Zimbabwean Conservationist Seeks to Protect Black Rhinos
Goldman Environmental Foundation recognizes efforts of Raoul Du Toit
Jackson Mvunganyi May 27, 2011
Zimbabwe has one of the largest populations of black rhinos in the world.But
conservationists say their numbers are declining, mostly because of man-made
problems, including poaching and human encroachment, as people look for new
land to farm. Every year hundreds of rhinos are killed for their horns,
which are sold for medicinal purposes in markets as far away as Asia.
The Goldman Environmental Prize recently went to Raoul Du Toit, coordinator
of the African Rhino Program at the Florida-based International Rhino
Foundation and one of a small number of conservationists working to preserve
the animals. The Goldman Environmental Prize is awarded to those working at
the grassroots level to protect and enhance the environment.
Rhinos are victims to poachers who are more active because of the decline in
law enforcement in the conservation areas, said Du Toit. He attributes the
situation in Zimbabwe to a lack of resources and political and economic
turmoil.
Animal-human competition
Black rhinos are also threatened by competition from the relocation of
people into conservation areas in search of land for growing food crops.
“There has been a kind of haphazard and disorganized settlement going on,”
he explained, “where there is potential for major livestock problems with
disease transmission from wildlife to livestock….”
Human settlements are driven by economics and by politics. Du Toit said the
Zimbabwean government’s fast track land resettlement program has led to an
expansion of subsistence farming in the rhinos’ wild habitat.
He said the program “was not adopted in a way that incorporates wildlife
land reform adequately.”
Du Toit dismissed the claim by some that a decline in wildlife is natural as
animals compete with humans for land and that the animals will adapt and
survive.
“A lot of wildlife has been lost in Zimbabwe in areas that are settled,” he
said, pointing to the reduction of “big animals like elephants and rhinos.”
“Big game cannot live around farms and gardens, because they will ultimately
overrun it” and be killed by the community, which can also sell their horns.
The way forward
Du Toit mentioned some of the practical efforts. Rhinos have been moved to
areas in southern Zimbabwe where cattle ranches have been converted into
wildlife conservancies that protect and breed animals.
Help has also come from the private sector, which Du Toit said is seeking
government partnerships and engagement with local communities. The ultimate
goal, he said, is to sensitize people about the need to preserve the rhino
population.
Economic incentives can provide income and local employment, like tourist
lodges owned by the community. Du Toit said he is far from advocating that
every square kilometer in Zimbabwe be given to wildlife. “There should be
crop production…livestock production…mining…but what we want,” he said, is a
better “approach towards fitting together these uses within the landscape.”
What’s needed, he said, is a greater efficiency in resource use and more
technical support, combined with what he called more rational government
policies.