Black Rock Rhino Conservation's
MISSION
Our objective is to save all rhino species from extinction, and to breed them back to healthy populations. Our work comprises two key thrusts
Conservation & Policy
Conservation
We protect several hundred rhino on many thousands of acres of wild African land. Because our land is vigorously protected, and just as vigorously kept wild, we serve as home to over a dozen leopards, hundreds, if not thousands of pangolin, and healthy and growing populations of key Southern African species like giraffe, zebra, kudu, waterbuck, nyala, and more.
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Most importantly, our rhino population is doubling every four years.
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Such growth is only possible because we have a high proportion of females in healthy breeding condition, and we work incredibly hard to ensure that rhino in our care remain happy, stress-free, and provided with everything they need. Population growth at this rate proves that we can save rhino from extinction. And our operation is not alone.
Across South Africa, dedicated families like ours continue to put everything they have into providing rhino with the safe habitat they need to thrive, and these families are succeeding. While rhino numbers in government-managed reserves have plummeted by 90% in the past 10 years, the families who keep rhino safe on private reserves have more than tripled their rhino populations - growing the 3,000 rhino they protected 10 years ago into an estimated 10,500 rhino today.
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If we can continue this good work, in another 10 years, South Africa will have over 20,000 white rhino roaming free and wild, even if government loses all of the 2,000 rhino still in its care. If government accepts the help of private conservationists and adopts the same practices, the total number of white rhino in South Africa in ten years time could be closer to 26,000. That is more white rhino (Ceratotherium simum simum) than have existed on Earth in over 150 years.
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To learn more about the work being done to reverse the decline in rhino populations, click here.
Policy
Our background is not in conservation, but rather in the intersection of law, economics, and strategy. Our most natural contribution to rhino conservation thus lies in the policy space, and that is where we have focused our efforts.
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We lead the Rhino Working Group for the Wildlife Ranchers of South Africa - an organisation that represents the majority of rhino owners, and the vast bulk of the rhino population under private care. We are also active in the Limpopo Rhino Conservation group, and as coordinators of an informal alliance of the largest of the private rhino conservation operations.
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In this capacity, we engage with governments throughout Southern Africa, and have served as the legal advisors to two former Secretaries General of CITES (the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species - the key international body with regard to regulation of wildlife trade).
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We are passionate advocates of the immediate launch of legal trade in ethically trimmed rhino horn, to stop the poaching, save the rhino, give consumers of horn the opportunity to keep animals alive and wild, rather than contributing to their death, and shift the revenues of horn sales away from criminal syndicates and into the hands of conservationists and government.
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To find out more about our work, and our perspectives, in the policy arena, please click here.
For an overview of our operation and policy advocacy, watch this video.