What do rhinos, elephants… and succulents have in common? Sadly, they are all poached.
In this eye-opening (and occasionally eyebrow-raising) episode, we meet Paul Vorster from Sanbona Wildlife Reserve in South Africa’s Western Cape.
André and Paul unpack the wild world of plant poaching, where tiny succulents worth a few dollars at your local market can fuel international crime syndicates. From rhino horn smuggling to beetle collectors with big egos, this conversation sheds light on the lesser-known corners of the conservation struggle — and on the quiet heroes fighting back.
Paul also tells us how Sanbona transformed 62,000 hectares of old cattle land into one of South Africa’s most beautiful rewilded reserves.
This episode reminds us that saving Africa’s wild spaces isn’t just about the “Big Five” - it’s about every plant, insect, and person who calls it home.
Deutsch: Du kannst diesen Podcast auch auf Deutsch hören: “Africa with André auf Deutsch”
Welcome to a new episode of Africa with André, where we celebrate Africa - One Story at a Time.
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During a visit to South Africa, in 2024, I had the opportunity to visit Sanbona Wildlife Reserve, where the guide showed us an area that had a variety of unique small succulents. Plants that are poached, stolen, and sold so that people can have cute little plants, in little pots on their desk.
I've invited Paul Vorster from Sanbona to chat to us about this.
Hi Paul, and welcome to the podcast.
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[00:00:52] André: Give us a brief introduction, please. Who is Paul? And tell us about Sanbona.
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And I found myself for the last, just about 20 years, on Sanbona Wildlife Reserve in the Western Cape of South Africa. Yeah. Yeah. I've been there since 2003. Can you believe it?
There are so many opportunities in the continent, and so, spent a little bit of time in Mozambique and other provinces of South Africa, and I've managed to travel sub–Saharan Africa. Not, not excessively, but I went to explore a little bit, and I ended up in the Karoo.
It's about three hours from Cape Town and it's an absolute jewel box of biodiversity and endemism. And that's, I think, why I've been there for so long. You know, it's a very exciting project to be a part of.
It's so diverse and after 20 years we can honestly say that we're still experiencing and learning new things on just about a daily basis.
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[00:02:13] Paul: You know, 400 million years ago this area used to be a shallow sea. And as the water's drained and exposed this landscape, there were these big mountains here in the Western Cape.
We've got quite acidic soils in certain spaces, and that's what established this kind of Fynbos environment. If you go from the Cape Peninsula and the coastline, you get into the coastal plain, and then when you go over the mountains into the drier areas, you get to that succulent Karoo space.
And yes, being so close to Cape Town, you know, farming development, historically in the last couple of hundred years, sort of happened from the coast towards the inland.
So, when we arrived, on Sanbona, it was a new project, but, uh, the thought was to rehabilitate some of that old farmland, to accommodate more of the indigenous local wildlife species that would've historically occurred there.
We are currently 62,000 hectares; we started off with about 54,000 hectares. So, we've managed to expand our footprint, but we were the first to reintroduce free ranging large animals that would've historically, say 150 to 300 years ago, would've occurred here. Species such as, um, elephants and lions and cheetah.
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[00:03:32] Paul: Yes, I think so. There would be a variety of circumstances that would've driven them out. There was a competition for resources, I think, you know, there's still human wildlife conflict across the world at this moment. But, um, in those days, the animals would've been hunted, 'cause it was a source of protein, readily available to people moving to the area.
Um, not just farmers. I mean, even before that, you know, the San and the Khoi hunters, the pastoralists, they would've followed the rainfall pattern.
So, they would've hunted the animals. But I think fragmentation, um, probably overuse of species, uh, all those things played a role. Changing of habitats for some of the animals.
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[00:04:12] Paul: And that's what, reduced the numbers over time, to the point where there was, you know, none of these large animals left, 200 years ago.
And that's why, it is such an intriguing project to be a part of. Because what we attempted was so new, we had to establish it on science, but there was no blueprint to do what we've done in the region. We had to, do it in a very sensitive environment. It's a semi desert system, so we knew that if we didn't do it right, we'd have a, a lasting negative impact.
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[00:04:39] Paul: Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Something that we wouldn't be able to reverse in our lifetime. So
22, 23 years later, we still doing research, and we, I think that's what's so exciting is, we realize how little we actually know about this.
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Let's dive straight into the poaching issue. Generally speaking, what are the main poaching issues in, in Southern Africa. We hear about rhinos, it feels to me like elephants are no longer as big an issue, but I might have that wrong.
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[00:05:13] André: You mean people who are killing animals in order to feed their family?
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And that's very challenging, because we do know that there's a lot of people that live below the breadline and people are struggling to survive.
But outside of subsistence poaching, there's poaching for specific, organized crime syndicates, you know, that would be something like rhino horn, and I think elephant tusks, even though it's not so publicized, I think that still takes place. You know, ivory is still, being traded illegally, across the continent.
People are media fatigued by, by poaching and rhino, the rhino crisis and, and that kind of thing.
And because it's international networks, and it's organized crime, it's linked to money laundering, war mongering, drugs, um, all sorts of illegal things.
And then you get, you get harvesting of, plant products and animal products for medicinal uses, traditional medicines. If you're not close to pharmacies or hospitals, I mean, a lot of our cultures still rely heavily on medicinal plants, and you can't always just go and gather out of the veld like you used to in old days anymore. Um, so plants do get poached for that purpose.
And, then there's this very interesting international market, this collector's market where rarities get collected. And that's not just restricted to plants.
You know, that's as broad as little beetles that only occur above a specific altitude, or rare reptiles, um, little species that's highly endemic or critically endangered.
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[00:07:06] Paul: Yeah, I think that's perhaps an egotistic thing. It's maybe a, you know, " mine's bigger than yours", kind of an approach, or "look at this, this new rarity in my collection". And that's a real disgusting, but very real threat at this at this moment in time.
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I'll be honest, if you'd said to me someone killed, I dunno, a, rat or a small antelope, I wouldn't necessarily have categorized that as poaching, but obviously, if that antelope belongs to Sanbona and it's stolen, then it is poaching.
Let's unpack that a little bit, if I look at the subsistence poaching, do you work with the people in the communities, or around the reserve, to try and reduce that? is that something that you do alone? Or is that something that you do with Cape Nature or somebody else?
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And there you see the abundance of proteins running around and all sorts that can really provide livelihood and comfort and shelter and so on to these communities.
It used to be a big problem, but there's a real drive in conservation, to be inclusive for the communities, in that sense. Along these hard boundaries, you often find great partnerships, where the communities are involved and they are allowed to harvest in some sort of a controlled space.
They benefit differently from a tourism and conservation model than in the old days. So, the attempt is not to be exclusive, it's as inclusive as possible. And through that, and job creation opportunities and general regional upliftment, often, you know, the subsistence poaching is not that severe, but you do get it.
And that's why there are anti-poaching units constantly trying to, to remove snares.
Certain protected areas and conservation spaces do not have these developments around their boundaries, they're further away, perhaps a bit more remote, and then, yeah, then subsistence poaching is not such a major threat.
But that's where you get these really specialized plant and animal species, um, that's then, again, sought after in the collector's market. But we haven't even spoken about marine resources in poaching, you know, that's another whole topic.
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But then the collectors’ market for the plants, who's coming in and stealing that and where does that get sent to?
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There's definitely an export market for this, and it's so intricate that some of these little plants, micro succulents, um, really rare little things that's highly endemic. There might be, you know, three or four populations occurring in one region.
And it's so sought after that if we're not vigilant enough, a remote area, that's not being protected or patrolled, one of those little populations can be removed in one night. So, over a period of a night or two, the poachers can take out a couple of thousands of these little plants, package them for collection later, or they remove them from site right there and then.
And then they take them to a facility where they will repackage them and, uh, take them to another province, for example, and export them from there in, in boxes, and then they go out to Asia, to Europe, wherever the delivery market is, and there, from there, they get distributed.
These days, social media as well. You can even find sites on the internet that, that sell these plants. And some of them are grown legally, you need special permits for them and so on. But most of them are harvested illegally. And that's unfortunately where the poachers see the gap, and with well organized,
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[00:11:40] Paul: yeah, with well-organized networks that's being used to, transport either drugs or other illegal contraband or, um, ivory or rhino horn and so on.
Now they just add a little succulent to it and send it off that way
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[00:11:57] Paul: It depends on what they're looking for. Um, often the guys walking around in cell phone lights. You know, they just walk around in the veld in some of these arid areas and they know they've got a specific species they're looking for, and they'll have a tool and pop them out and package them and there they go.
Larger things are being poached now as well, but it's not just South Africa. I mean Namibia and the deserts of Namibia, a lot of their rare plants and things there's a market for these rarities. Whether it's a baboon spider or a beetle or a reptile or a little beautiful, pretty little succulent plant. Yeah, there's a, there's a market.
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And we as the good guys need to be one step ahead of the cartels, and that's not always, that's not always easy.
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But criminal network that's harvesting plants. I mean, that doesn't really seem like a high priority. But as you say, we spoke about a rat or a small antelope earlier, if we keep on doing this, one thinks, “oh, it's one thing here and it's one little thing here and, you know, take this and nothing will be noticed”.
We are losing the battle. Within our lifetimes, definitely, there will be an impact if we don't work together. All stakeholders, whether in private, public, wherever you are, whatever your interests are, we've all got a responsibility to be vigilant, and try to protect this natural heritage that we call Mother Nature, because that's what's essentially keeping us on earth at this moment.
You know, if it's not for the natural system, then we won't, as a species, we won't survive. And I mean, we're the biggest threat to this planet.
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I suppose you have men and women who do anti-poaching work? Don't give away any trade secrets, of course, but how are they trained?
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We commemorate and celebrate the conservationists and field rangers and guides and so on, particularly field rangers, section rangers, regional rangers, as custodians of wild spaces, you know, that spend their time and their effort, whether it's summer or winter, rain, snow, sunshine, they're out there patrolling, trying to protect or keep intact the integrity of these natural spaces. So, I've mentioned earlier that there's inclusive community related work being done at conservation level and landscape level, and we love to employ from our local communities.
And very often there's an opportunity for people to pursue a career in conservation, as a field ranger or conservationist or, these days in tourism, there's a lot of opportunities as well in the hospitality industry and so on. You can be a chef, you can be a housekeeper, you can be, field ranger. We like to develop from within our communities.
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[00:15:21] Paul: Yeah. We hope so. You know, a lot of the field rangers that might be of an older generation now, but when they were little kids, they possibly heard stories being told to them by the fireside, of how their fathers or grandfathers used to hunt or roam the land or, move from one village to the next, or keep their cattle in this location or live off the land there. So, it's the best opportunity to actually empower the local people that know the land, ingrained within their beings. They're a part of it to, to become protectors of that space as well.
Historically, we've tried to recruit people with experience from other conservation areas, and very often they're quite far away from us. And we realized, that, the people from those areas, don't know the culture of this landscape and, the history of this landscape and, the seasonal changes of this landscape.
So, it became very important for us to actually go into these communities and select people with the right mindsets, and, and abilities and keenness, to develop as field rangers. And,
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[00:16:24] Paul: that makes up the core of your anti-poaching units, you know.
But it's the integration of these law enforcement specialists that focus on environmental crimes, together with other stakeholders, together with the technology, together with these people that you develop from within your communities, that can assist in, you know, as a team effort to protect the, not just within the confines of one's reserve, but also within the region.
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What happens when one of your APU staff catches a poacher?
I suppose a lot of the work is about preventing it from happening in the first place, as opposed to just trying to catch the poachers. It's about like, like you say, deflecting, preventing them, making it less interesting for them to be able to, to come in and do it in the first place.
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[00:17:25] André: Yeah, it's not what they wanted initially when they came into the industry.
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Have you got any success stories from your APU unit that you can share with us? Yeah, I think so. It was about two years ago, it was just after COVID, we've, selected some new recruits out of the region, and it's a very interesting selection process. I'm not gonna go into too much detail, but you get a couple of hundred candidates that are eager, and you end up with a handful that are actually able, and then from there on you develop them.
And after that we, were approached by our partners in conservation in the region, Cape Nature, and they said, look, they've become aware of certain movements in the region. Would we be able to assist them? And we did assist.
It was a joint operation between the South African Police Services, and Cape Nature and ourselves, and we managed to arrest a couple of plant poachers in the region. And we managed to, through the few small arrests that we made that night, we, um, unearthed a larger syndicate.
But we are drop in the ocean that's trying to make a difference in our region.
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[00:18:49] Paul: I think we want to just do the job and not really disclose too much and not really talk about it.
But you know internally that you've contributed in a way. And I think that's what all of us wanna do. So, we will fight the battle, quietly on the ground. And if we can get the support from everybody, you know, listening to this.
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[00:19:16] Paul: I think I mentioned earlier what a strong tool social media is. Obviously, one has to be aware of where you're going to, but if you do the necessary background checks and the correct kind of vetting, there are quite a few organizations that really play a big role in conservation and in anti-poaching and so on.
I mean, just an example, Sanbona, we are a nonprofit. The land and the project is owned by a nonprofit entity, there's no shareholder. So, everything that we generate from a hospitality and tourism-based perspective, can be ploughed straight back into community development, conservation and regional security and anti-poaching and that kind of thing.
So that's the model that we use. It's a very challenging model in its own because conservation's quite expensive business to be in. But it has to happen.
If this tweaks anybody's interest, we can do with whatever help we can get within this continent of ours, to protect our natural resources. Or this world of ours for that matter, you know?
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[00:20:23] Paul: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
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[00:20:37] Paul: I think what makes us truly unique, is we've got 62,000 hectares of open space. It is a semi desert, so it's a sensitive landscape, but it's got endless views. There's no monotony in the landscape, it's incredibly diverse. It’s got a high percentage of endemic species.
It's hills upon hills upon hills with deep valleys. It's an ancient landscape, and I think that's one of our unique selling points.
We've got three lodges, so we've got currently only 27 rooms across the 62,000 hectares, um.
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[00:21:13] Paul: Exactly. So, it's 54 beds if we work it up. Um, so there's more than a thousand hectares of space, per guest that come to us.
Our values are to conserve and to connect and to aspire. So, we challenge ourselves internally to live those values on a daily basis, across all aspects of our business. We want to tread likely; we want to really leave it in a better state than we found it.
Paul, we're almost at the end, and I like to finish my episodes with questions about favourites.
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[00:21:49] Paul: There are many.
I mean, you can be in the low-lying areas, there in the river lines. But then you can be on a ridge, and you know that you're in a Succulent Karoo, or in the in Klein Karoo, because of these vistas and views and, and in all of those spaces, you feel a breeze over your skin or the sun on you.
So, it's hard for me to say, you know, the whole space is a favourite. I love that area. I didn't know it would have such a big impact on my life.
So, I can't, let's just say that whole space.
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Maybe the next question's a little bit easier - what's your favourite animal and why?
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[00:22:35] André: What is it about them that you like?
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[00:22:46] André: Yeah.
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[00:23:04] André: Paul, thank you so much for joining us and giving us more insight into the conservation work of your Reserve, Sanbona, but also Cape Nature and the challenges that there are and how you are working against it.
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So hopefully, you reach an audience that this can tickle some interest in. And thanks for that opportunity. I really appreciate that.
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About two weeks after this interview took place, Paul forwarded me some news articles about poachers that were sentenced, so justice does happen. I'll add links to those articles into the show notes for you.
Sanbona is involved in several conservation projects, including one with Cheetah. And the Reserve is also an impact player in a project that is focused on the Cape Mountain Zebras. This works to ensure genetically diverse populations of these zebras within the reserve and in the broader region. It was wonderful to see Paul get so excited when he spoke about the success of this project.
I found it fascinating to learn about plant poaching, and I hope that you enjoyed this episode as well.
Let me know what you thought. I'd love to get a message from you podcast at africawithandre.com. Until the next time.
