Since 2008, in the region of 10,000 rhinos have been poached in South Africa. Rhino horn is a highly sought after commodity in illegal wildlife trade and has a value higher than gold. On average one rhino is killed every eight hours, resulting in more rhinos being poached than are born in a year.
Rhinos Without Borders is a joint initiative between leading conservation tourism companies &Beyond and Great Plains Conservation, along with Africa Foundation. The project aims to translocate rhino from high-risk poaching areas in South Africa to the comparative safety of Botswana.
In 2013, to protect rhinos at high risk of poaching, 6 white rhino were translocated from &Beyond Phinda in KwaZulu Natal, RSA, to Botswana’s Okavango Delta, facilitated in partnership with Rhino Force, with support from the Botswana Rhino Management Committee and funded by Motorite Administrators.
Botswana was chosen as the recipient country to create new source populations due to its government’s commitment to ecological sustainability and the long-term success of rhino populations. A specially designed telemetry device was fitted to each rhino to actively monitor and research this population.
In preparation, Botswana game scouts received extensive training in tracking and monitoring at &Beyond Phinda in order to monitor the movement and behaviour of the rhino after their release. Chipembere Rhino Foundation provided some equipment, anti-poaching uniforms and binoculars.
Rhinos Without Borders was launched in 2014 as a collaboration between &Beyond and Great Plains Conservation with the aim of translocating a breeding population of 100 rhino to Botswana. Thanks to the immense generosity of many donors, 87 rhinos had been relocated by December 2019.
The source population of 87 rhino integrated successfully and is growing, with a number of births recorded in the Okavango. As a result of recent poaching activity in Botswana, the project has mobilised its full resources to protect these source populations and maintain the legacy of RWB.
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