NAMIBIA RHINO EXPORT

The controversial export of thirty-nine White Rhino from Namibia to the USA

The controversial export of thirty-nine White Rhino from Namibia to the USA early in October has caused an uproar dividing critics and supporters into a Social Media tirade... The news broke on a Namibian radio station and the station surprisingly leaked the exact location of the Rhino. A real threat for the security of the Rhino. The export totalled thirty-nine White Rhino, destined for three different ranches based in Southern Texas and owned by Dollar Billionaires. Two of the ranches are home for previously imported Rhino.

On the Cites permits there is a Special Condition under Paragraph 5 - it states that none of these Rhinos or their progeny are permitted to be hunted, ever, on USA soil and NO horns are permitted to be harvested or traded.

The permit process for the Rhino took between eighteen to twenty-four months. The Namibian Government only knew about this when the exporter applied for export permits after the import permits for the US were approved. (the application was originally for forty-one White Rhino)

Facts to contemplate.

Namibia’s climate crisis is real. 2019 set a record as the worst drought in a hundred and twenty years. From 2020 to 2023 this region saw two normal rainy seasons, 2023 being under average. Staggeringly 2024 has been drier in this specific area than during the 2019 drought.

So how did Rhino Breeders cope?

On the Muller’s Reserve, they spent approximately NAD3,000,‪000.000‬ on supplementary feeding per year since the drought began. Feeding Rhino during drought is clearly expensive.

So why weren’t these Rhino sent to range states?

Because range states cannot afford to buy Rhinos and rely on other range states to donate them. These donations are partly funded by the mega NGOS raising funds for Rhino Conservation. Private Breeders are reliant on trade and income and private donations, they get little or no funding.

Perspective.

More than one hundred Rhinos where translocated to Botswana between 2003 and 2017, to repopulate the decimated population. Deadly syndicates “followed” them and tragically over eighty per cent of these Rhino were poached in the Okavango Delta. Studying the data, clearly the well-intended Rhino project inadvertently attracted poaching syndicates. Rhinos are under serious threat in most of their home ranges and in Africa an estimated 23,000 or less, remain in the wild. In a Utopian world we should never have to send “our” Rhino thousands of miles away from their birthplace. However, it is far from Utopia, despite monumental efforts by real NGO’s. These specific Rhino where legally bred and kept safe by private people, at great personal cost. Clearly the example of the Botswana translocation proves that unless a country spends mega millions protecting translocated Rhino, the millions it cost is partially dead in the dust.

Namibia lost a reported eighty rhinos to syndicate killers in 2022, and sixty-seven in 2023. Etosha National Park lost thirty-five Black and eleven White Rhino up to the end September 2024. This figure could be higher as it might not include losses on private reserves. Owners are sometimes afraid to report for fears of their locations becoming public. In South Africa we lost a reported four hundred and ninety-nine in 2023 from poaching, an increase of fifty-one from 2022. Up to August 2024 two hundred and twenty-nine rhino where reportedly poached.

A groundbreaking mega million strategic de-horning project by Ezemvelo KZN, funded by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) with support from Wildlife ACT, Save the Rhino International and Zululand Vets, at our White Rhino flagship reserve Hluluwe-iMfolozi has slowed the KZN crisis down by eighty per cent, for now.

The International Trade in Rhino Horn was banned by CITES in 1977. After fifty years of the ban there has been no notable slowdown of the continual slaughter of Rhino for their horn. Black Rhino where decimated by an unbelievable ninety-six per cent.

The big silent question you should be asking is who is profiting off the ban and the slaughter.

There are amazing success stories of endangered or critically endangered Species that have recovered from the brink of extinction, from stock bred outside the decimated home ranges, then been reintroduced to their home ranges.

The importance of bred Rhino has recently been highlighted by the two thousand Rhino African Parks purchased from Platinum Rhino. Saving those Rhino from being sold peacemeal to Chinese zoos as critics sat twidling their thumbs.

It is clear more needs to be done to assist private breeders as they have successfully increased the number of Rhino in Africa overall.

Could this not simply be a monumental Noah’s Ark philanthropic endeavour to save the Rhino?

Only time will tell but for now these Rhino are safe, thriving, and alive.

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