A dehorned rhino leaving its crate upon release during 2024 African Parks Rhino Rewild at GKEPF [1] translocation ©Michael Dexter
Two thousand rhinos to be relocated in the next 10 years. Sound like a mirage?
No, this is for real. After years of tragic news about rhino poaching… imperceptibly, but assuredly, Africa’s wildlife conservation efforts are bearing fruit.
In 2023 African Parks, a non-profit conservation organization based in Johannesburg, purchased 2000 rhinos from what was the world’s largest private captive breeding programme for rhinos who were fed and protected by armed guards on a daily basis. Known as Platinum Rhino, the farm was a 7800-hectare property 100 miles from Johannesburg.
The rhinos represented up to 15 percent of the world’s remaining wild population.
The owner, a multimillionaire conservationist John Hume, put up the farm for sale but, unable find a buyer, placed the property up for auction on 26 April 2023 because of huge mounting and unsustainable costs. After failing to receive any bids, the rhinos were at serious risk of poaching and fragmentation if sold off incrementally as part of a liquidation process.
Hume, who made his fortune developing tourist resorts before falling in love with the animals after retiring, had spent around US$150 million on the project to save the rhinos from extinction.
African Parks – a trailblazer in conservation
African Parks took over the rhinos after securing funding and the endorsement of the South African Government. The NGO is intent on rewilding these 2000 rhinos and their offspring over the next ten years. The plan, known as “Rhino Rewild,” is to translocate them to multiple well-managed protected areas across Africa to help secure the future of the species across the continent.
African Parks, which manages 22 national parks in 12 countries throughout Africa, has a commendable track record in creating safe wild spaces and experience in wildlife relocations at scale. This includes moving 500 elephants across Malawi, to bringing rhino back to Rwanda, Malawi and, most recently, to the Democratic Republic of Congo
In an unbelievably a daunting undertaking, African Parks plans to rewild the farmed rhinos including any offspring, at a rate of 300 a year over 10 years to safe and well-managed protected areas across Africa. This represents one of the largest continent-wide rewilding programme to occur for any species.
In 2024 “Rhino Rewild” undertakes first three translocations of rhinos to new lives
The very first translocation of this continent-wide project was completed in May 2024 with the donation of 40 southern white rhino to the Munywana Conservancy, which has a positive track record for wildlife protection. The rhinos were loaded into individual crates and transported by truck to the Zululand region of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, a drive of over 570 kilometres from Johannesburg. The rhinos will join the current white rhnino population there.
According to Thokozani Mlambo, Chairperson, Makhasa Trust, one of the three primary shareholders of the Munywana Conservancy: “We see this as a recognition of the importance that community-owned lands play for conservation. We are proud to be collaborating in such a significant partnership to rewild rhino across our continent”.
In June 2024, African Parks undertook a second translocation of 120 rhinos under Rhino Rewild to private reserves operating as part of the Greater Kruger Environmental Protection Foundation in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, South Africa.
to attaching a tracking device ©Cathan Moore
This past month African Parks undertook the third rhino translocation with a group of southern white rhino successfully translocated to Dinokeng Game Reserve in north-eastern Gauteng Province, South Africa.
Key funders of Rhino Rewild include the Rob Walton Foundation, the Pershing Square Foundation. WeWild Africa, the Aspinall Foundation and the Global Humane Conservation Fund of Africa.
The tragic decimation of the rhino populations across Africa, which is still ongoing, is heart-breaking. So African Parks’ bold and courageous vision truly inspires hope for the future of the rhino.
Donations to African Parks Rhino Rewild project can be made at Rhino Rewild Donate – africanparks.org
[1] Greater Kruger Environmental Protection Foundation.