Pretoria - The fight against poaching must be treated as a war, Africa's leading anti-poaching coalition said on Thursday, as it called for the illicit wildlife trade to be monitored like global conflicts. "We're following the model put out by conflict data programmes which have basically used media monitoring" on incidents of conflict, said Ciara Aucoin, a researcher at South Africa's Institute for Security Studies. "The rhino campaign in terms of armed conflict is as intense as any war," he said. That is why in Africa we have to accept, against our will, that a ranger equals a warrior," he said. But he ruled out a shoot-to-kill policy for armed poachers caught in the national parks.

Source: News 24 September 21, 2017 15:22 UTC