By After arms, drugs, and human trafficking, the illegal wildlife trade is now the world’s fourth‑largest illicit commerce. Poaching imperils wild spaces, economic development, and the livelihoods of local communities. It deepens endemic poverty and fuels corruption in rural areas. Strategies devised to combat these criminal activities now target the root causes of the crisis — especially the international demand for ivory and rhino horn.
On the Tracks of the Delta
In the golden light of autumn, the road winds along the scented banks of the Okavango Delta. A bulky 4×4 painted in green-and-brown camouflage hurtles forward, skidding on the gravel track that leads to the village of Khwai, in Botswana’s north-western district. The wheels screech, throwing up whorls of dust. Shaken in the back of the vehicle, members of the Anti-Poaching Unit, their assault rifles slung across their bodies, scan the delta’s surroundings relentlessly, watching for the slightest hint of suspicious movement. With practised eyes, they comb every patch of bush for traces of traps and human passage.
A few kilometres further on, the patrol comes to a halt in a clearing, confronted by the carcass of a male black rhino stripped of its horn. “That’s the fourth this month. The rhinos will probably be gone in about twenty years,” laments the unit’s leader as he grips his walkie-talkie and relays orders in Setswana. In this war against the slaughter of wildlife, elite soldiers are sometimes thrown into dangerous situations and forced to face heavily armed men.
Though most poachers from the surrounding villages hunt to feed their families, others, more determined, adopt aggressive tactics in pursuit of profit. Over recent weeks, several patrolmen and traffickers have been killed or wounded in violent clashes and gun-fights on Chief Island, the largest island in the delta.
The Shadow Trade
Botswana, a landlocked country in southern Africa, is home to several hundred rhinos and the continent’s largest elephant population, with 140,000 individuals recorded in 2025 by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks. Rhino horns and elephant ivory continue to fuel the greed of mafia networks based in Vietnam and Laos. “More than a hundred rhinos have been killed by poachers in the past three years. All across southern Africa, the lucrative trade in rhino horn and ivory is in the hands of international criminal organisations — we play a vital role in conserving our natural and cultural heritage,” warns Modise, the unit’s youngest recruit.
Poaching imperils wild spaces, economic development, and the livelihoods of local communities.
Across Botswana’s national parks and reserves, the fight against poaching has turned into open warfare between rangers and poachers. The scourge has spread like gangrene across all neighbouring countries and appears to be increasingly concentrated on Botswana’s territory since the start of the pandemic. In the capital, Gaborone, the government is tightening its crackdown policy in response to the surge in poaching inside the Okavango Delta.
To this end, it is bolstering the field units’ arsenal, carrying out rhino dehorning as a means of deterrence, and relocating critically endangered black rhinos to fenced-off areas. Dehorning is a reversible measure: adult black rhino horns regrow at an average rate of 7 centimetres per year for the front horn and 3 centimetres for the back horn.
“The illegal trade in protected species is at the heart of the rhino slaughter in the Okavango Delta. It has reached unprecedented levels,” warned Botswana’s Minister of Environment on World Wildlife Day. “In this relentless battle against traffickers, the government’s strategy is to mobilise all state services: rangers, police, intelligence units, and the armed forces.”
Rhinos Under Protection
According to Rhino Conservation Botswana, the populations of white and black rhinos continue to dwindle and are now at risk of extinction due to a sharp rise in demand for horn from China and Vietnam since the mid-2000s. In the centuries-old practices of traditional Chinese medicine, rhino-horn powder is believed to have therapeutic and aphrodisiac properties. It has been used in remedies for cancer, to reduce fever, and to treat male impotence. Sold for more than the price of gold on the black market, rhino horn currently fetches over 70,000 dollars per kilo (61,000 euros).
In this relentless fight against poaching, poachers and traffickers all too often slip through the net, because the precise origin of a rhino horn is hard to pin down. Once removed from the animal’s carcass, the horn is quickly sold on Asian and European markets.
Authorities have nevertheless succeeded in catching traffickers by relying on a system that uses animals’ DNA profiles. Known as RhODIS, it builds a nationwide database of genetic information drawn from rhinos across the country. By analysing this genetic data, investigators can establish a probable genetic match between the horn and a specific animal. The system streamlines the experts’ work in poaching cases and gives the judiciary forensically viable evidence.
Environmental groups and conservation NGOs report an unprecedented rise in the number of rhinos and elephants killed in the Okavango Delta, and fear their disappearance from the wild in the near future.
© Lead photograph · Thierry Suzan · Rhino · All Rights Reserved
