A certain Recycling company that buys non-erosive metals, whilst providing a valuable outlet to dump scrap metal; aluminum cans and glass for recycling and “giving back to the earth” also buys copper wire.
For the unemployed, recycling companies are a great help because they trade ‘trash” for cash, although the quantity of cash is very low for the quantity they require.
So how is this recycling company crushing a local game reserve? They buy copper wire stripped from electric cables by thieves that enter the game reserve. Valuable time and resources are then used to track the thieves, the information handed to the Police and still copper wire is bought on a daily basis.
Stripped electric cable a danger to animals & a hassel for game reserve security
Solar panels were an alternative, until the same thieves, started cutting the solar panels and stealing them too for cash. This game reserve is run by property owners who took down their fences and ‘pooled’ their land into an area where wild animals roam freely, but with each cable theft, the owner’s resources are being hit hard in replacing, the lodges in the area that run eco-tourism businesses, rely on the supply of electricity and they too contribute towards the finances of the reserve. The irony is that the same company they take their glass bottles and tins to, is the same company supporting the thieves who cut the cables and strip them of the copper wire.
Every time a breach of security occurs on the reserve, the warden and the field rangers have to stop their conservation practices and assist the security and policing sector, the result is that the conservation team is being worn out and the erosion control, anti-poaching, alien-plant eradication, plant surveys and animal monitoring are playing second fiddle to security!
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