22/08/2013
Supporting the WWF and our rhino's
During the last few years South Africa has experienced an alarming increase in rhino poaching, triggered by the illegal demand for rhino horn. The brutal rhino horn trade is run by well-resourced, sophisticated, international criminal syndicates. If WWF and its partners had not been investing in Rhino conservation over the past several decades, the situation could have been far worse.
In Vietnam, which is currently the world’s main destination for poached rhino horn, WWF have undertaken the first detailed survey into rhino horn consumption to help us understand shy people are buying it. This enables the organisation to design targeted and effective campaigns to reduce demand.
WWF encourages governmental co-operation between South Africa and transit and consumer countries in order to combat trafficking of rhino horn. In a significant first step, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in December 2012 between South Africa and Vietnam aimed at strengthening biodiversity conservation and law enforcement.
WWF provides support to RHODIS, the rhino DNA database, which is a powerful new tool in the laiw-enforcement arsenal. It has already resulted in significant increases in arrests, prosecutions and sentences of rhino criminals.
WWF’s Black Rhino Expansion Programme aims to increase numbers of the critically endangered black rhino by increasing the land available on which they can breed. Since 2003 eight new black rhino populations have been created on private and community-owned land within South Africa. The organisation also supports rhino rangers with vital equipment like radios, motorbikes and light aircraft.
Kopbeenskloof Night Trail Run helps support WWF-SA and its Rhino Conservation Work. By supporting WWF’s rhino work, we help to stop the criminal elements plundering our national heritage and endangering a global asset. Together, we can help keep Africa’s iconic rhino alive.
Everybody can add their suppport to the contribution that will be made by participants at the 2013 Night Trail Run — click on this link: https://www.givengain.com/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=donate&cause_id=1698&custom=1