Rhino messiah . . . 2011 recipient of the Goldman Environment Prize for Africa, Raoul du Toit.
“CONSERVING rhinos saves much more than the rhino themselves — they are flagships for biodiversity and for national development based upon sustainable wildlife management in Africa,” says Raoul du Toit
Recently awarded the Goldman Environment Prize for Africa for 2011 in recognition of his rhino conservation activities in Zimbabwe, Du Toit strongly believes in community involvement and awareness for effective rhino conservation.
Du Toit, director of the Lowveld Rhino Trust, received US$150 000 as prize money that will be channelled towards supporting his vision and conservation activities.
Five other such prizes were awarded, during two recent ceremonies in the United States, to environmentalists from other regions of the world.
One of the ceremonies was held at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington on April 13 and attended by Zimbabwe’s representative in Washington, Ambassador Machivenyika Mapuranga, who congratulated Du Toit on behalf of the Government.
US President Barack Obama also congratulated Du Toit and the five other award winners when they met him at the White House on the same day.
In an interview with Sunday In-Depth at his offices in Harare, Du Toit said the award would bring international attention to the rhino conservation movement in Zimbabwe.
“It is a mixed situation because on the one hand there are now more rhinos in the Lowveld region than there has been for over a century, but on the other hand the poaching onslaught is intensifying and there can be no room for complacency,” he said.
According to figures recently released by the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, Zimbabwe has a national total of nearly 430 black rhinos and about 290 white rhinos.
There is still a long way to go before the black rhino population can recover to its previous total of about 1 500 in the late 1980s.
“In the Lowveld region of Zimbabwe, despite major poaching pressures, there are now more rhinos than at any other time over the past 100 years,” said Du Toit.
“This shows that it is worth fighting the battle to save rhinos because we really can win it, and we need some species success stories to encourage us in the broader campaign to conserve biodiversity.”
The award given to Du Toit was in recognition of the efforts of his team in the Lowveld Rhino Trust, which is supported by international conservation groups such as the International Rhino Foundation, the World Wildlife Fund, Save Foundation and Save the Rhino International.
Private rhino custodians have also been bearing high costs of rhino protection.
Asked why he focused on rhino conservation, Du Toit explained:
“Rhinos are as modern in evolutionary terms as we are and are socially more complex than is generally believed,” he said.
“They are superbly adapted to a wide range of African habitats, from deserts to forests. They don’t carry diseases that can be transmitted to livestock, and they don’t eat farmers’ crops.
“They look after themselves and can double their population within 10 years if we just leave them alone.
“Rhinos are a true umbrella or flagship species, since the conservation of rhinos and their habitats ensures that a lot of other biodiversity is conserved at the same time.”
Survivor . . . The rhino that survived the crude hacksawing of its horn by poachers last month in the Lowveld.
During the early 1990s, the Lowveld Rhino Project was established with its funding coming initially from the Beit Trust. At that stage, the Lowveld held only 4 percent of Zimbabwe’s rhinos, whereas it now holds 80 percent of the national population of rhinos.
This is equivalent to over 7 percent of the global population of the critically endangered black rhino species.
Much of the conservation efforts in recent years have involved moving rhinos from less secure areas to more secure areas within the Lowveld, and taking aggressive action against poachers.
Du Toit said credit for the action against poachers is largely due to the efforts of the police and other law enforcement agencies.
“Poachers operate in syndicates like hard-core, well-armed bank robbers,” he said.
“They mount hit-and-run attacks and fight back with their firearms if they are tackled by anti-poaching patrols.”
An upsurge in rhino poaching was seen from 2007, with at least 300 rhinos being poached in Zimbabwe since then.
Du Toit and other conservationists believe that this upsurge in poaching is directly linked to a greater Asian presence in Africa, since the main market for the horns is within Asian countries whose communities believe that the horns have medicinal properties.
Vietnam has been identified by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) as the Asian country importing most of the horn, even though that is illegal in that country.
A number of Vietnamese took advantage of weak controls on the safari hunting of white rhinos in South Africa and pretended to be hunting rhinos for sport, but instead of taking the horns as hunting trophies they were taking them to sell on the illegal market. This created new market demand, which in turn helped drive the poaching of rhinos.
South Africa has been losing approximately one rhino a day to poaching gangs.
Since the national rhino population in South Africa is over 20 000, this rate of loss is sustainable at present, unlike in Zimbabwe where every poached rhino adds to the decline of the national population.
“We have good cops and bad cops,” said Du Toit. “Some of them are working tirelessly and professionally to hunt down poachers whereas some other policemen and soldiers, in the minority, have actually been poaching rhinos.”
Even when the poachers are arrested, conservationists like Du Toit complain that the courts have been dealing with them sternly at times and at other times have been letting them off on technicalities or for other questionable reasons.
“These discrepancies cause great international concern about Zimbabwe’s conservation effort and its obligations under treaties such as Cites,” he said.
As an example of effective action, Du Toit cited the arrest of two rhino poachers in the Chipinge Safari Area on April 17.
“Within a week, these poachers were each sentenced by a Masvingo magistrate to 10 years in jail plus three years on weapon charges for possession of an AK rifle,” said Du Toit.
“But in another case, poachers who have been caught with heavy calibre firearms fitted with illegal silencers have not been sentenced on the same weapons charges.”
Conservation NGOs were horrified by a poaching case in Save Valley Conservancy in early April, when a black rhino bull was shot four times and had its horns hacked off its face, while it was still alive, leaving a bloody wound.
The rhino has miraculously survived despite these injuries.
In co-operation with the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, the Lowveld Rhino Trust has ensured that it receives veterinary treatment.
At the time of this incident, four men were arrested in Chiredzi, with a silencer-fitted heavy-calibre rifle, far from their home area of Beitbridge.
The two men were subsequently released and are yet to be charged.
“Cases such as this are now watched closely by the conservation NGOs,” said Du Toit.
“We cannot tolerate any lack of effort or suspicion of corruption when the war against poachers has to be fought on all fronts, by everyone.”
To bring local communities onto the side of those who are protecting rhinos, the Lowveld Rhino Trust intends to use its cash award from the Goldman Environmental Prize to expand a scheme through which local communities can become shareholders in rhino breeding projects, through public-private-community partnerships.
“Returns from rhino breeding for the communities would be provided in the form of direct support for local schools, in proportion to the growth of rhino populations in wildlife areas that they live next to,” said Du Toit.
“This will include a major environmental education effort. This scheme was launched in the Lowveld by Minister Nhema in 2006 but we have lacked resources to fully implement it.
“Now, with the Goldman award funding, we can give full emphasis to this need to make rhinos relevant to rural people and to give the incentives for these people to help us fight poachers.”-The Sunday Mail
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