199
Art. # 198
30 YEARS OF SUCCESSFUL SUSTAINABLE RHINO CONSERVATION
Namibia leads with largest
wild Black Rhino population
Text by Stefan
Rust
Photos by
Birgit Leicher
2013
(In
terms of the Geneva Convention the copyright of these texts belongs to Stefan
Rust)
(Noteworthy!
BirdsConTour, being a bird conservation organization, interacts with rhino
conservation because rhinos help to maintain grassland areas, an important
habitat to many birds.)
The 20th
century kicked off with 500 000 rhinoceros (abbreviated as rhino) worldwide.
Numbers dropped to 70 000 in 1970 and fell critically to about 29 000 in the
wild today, mainly due to the continuing threat of poaching for their valuable
horns.
White
Rhino
Traded for an estimated
$65 000/kg (± N$655 000/kg) on the black market, some cultures use the rhino
horn, consisting out of nothing else but keratin, for ornamental or, in the
form of powder, for traditional medicinal purposes.
There are five
extant rhino species on earth. The White Rhinoceros (Square-lipped Rhinoceros /
Ceratotherium simum)
and the Black Rhinoceros (Hook-lipped Rhinoceros / Diceros bicornis) live in Africa and together with the
Sumatran Rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) these have each two horns, whereas the
Indian Rhinoceros (Greater one-horned Rhino / Rhinoceros unicornis) and the Javan Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros
sondaicus) have a single
horn.
The Javan Rhino,
35-45, Sumatran Rhino, <100, and the Black Rhino, 5 055, are identified as
critically endangered. The White Rhino shows a world population of 20 405 and
the Indian Rhino 3 333.
But despite this
bleak picture rhino figures in Namibia (as well as in some other parts of the
world) have been increasing in recent years. Thanks to the Save the Rhino Trust
(SRT), founded in 1982, and some other supporters such as the Ministry of
Environment and Tourism (MET), WWF, communities and various other
collaborators, Namibia today writes a success story in rhino conservation,
Black Rhino numbers have since then increased five-fold. Among others an easy
but effective method, offering rhino poachers a more secure livelihood as
wildlife guards, led Namibia today, after 30 years of hard work, commitment and
large amounts of money, to be known as home to the largest wild roaming Black
Rhino population on earth.
With these years
of experience in successful sustainable rhino conservation and the purpose of
raising funds for rhino conservation, the Namibian government agreed that a
permit, to trophy hunt an old geriatric Black Rhino bull, that is marginalized
in the population and does not contribute to reproduction anymore, got
auctioned recently by the Dallas Safari Club, Texas.
Under natural
circumstances, such as in the case of the Kunene region in Namibia where the
Black Rhino thrives, such old bulls are overtaken by younger, stronger and
healthy rivals, following the rule of nature – survival of the fittest – in
order to maintain an in all aspects vital Rhino population. By all means it is
the duty and responsibility of us conservationists to not only protect rhinos
from poachers but also to support nature in its origin to keep a population
healthy and this costs huge amounts of money.
However, it is
important to keep an eye that the money gained from the “Dallas Rhino Project”
gets used for the according purpose. Even more important is that local and
international conservationists become more judgmental about situations in which
for example 30 rhinos have been lost being killed through unprofessional
attempts of responsible authorities to extinguish a fire in the Namibian Etosha
National Park three years ago.
Likewise it
didn’t seem to bother any rhino conservationist when the Namibian government
gave rhinos away as a gift to Cuba last year, knowing that these will lead a
miserable existence in a zoo in Cuba. This is definitely not sustainable rhino
conservation!
Namibia needs
the rhinos on its own land where they are indigenous, not in a zoo in Cuba, and
Namibia needs them alive, not dead because of ignorance or unprofessionalism,
so that the treasury of the Namibian, not Cuban, tourism sector can be filled
by visitors (tourists) paying a lot of money to experience alive rhinos.
Rhinos
help to maintain grassland
Just as much
Namibia’s nature need a vital rhino population in order for the rhinos to
fulfill their ecological duty, namely to maintain grassland, an habitat
essential for the survival of many other animals such as cheetah, common
ostrich and Kori Bustard, the Bird of the Year 2014 in Namibia, the flagship for
grassland protection, considering that already 26 million hectares, more than
80% of the Namibian surface, is encroached by bush.
Furthermore it
is a pity that animals must suffer when, for example, foreign support of
different anti poaching units of a country get deprived because in the eyes of
the supporters the concerned state government behaves politically incorrect.
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