Building a global alliance
whereby rhinos will survive – and thrive – in the wild and
they, the rhinos, can provide financially for their own protection
as well as the long-term welfare of African parks and all that inhabit them,
while bringing meaningful sustainable benefits to rural communities.
LTRS Hosts International Conference
Conservationists from across southern Africa met in Pretoria on the 20th of February 2019 for a conference aimed at getting international support for a reversing of the Cites ban on international trade in rhino horn. Read full article
Updated rhino poaching stats – what is not being disclosed – comment from award-winning filmmakers
The latest annual rhino poaching statistics have been released by the Department of Environmental Affairs. Minister of Environmental Affairs, Ms Nomvula Mokonyane, has reported significant progress on the implementation of the Integrated Strategic Management of Rhinoceros covering the period 1 January to 31 December 2018. But Susan Scott (STROOP – Journey into the Rhino War filmmaker) cautions against too much optimism.
2018 Statistics
The drop in number of rhinos poached is no reason to celebrate– this is inevitable when there are fewer rhinos on the ground to poach and when those that remain are more difficult to access.
THE NUMBER OF POACHER ACTIVITIES IN THE KRUGER NATIONAL PARK WAS 2620 IN 2018 ONLY 2 LESS THAN IN 2017. THERE IS NO LET UP. DEMAND DRIVES SUPPLY.
The provincial and national breakdown for 2018 is as follows:
| PROVINCES AND NATIONAL PARKS | 2017 | 2018 |
| SANParks | 504 | 422 |
| Gauteng | 4 | 2 |
| Limpopo | 79 | 40 |
| Mpumalanga | 49 | 51 |
| North West | 96 | 65 |
| Eastern Cape | 12 | 19 |
| Free State | 38 | 16 |
| Northern Cape | 24 | 12 |
| Kwa-Zulu Natal | 222 | 142 |
| Western Cape | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 1028 | 769 |
Recent numbers of Black and Southern White rhinos are not available but it is clear that Africa’s biggest rhino populations continue to plummet due to slaughter from poaching…
Every 8 hours at least one rhino is killed by horn poachers in South Africa alone!
We have passed the tipping point – more rhinos are being poached than are being born and well over 1,000 Game Rangers have died while protecting rhinos and elephants in Africa.
African parks and other rhino custodians are struggling to survive. Private rhino owners in South Africa own more rhinos than the rest of Africa put together and could be a source for restocking in future – but many are now being forced to give upon their rhinos, including the world’s two biggest private rhino breeders who own over 10% of the global rhino population. Already over 200 000ha has been lost to rhino conservation, which equates to habitat for 5 000 rhinos.
While rhino poaching is surging, rhino habitat is shrinking…
a double-edged sword for Africa’s rhinos.
Yet rhino horn is more valuable than gold – and better than gold, it is a self-renewing sustainable resource. Gold can only be mined once, while rhinos breed and their horns keep growing. Horn can be traded sustainably, and can be ethically and painlessly harvested again and again from the same animal, without killing a single rhino.
It is untenable that Africa owns this vast and valuable selfrenewing resource but due to the ban on horn trade criminals are taking 100% of the revenue from horn while rhino custodians are paying 100% of the cost of protection and production, and communities are deprived of any benefits.
Massive horn stocks exist that could be converted into much needed cash if the ban was lifted.
How can the world deny Africa an annual multi-million dollar sustainable, legal and moral trading possibility from its own resources, desperately needed to fund Nature conservation?
» Many species have been saved from extinction by sustainable use and commercialization (vicuña in South America, reindeer in Lapland, caribou in Canada, and in Southern Africa Nile crocodile, ostrich and Black wildebeest, to name but a few species that are now safe as a direct result of sustainable use;
» In Kenya where sustainable use has been banned for 40 years, the wildlife estate has reduced by more than 80% (this is verified by an in-depth EU funded study by oneGerman and six Kenyan scientists completed in 2016). By contrast, in South Africa, where sustainable use and commercialization has been practiced, over the same period of time, the area of land under conservation has more than tripled and the wild animal estate has grown 20 times.
Over 90% of the world’s White rhinos occur in Southern Africa, where the species was saved from extinction and where by far the majority of rhino range states support the legal trade in rhino horn.
“Without trade, there is no financial model to keep rhinos on private land, or even to finance rhinos on state land. All other issues are secondary.” – Professor Brian Child, August 2018
A strictly controlled, transparent rhino horn Central Selling Organization (CSO) based on the “Smart Trade” model is seen as the logical way forward, to serve in the long term b est interests of Africa’s rhinos and for the benefit of custodians and rural communities. An International Trading Protocol will be approved by all interested parties and registered with CITES, who will be able to perform the task for which they were created – to control trade for the benefit of wild species.
In simple terms the trade alternative will transfer rhinos from being liabilities into assets and pass the incentives from criminals to legitimate stakeholders. This is the reversal of fortunes that rhinos so desperately need.
Contact LEGAL TRADE FOR RHINO SURVIVAL (LTRS) at conservationhq@biggameparks.org