 2021, it said.

This was “thanks to conservation efforts, including strengthened law enforcement”, it added. 

The population of Javan rhinos increased from between 65 and 68 individuals in 2018 to 76 at the end of 2021.

But the number of Sumatran rhinos fell to an estimated 34 to 47 in 2021, compared with between 40 and 78 individuals in 2018.

The IUCN classifies the Sumatran rhino, the smallest of all rhino species, as critically endangered.

The World Wild Fund for Nature estimates that fewer than 80 Sumatran rhinos remain in the world, mainly in Indonesia on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.

The IUCN report said 11 rhino poaching incidents were recorded in Asia — 10 in India and one in Nepal — since the beginning of 2018, all of which involved greater one-horned rhinos. 

Swiss glaciers have shed half their volume since 1931, Swiss researchers said Monday, following the first reconstruction of the country’s ice loss in the 20th century.

Rapid glacier melt in the Alps and elsewhere, which scientists say is driven by climate change, has been increasingly closely monitored since the early 2000s. However, until now there has been little insight into how glaciers changed prior to that during the 20th century, with only a handful of individual glaciers tracked over time, and with different models for estimating their volume.

But Swiss researchers from the ETH Zurich technical university and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL say they had now reconstructed the topography of all Swiss glaciers in 1931, making it possible to show how they have evolved.

“Based on these reconstructions and comparisons with data from the 2000s, the researchers conclude that the glacier volume halved between 1931 and 2016,” they said in a statement.

Their study, published in the scientific journal The Cryosphere, used material from the TerrA image archive, which covers about 86 percent of Switzerland’s glacierised area, analysing around 21,700 photographs taken between 1916 and 1947.

– Dramatic change –

For their reconstruction, the glaciologists used so-called stereophotogrammetry — a technique used to determine the nature, shape and position of any object on the basis of image pairs.

“If we know the surface topography of a glacier at two different points in time, we can calculate the difference in ice volume,” lead study author Erik Schytt Mannerfelt said in the statement.

The researchers presented side-by-side picture pairs showing the same spot nearly a century apart, indicating the dramatic change that has taken place.

The Fiescher Glacier, for instance, resembled a massive sea of ice in 1928, but in 2021, a few tiny specs of white were all that remained on the lush green mountainside. 

Since the images used for the reconstruction were taken in different years, the study used the mean year 1931 as a reference and reconstructed the surface topography of all glaciers for that year, the statement said.

In their statement, the researchers stressed that glaciers did not continuously recede over the past century, pointing out that there was even sporadic mass glacier growth in the 1920s and 1980s.

But while there may have been growth over short-term periods, Daniel Farinotti, a glaciology professor at ETH Zurich and WSL and co-author of the study, said it was “important to keep the big picture in mind.”

“Our comparison between the years 1931 and 2016 clearly shows that there was significant glacial retreat during this period,” he said in the statement.

And the total glacier volume is decreasing at an ever faster rate.

While Swiss glaciers lost half their volume in the 85 years leading up to 2016, the Swiss glacier monitoring network, GLAMOS indicates that they lost a further 12 percent in the following six years alone.

Farinotti said the evidence was clear: “Glacier retreat is accelerating.” 

Poaching and the illegal trade in horns have fallen in recent years but remain grave threats for the rhino’s survival, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said Monday.

The Switzerland-based body said 2,707 rhinos were poached in Africa between 2018 and 2021, of which 90 percent were killed in South Africa, mainly in the Kruger National Park.

South Africa is home to nearly 80 percent of the world’s rhinos.

“Rhino poaching rates in Africa have continued to decline from a peak of 5.3 percent of the total population in 2015 to 2.3 percent in 2021,” it said in a report. 

“The overall decline in poaching of rhinos is encouraging, yet this remains an acute threat to the survival of these iconic animals,” said Sam Ferreira, Scientific Officer with the IUCN SSC African Rhino Specialist Group.

The IUCN said 2020 was an abnormal year for rhino poaching with Covid confinement and curbs on trade and movement.

“Global lockdowns and restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic saw several African countries experience dramatically reduced poaching rates in 2020 compared to previous years. 

“South Africa lost 394 rhinos to poaching in 2020, while Kenya recorded no rhino poaching that year. However, as COVID-19 travel restrictions lifted, some range states reported new increases in poaching activities – for example, South Africa reported 451 and Kenya six poached rhinos in 2021,” it said.

“These numbers are still significantly lower than during the peak in 2015, when South Africa alone lost 1175 rhinos to poaching.”

The population of rhinos in Africa has fallen by 1.6 percent annually, from 23,562 in 2018 to 22,137 at the end of last year.

IUCN said the number of white rhinos — which it classifies as vulnerable on its Red List of Threatened Species — declined by almost 12 percent from 18,067 to 15,942 during this period.

However, the number of black rhinos — deemed critically endangered by the body — rose by 12 percent to 6,195.

“To support the growth of rhino numbers, it is essential to continue active population management and anti-poaching activities for all subspecies across different range states,” the IUCN said.

Alongside the decline in poaching, data analysed for range and consumer states suggests that, on average, between 575 and 923 rhino horns entered illegal trade markets each year between 2018 and 2020, compared to approximately 2,378 per year between 2016 and 2017.

– 2020 an ‘abnormal’ year –

However, in 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak, the reported seized weight of illegal rhino specimens reached its highest point of the decade, perhaps due to increased regulations and law enforcement efforts.

“2020 did represent an abnormal year with low levels of reported illegal activity, law enforcement, and government reporting,” said Sabri Zain, TRAFFIC Director of Policy. 

IUCN said the numbers of the one-horned rhino, found mainly in India and Nepal, and the critically endangered Javan rhino had increased since 2017.

“Thanks to conservation efforts including strengthened law enforcement, the number of greater one-horned rhinos in India and Nepal increased from an estimated 3,588 in 2018 to 4,014 at the end of 2021, while the total population of Javan rhinos increased from between 65 and 68 individuals in 2018 to 76 at the end of 2021,” it said.

But the number of Sumatran rhinos fell to an estimated 34 from 47 in 2021, compared with 40 to 78 individuals in 2018.

The IUCN classifies the Sumatran rhino, the smallest of all rhino species, as critically endangered. 

The World Wide Fund for Nature estimates fewer than 80 Sumatran rhinos remain in the world, mainly on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and Borneo.

The IUCN report said 11 rhino poaching incidents were recorded in Asia — 10 in India and one in Nepal —  since the beginning of 2018, all of which involved greater one-horned rhinos. 

“Detection of carcasses in dense rainforests remains a challenge, and there were no reports of illegal killings of Sumatran rhinos despite the substantial population declines recorded,” it added.

Shanghai will switch off decorative lights along its famed Bund riverfront for two days from Monday, city authorities said, in response to a nationwide heatwave that has sent power demands soaring.

Multiple provinces have announced power cuts to cope with a surge in demand, driven partly by people cranking up the air conditioning to cope with temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).

China has been hit by extreme weather this summer, including record temperatures, flash floods and droughts — phenomena that scientists have warned are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change.

To save power, Shanghai authorities said in a notice Sunday that they would switch off “landscape lighting” at the Bund, the city’s most famous landmark.

Ornamental lights, billboards and video screens on both sides of the Huangpu River would be turned off on Monday and Tuesday, according to the notice.

The heatwave has reduced stretches of the Yangtze River, China’s most vital inland waterway, to unprecedented drought levels, according to official data.

That has resulted in high pressure on hydroelectric plants that supply power to some of the country’s key economic zones.

In the southwestern megacity of Chongqing, home to 31 million, authorities on Monday declared that all shopping malls must only operate between 4:00pm and 9:00pm daily to cut power costs until the “temperature and supply-demand situation” changes.

The city last week announced industrial power cuts lasting until Wednesday and reduced scenic lighting at tourist attractions.

In neighbouring Sichuan, authorities on Sunday extended industrial power cuts and activated their highest level of emergency response to deal with the heatwave.

“Since July this year, the province has faced the most extreme high temperatures, the lowest rainfall in the corresponding period in history… (and) the highest power load in history,” local authorities said.

Some of the world’s biggest automakers — including Japanese giant Toyota and Elon Musk’s Tesla — operate factories in Sichuan.

The province is also home to parts manufacturers that are crucial to global auto supply chains.

Many major factories were forced to halt work because of the Sichuan power cuts, which were supposed to end on Saturday but were extended to Thursday, Chinese news outlet Caixin reported.

Analysts have warned that Sichuan’s power woes could have ripple effects on the wider Chinese economy and international supply chains.

Hydropower generated in the province supplies domestic consumers and factories, but also industrial powerhouse provinces Jiangsu and Zhejiang.