The plight of the rhino has long received world-recognition, but even more so now since the death of Sudan – the world’s last male northern white rhino – just last month.

Joseph Wachira, 26, comforts Sudan, the last male Northern White Rhino on the planet, moments before he passed away. Photo: Ami Vitale

The current poaching crisis has deep-seated roots in Zimbabwe, where the difficult socio-economic and political climate facilitated rhino poaching. Once the easy pickings had been had in Zimbabwe, poaching gangs turned their attention to neighbouring South Africa, which suffered massive increases in poaching between 2009-2014.

In around 2013, the poaching crisis spread, to other countries in Africa. First, Kenya was hit hard – its worst year for poaching was in 2013 when 59 animals were killed (more than 5% of the national population). In 2015 both Zimbabwe and Namibia were hit hard: Namibia lost 80 rhinos to poaching, up from 25 in 2014 and just two in 2012; while in Zimbabwe at least 50 rhinos were poached in 2015, more than double from the previous year. For Africa as a whole, the total number of rhinos poached during 2015 was the highest in two decades.

Large-scale poaching of the critically endangered black rhino resulted in a dramatic 96% decline from 70 000 individuals, in 1970, to just 2 410 in 1995. In the last decade-or-so, much of the world have united to tackle this devastating epidemic, but due to high prices on the black market coupled with, traditional Asian medicinal beliefs, and international crime syndicates, the black rhino remains critically endangered, and its desert-dwelling family even more so. By the 1980s, there were fewer than 50 desert rhino left; the last free-roaming desert-dwelling black rhinos of north-west Namibia.

The desert-dwelling black rhino (diceros bicornis occidentalis) is a small subspecies, which has adapted to survival in the desert and semi-desert conditions of the Kaokoveld in north-west Namibia. Originally distributed in north-western Namibia and southwestern Angola, today this subspecies is restricted to wildlife reserves in Namibia with sporadic sightings in Angola.

A desert-adapted black rhino in north-west Namibia. Photo: Dave Hamman

Hope for the preservation of their genealogy was dim… until the timeous intervention of two key elements; local community buy-in and international donor support. “Ever since formal rhino conservation in northwest Namibia began, in the early 1980s, innovative institutions, such as the conservancy model and Namibia’s Rhino Custodianship Programme, evolved to place local people, and their values, at the centre of the solutions to address the poaching,” said Jeff Muntifering, a conservation biologist with the Minnesota Zoo.

He further stated that “these strategies are more geared towards STOPPING POACHING rather than catching poachers. By investing energy and resources into strategies that make poaching a socially unacceptable act, we hope to compile evidence that demonstrates the various roles that local communities can play towards improving rhino security.”

Local organizations like Save the Rhino Trust (SRT), have played an integral role in rhino monitoring and research, and research, and have been protecting the desert rhinos for 37 years – to prevent the species from becoming extinct. “After decades of positive results, for the first time the SRT had to face the twin threats of armed and dangerous criminal syndicates, coupled with the worst drought experienced in 30 years,” said SRT trustee Rob Moffett. “At this time – SRT’s darkest hour – friends were few, and the challenges to turn around the situation were high.”

This time around, SRT’s timely intervention enabled the trust to rapidly adjust and shift its focus. The emphasis moved from working in-the-field to concentrating more on the surrounding communities – a focus on partnering with them, and winning-over former poachers for inside intelligence.

Along with their long-term commitment to the cause – SRT brought local and international knowledge, inter-agency relationships, manpower and funding to the party. They received cooperation from international conservation agencies, as well as the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET), the protected species division of NamPol and the Namibia Defence Force’s special field force.

Save the Rhino Trust and Minnesota Zoo staff out on donkey patrol in Namibia. Photo: Dave Hamman

A key international organisation – Canadian gold mining company B2Gold – stepped forward in 2014 and sponsored the trust’s activities for N$1 million per year for three years for the period 2015 to 2017. “We are part of something special, and that is saving a species from going extinct,” said B2Gold founder Clive Johnson, who further topped up their N$3 million donation with a N$600 000 cheque and pledged to continue their ongoing support of SRT.

By late 2014, the area that spans about 35 000 square kilometres had anti-poaching coverage 365-days a year! “Through open and honest communication with our valued stakeholders, partners, donors and supporters, we have solidified our support base, both locally and internationally,” said Brandon Munro, a trustee of SRT.

Although the increase in the desert-dwelling black rhino has kept the species from the brink of extinction – there are still not enough to restore the population to a self-sustainable level. For this reason, tallies and records of their distribution are guarded government secrets, known by only a handful of politicians and scientists working on their conservation. They are even sworn to secrecy with an official government confidentiality oath to protect this sensitive information to prevent syndicates from identifying potential targets.

Thanks to the foresight of conservationists, the rhino population was stabilised and finally began a remarkable recovery. Since the first rhino was poached in 2012, the overall patrol effort has increased by 360%! The number of trained and equipped rhino rangers has grown from 0 to 55 across 13 conservancies – tripling the workforce. Poaching itself has been reduced by 80%, and last year alone – six separate poaching attempts were foiled after tip-offs from local informants!

Donors were able to introduce partnerships and initiatives that would see the country become a leader in successful conservation, as well as a sought-after destination for conservation tourism. The survival of the desert-dwelling black rhino, in turn, started generating revenue through ecotourism, and now – conservation motivated tourism has become one of Namibia’s top GDP contributors.

With jobs and revenue connected to rhinos, local communities have come to view these nearly two-tonne beasts as their own. This means locals are much more willing to report suspicious behaviour or overheard conversations to authorities to protect their own.

Muntifering says it’s the work with local communities that has made Namibia’s rhino conservation program one of the most successful in the world, even as poaching runs rampant elsewhere in Africa.

Overall, wildlife is the driver of the tourism industry, and this industry has a major socio-economic influence on our country’s affluence. It offers a plethora of benefits not only by creating job opportunities, but also by alleviating poverty and increasing national development as a whole. So, what if all these benefits were to collapse due to ongoing poaching?

We need to ensure that a holistic approach to conservation and development would lead to a win-win situation for people, biodiversity and tourism.

Recently, the Environment and Tourism Minister Pohamba Shifeta inaugurated the latest asset in Etosha National Park’s anti-poaching arsenal – the Skerpioenbult Anti-Poaching Patrol Camp. The Skerpioenbult area (Scorpion Hill in English) is known for having a high concentration of rhino, however the numbers are dropping fast as this area has been recorded to have the highest number of rhino poached per year in Namibia… for a few years running.

National parks are one of the key tourism draw cards in Namibia, and none as renowned as Etosha. The Etosha National Park hosts a total surface area of about 2 227 million hectares (and a boundary fence about 850 kilometres long) – making activities such as patrolling and anti-poaching operations exceptionally challenging.

“The Skerpioenbult Anti-Poaching Patrol Camp is another step in the fight against poaching, and enables the deployment of anti-poaching personnel to this hotspot area”, said minister Shifeta. “Plans are to set up several stations of this kind to enable patrols to react faster to the presence of poachers.”

The camp was constructed by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) through the Protected Areas System Strengthening (PASS) Project, with significant financial support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Yahoo Japan – resulting in a total allocation of US$4 million (N$50 million).

This may seem like a lot – but at least 70% of the budget has already been spent on law-enforcing and anti-poaching measures. Expenses have included water provision systems, water tanks and trailers, camping equipment, sanitation facilities and solar power. When it comes to the actual field-work, the budget has covered communication devices, forensic equipment, a national anti-poaching awareness campaign, and the training of prosecutors and investigating officers. But it doesn’t stop there. The project has also funded the construction of an observation tower at Skerpioenbult, and the construction of the anti-poaching training centre at the Waterberg National Park.

The camp will house game patrol units, rangers, police- and defence-force members, MET officials, and community volunteers – enabling the deployment of law-enforcement personnel and  acts as a strategic point of command and coordination of anti-poaching activities.

The work of the anti-poaching personnel is not an easy one and requires them to make many sacrifices. They must leave their families behind for prolonged periods, spend many days in the bush, walk hundreds of kilometres in the wilderness and risk their lives to both armed poachers and dangerous wild animals such as lions and elephants. We therefore need to appreciate their efforts.

“I congratulate you for the job well done and the love you have for your country and nature.” – Environment and Tourism Minister, Pohamba Shifeta.

Image: Chengeta Wildlife

Conservation is an ethic of resource use, allocation, and protection with a primary focus of maintaining the health of the natural world. We do this to protect our fauna, flora, habitats and non-renewable resources from extinction.

To conserve habitats in terrestrial eco-regions and to stop deforestation is a goal widely shared by many groups with a wide variety of motivations. But at what cost? Some believe that too much land is being used for conservation – which in effect is affecting the growth of the population, but Namibian Environment and Tourism spokesperson Romeo Muyunda told it like it really is.

Namibia is one of few countries in the world to specifically address habitat conservation and protection of natural resources in their constitution; these conservancies have contributed N$5 billion to Namibia’s net income since 1999, despite challenges they continue to face. According to Muyunda – this money was made between 1999 and 2015 with only 83 registered conservancies in Namibia.

Conservation is ingrained in Namibia, so much so that it was the first country on the continent (and one of a few in the world) to include protection of its environment within its constitution. In 1996, the Government of Namibia introduced legislation, giving communities the power to create their own conservancies. The country has also ensured local and indigenous communities receive an equitable distribution of the tourism proceeds relating to wildlife, and in doing so it has empowered them to participate to conservation efforts.

Today, over 43% of Namibia’s surface area is under conservation management. This includes national parks and reserves, communal and commercial conservancies, community forests, and private nature reserves. People are living with wildlife, including predators and large mammals, and are managing their natural resources wisely.

According to Muyunda, the conservancies generated N$102 million for the local communities, and created 5 116 jobs in 2015 alone. Profits from these conservancies are pooled together and used for the benefit of the community. The money can be used for projects such as building schools, day-care facilities or clinics.

On top of it all, Namibia now boasts the largest free-roaming population of black rhinos and cheetahs in the world and is the only country with an expanding population of free-roaming lions. Namibia’s elephant population more than doubled between 1995 and 2008 from 7 500 to over 16 000 individuals.

This remarkable turnaround has led some to call Namibia’s conservation efforts the greatest African wildlife recovery story over told.

Warrant officer Simson Shilongo of the police in Kunene told The Namibian yesterday that alleged poachers had entered Etosha National Park illegally with the intent to poach rhino. One of the poachers – Luteni Muharukua (age unknown) – was left injured after a rhino he was tracking suddenly appeared and charged at him.

According to reports, while the men were tracking a rhino, it appeared from nowhere, and charged at them. Muharukua fell over in the pandemonium and was trampled by the rhino, who severely injured his leg.

“His friends took and hid him on a nearby mountain, and he was arrested there the next day by the police,” Shilongo stated, adding that the suspect is receiving medical treatment at the Opuwo Hospital under police guard.

Hundreds of rhinos are killed illegally each year for their horns, which are used as status symbols and for traditional medicines. These are then sold on the black market – some of them for tens of thousands of pounds.

As a result, all five known rhino species are threatened with extinction – with the Sumatran and Javan rhinos both critically endangered and numbering only in the dozens.

The situation has reached such critical heights that in March of this year, poachers even broke into a zoo near Paris where they shot a rhino and sliced its horn off with a chainsaw.

While poaching is rife throughout southern Africa, the areas dominated by rhino poaching are South Africa and Namibia. Well over 7 000 rhinos have been poached in South Africa alone over the last decade, and while the country hosts 74% of the world’s remaining rhino population – numbers are still horrifically low. White rhino numbers average around 17 000–19 000 and black rhino a mere 1 800–2 000.

There is no magic cure to solve the poaching crisis. It will take some serious effort, along with a mix of the best tools we’ve got – having well-trained and equipped rangers, to secure suitable habitats, have good rhino monitoring and thoroughly tracked breeding.

Education is perhaps the most important of all – not only in countries where rhino live, but also in Asia where consumer demand for rhino horn is highest. We also need to make sure that people living near rhino habitats see and feel the benefits of conservation to prevent people from turning to poaching or encroaching on rhino habitat.

At this point, captive breeding and intensive management of the rarer species is vital to maintain genetic diversity and prevent the species from dying out. (Unless of course, we can train our rhino to snuff out the poachers that hunt them).

Back in February, two young male lions escaped from Etosha National Park, killing three oxen and a dog in a nearby village. No humans have been harmed by the lions.

Following an intervention by officials from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, one of the lions was killed after it reportedly showed signs of aggression and resistance against being safely taken back into the park.

There has been no word on progress with regards to herding the remaining lion back into the park.

This is not the first time that lions have escaped from Namibia’s most iconic park. In 2015, four lions escaped and terrorised the Mangetti community in the Oshikoto Region, killing 32 cattle, a donkey and a horse. Two of these lions were killed, while one was recaptured; the last escaped lion eventually made its own way back into the park.

In 2010, three lions were spotted at various villages in the Oshikoto and Oshana regions.

It’s not only lions that have ventured beyond Etosha’s park boundaries. In September 2014, an escaped black rhino went on the rampage in a small town close to the border of Etosha called Omuthiya, charging pupils and teachers at the local primary school.

Luckily, only a couple of minor injuries were recorded, and the rhino was successfully captured and returned to the park.

Human-wildlife conflict is a pressing and complex issue in Namibia as it is in many other parts of Africa, with growing human populations inevitably encroaching on animals’ habitats.

For many Namibians in rural areas, dealing with dangerous wildlife has always been part of their existence, a reality that is hard to imagine for most visitors.

The Namibian government pays compensation to farmers who lose livestock to wildlife, while a number of conservation bodies are looking at a variety of ways to curb human-wildlife conflict.

The role of national parks like Etosha is more important than ever in the face of increasing human-wildlife conflict, habitat loss and the recent spike in poaching in Namibia.