By admin 
House to the world’s largest inhabitants of black rhinos, Namibia is a vital and particular place for rhino conservation. Most of those rhinos stay in three areas: Etosha Nationwide Park, Waterberg Plateau Park, and the Kunene Area. All three are huge, distinctive landscapes, however maybe essentially the most distinctive rhino habitat is the Kunene desert.
The rhinos right here vary over a 25,000km2 mosaic of group conservancies (areas managed by native communities for conservation and sustainable improvement) and tourism concessions (partnerships the place land is put aside for tourism actions that profit the group and wildlife). The rhinos themselves have tailored extremely effectively to life in a troublesome, arid setting, coping with temperatures starting from sub-zero to 40oC, counting on a plant that’s lethal to most different mammals – together with people – as a staple meals supply, and discovering consuming water solely each few days. The black rhinos of Kunene are extraordinary. However that’s not all that makes them particular.
With no boundaries or fences to constrain them and no official protected space standing, they’re additionally the world’s final remaining free-roaming black rhino inhabitants. Actually wild, the black rhinos right here have extra room than most. However this additionally brings vital challenges. At this time, their safety and well-being rely solely on the individuals looking for them.
Since 1982, Save the Rhino Belief (SRT) has been championing this work. In partnership with the communities of the Kunene and Erongo areas, SRT created its Rhino Ranger Programme. The Programme helps native rhino monitoring groups that, by their vital monitoring work and rising roles in tourism, enhance rhino safety whereas rising the worth of rhinos to native individuals.
With a community-first method, SRT has prioritised conservation actions that carry advantages past simply rhinos. Their collaborative initiatives encourage sustainable tourism on group land, rising livelihood alternatives and incentives for native individuals to assist and amplify conservation impression. This real inclusion and long-term engagement of surrounding communities in rhino conservation will be certain that Kunene’s black rhino inhabitants has an opportunity to thrive.
SRT’s devoted rangers monitor the rhinos, recording necessary information comparable to location, behaviour and well being. They patrol for hours, utilizing their native information and expertise to trace rhinos deep into the desert. In a single 12 months alone, SRT’s rangers have coated greater than 50,000 km on foot, logging greater than 4,000 rhino sightings throughout 12 months. But, reaching essentially the most distant, rugged areas of the desert stays troublesome. Regardless of lengthy days patrolling and utilizing automobiles to journey additional, there are locations that rangers merely can’t entry by foot or by automobile. And that’s the place the Mule Patrol Unit is available in.
Capable of cowl higher distances than rangers can on foot, and traverse terrain that automobiles can’t cross, mules have amplified the very important efforts of SRT’s rangers. Established in 2021, the Unit has made a big effect on rhino monitoring within the Kunene, enabling the crew to succeed in rhinos the place different patrols can’t. Crucially, this not solely ensures that SRT can monitor extra rhinos, but additionally helps their safety, too.
Organised crime networks working in Namibia have already poached 46 rhinos in Etosha Nationwide Park this 12 months. With Kunene simply 300 km away from Etosha, the pressing risk of poaching is ever current. The Mule Patrol Unit’s presence, while not an anti-poaching crew itself, can act as an efficient deterrent to poaching gangs.
Subsequent week, as a part of The Massive Give Christmas Problem, we’re aiming to boost £90,000 to assist this Unit, serving to to supply the rangers and mules with the tools they should stay secure and efficient as they goal to succeed in the areas the place rhinos are most weak.
Because of beneficiant match donors, between 3 and 10 December, each donation made to the Mule Patrol Unit enchantment will likely be doubled. So, once you give £10, it should grow to be £20! Please stand with us subsequent week as we increase funding for this necessary Unit and their continued work.
Thanks on your ongoing assist for rhinos.