KCS acting CEO on World Rhino Day
Correspondent | Tuesday September 26, 2017 15:45
The commemoration is globally well honoured every year, through a series of unique celebrations and activities, which tend to depict the rhino animal and highlight the continued prevalence of individual, institutional and global efforts in conserving the animal. This year’s commemoration celebrates all five species of rhino: Black, White, Greater one-horned, Sumatran and Javan Rhinos.
As it is the case with other wild animals, the Rhinoceros have had its ‘well and woe’ times over centuries. They’ve been subjected to seemingly perpetual trying times resulting from poaching, climate change and loss of habitat (due to urbanisation). Statistics indicate that in just a decade, more than 7,137 African rhinos have been lost to poaching. This is very alarming! These poaching incidences are driven by the Asian market appetite for the horn. Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Nanyuki, Kenya is home to the last three remaining Northern White rhinos (one male and two females which are past the ability to reproduce therefore likely to go extinct) in the world. The three rhinos stay under 24 hours armed guard.
I, however applaud the stiff and strict measures enforced to counter poaching in Botswana and Africa at large. Let me also acknowledge other cause-related organisations such as the Rhino Conservation Botswana, Khama Rhino Sanctuary, Okavango Wilderness Safaris, Orapa mine and many other organisations in Botswana, in their efforts to conserve Rhinos.
In 2016, Kalahari Conservation Society (KCS) in collaboration with Barclays Bank Botswana implemented a project dubbed ‘Rhino Conservation By Youth By All’. The project sought to advance rhino conservation in Botswana through ensuring full participation of all stakeholders to curb poaching and improve local communities’ livelihoods. KCS hopes to continue, ceaselessly in rendering void, the impacts poaching, global warming and loss of habitat on the rhinoceros, as it is indeed our core mandate to promote biodiversity conservation.
I, therefore, beseech members of the public to join hands with KCS and the rest of the world in commemorating this day. ‘Five rhinos forever’!!!
Neil Fitt, Acting Chief Executive Officer