The Australian Rhino Project
Rhino poaching statistics continue to rise, with 1020 poaching cases recorded from 1 January to 20 November 2014, in comparison to 946 cases for the entire 2013 - see Department of Environmental Affairs statistics.
The Minister of Environmental Affairs, Mrs Edna Molewa, said at a Rhino Conservation Side Event at the 6th World Parks Congress in Sydney, Australia, this week: “Unfortunately the threat of poaching has continued to escalate while various multi-faceted interventions are being implemented by South Africa. We are concerned that poaching is part of a multi-billion dollar worldwide illicit wildlife trade. Addressing the scourge is not simple.”
In an article on the website, the department list South Africa’s multi-disciplinary response as:
The creation of an intensive protection zone within the Kruger National Park
The introduction and implementation of new technology
Improving national, regional and international collaboration
Translocating rhino to safe areas within South Africa, and in rhino range states.
With 49 cases already reported till 22 January 2015 (up from 37 cases in roughly the same timeframe in January 2014), it begs the question “Are we being inventive enough in our fight against poaching?"
It appears that with current methods not making enough of an impact, we need to be trying every sensible sounding solution we can, and quickly before it’s too late. In this fast-paced world of agile development and sprint cycles, let’s try what works in the IT world and try solutions, review the data, analyse what is working and not and adapt on the fly.
I don’t for one instant believe there is a single magical panacea, but one possible that recently caught my attention was the idea of evacuating rhino’s to ‘safe havens’ where they can be kept out of the reach of poachers.
Minister Molewa calls it translocation and in August 2014 announced that decisions had been made to adopt this strategy and that authorities “could relocate up to 500 rhino” from high poaching areas (like the eastern boundary of the Kruger National Park which forms the border with Mozambique) , to alternative strongholds including private parks and communal areas, with neighbouring countries also being considered as hosts.
The Australian Rhino Project
One fantastic idea in line with this Translocation strategy is that of The Australian Rhino Project.
Formed by Ray Dearlove, the goal of the project is to establish a breeding herd of black and white rhinos in Australia as an Insurance Population in the event of extinction of the species in the wild.
The intention is that once conditions permit, the rhinos and / or their progeny will be reintroduced back to their natural habitat in South Africa. They believe passionately that rhinos must be available to the world in the wild, not only in zoos.
Current plans are to import twenty white rhinos per year from South Africa over a period of four years, in batches of ten rhinos at a time, starting in 2014/2015. These eighty rhinos would remain the property of the South African Government and providing that the situation is sufficiently stable and that the authorities in South Africa agree, starting in 2019/2020, ten rhinos per year will be repatriated to South Africa from Australia. Projections are that, by this time, there will be a viable insurance herd of approximately 150 white rhinos in Australia.
Where is the project now?
Despite some very gloomy predictions about the chances of success, they were delighted when the Australian Government officially gave ‘in principle’, its approval for the import of white rhinos from South Africa into Australia.
This is a huge step forward, since as you would expect, the Australian Government has extremely strong protocols in place to protect Australia from diseases and anything that would harm the country’s status as a reliable global source of food.
The next key step is for the South African Government to provide their ‘in principle’ support for the export of the rhinos to Australia. Naturally, this is an extremely sensitive issue, but the cold reality is that, despite tens of millions of dollars being spent on anti-poaching measures, the rhinos are being killed at a rate of three a day – every day.
Why Australia? Is it safe?
Ray is absolutely convinced that he’s correct in this venture. The first reason why Australia is a safer haven for rhinos is that the planned location of the animals is almost six hours drive from Sydney and therefore not easily accessible.
Other reasons are:
That poaching (of any animals) is very, very rare in Australia;
There is little, if any, pressure on the planned location of the rhinos from very poor communities which live on or close to the breadline;
There is little corruption in Australia (in this context);
And the final very good reason is that there is no doubt in Ray’s mind that Australians would not tolerate poaching of any wildlife irrespective of what species it is.
While on the sports field we South Africans may have a bit of a love / hate relationship with our Australian brethren, it is inspiring and heartwarming that a passionate individual in Australia has been moved enough by the plight of the Rhino's, that he has devised this relocation idea and even moreover been able to influence an Australian Government, strict on these types of matters, to sanction it.
At last update, all of the project efforts were being directed at securing the South African Government approval to allow them to import the rhinos, and we can only hope and pray that our government has the good sense to give it a try.
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