Monday. September 28, 2015.
A South African rhino mother and her calf. Photo courtesy of the Peace Parks Foundation.
Eighty-three percent of Africa’s rhino population live in South Africa.
Last year 1200 South African rhinos were killed by poachers.
There are only 22,000 rhinos left in South Africa.
Efforts are being made to protect them. That’s what we’re hearing about now here at this afternoon’s plenary session of the Clinton Global Initiative.
Marike Van Schaik, Managing Director of Dutch Postcode Lottery, is reporting on a twenty million dollar commitment the United Postcode Lotteries made last year in a partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature Netherlands and the Peace Parks Foundation to put an end to rhino poaching in South Africa. Three hundred rangers have been trained, with an elite group equipped with night vision goggles. Individual rhinos are being tracked. Drones are in the air day and night. We had a live demonstration of a helicopter drone. A newly-established Wildlife Justice Commission has set out “to disrupt organized wildlife crime networks.” According to the Commission’s website, “From 2007 to 2014 rhino poaching in South Africa has increased by almost 10,000%”. In the first quarter of this year, poaching was already up eighteen percent over last year.
Reason I chose to attend this session is that it’s going to be moderated by Neil deGrasse Tyson and he’s going to interview Pepper the Social Robot. But a couple of things about the rhino program have me almost wishing they’d leave Tyson and Pepper waiting in the wings while we’re told more about those things.
I would like to hear more about those organized wildlife crime networks.
Who’s in them? How are they organized? Exactly what to they do?
Something else I would like to hear more about.
“Ninety percent of poached rhino horns end up in Vietnam.”
Really?
Why?
Why Vietnam?
Why do the Vietnamese want rhino horns?
What are they used for?
No details or explanations. There was mention of a program, however, that brought twenty-two high school-age students from Vietnam to South Africa to show them rhinos in the wild in the hopes the students would go home to spread the word that the rhinos must be saved.
That was something else there isn’t time to get into at this session, what those students saw and learned.
But that’s why there’s an internet.
A simple Google search turned up this article on the WWF website, Portrait of a rhino horn user, and the video below, Vietnam Youth Say NO to Rhino Horn.
Every so often, I want to suggest that there be licensed poacher hunting. Big game that can shoot back. Now there's grand sport.
Posted by: CJColucci | Tuesday, October 13, 2015 at 01:41 PM