The 1990s: Cautious Optimism
During the 1990s, WWF has played an important role in many pioneering approaches to rhino conservation, including the development of radio-telemetry systems for monitoring, further dehorning of rhinos as a deterrent to poaching, and the re-establishment of locally extinct rhino populations. It has also redirected its focus to the two most important African rhino range states - South Africa and Namibia.
Over 80 per cent of Africa's black and white rhinos live in South Africa. This, together with the country's clear commitment to rhino conservation, has justified WWF's increased investment there since 1993. Equipment donated by WWF allows 24-hour surveillance of the critical rhino populations of Umfolozi and Hluhluwe game reserves, the country's two main source populations for the stocking of rhinos on private properties and state lands. WWF has also supported a thorough survey of all southern white rhinos currently on private properties in South Africa, now accounting for 20 per cent of the world's free-ranging population.
Throughout the 1990s, WWF also provided substantial support to Namibia's rhino conservation efforts. To secure what is the largest single population of black rhinos remaining on the continent, equipment and funds for ground and air surveillance have been made available to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism for work in Etosha National Park. Efforts have also focused on protecting the "desert-adapted" subspecies, Diceros bicornis bicornis, the majority of which survive only in Namibia. WWF believes that rhino conservation and management in Namibia has also benefited from ongoing efforts to ensure that the rural communities that share their land with these animals obtain direct and sustainable benefits from wildlife-based tourism.
WWF continues its long-standing support to the conservation and management of rhinos in other countries, particularly Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania. In Kenya, WWF has helped the Kenya Wildlife Service develop and implement its black rhino meta-population2 management strategy. Technical support and equipment provided by WWF has contributed to the establishment and running of three privately run conservancies in Zimbabwe. In Tanzania, WWF has facilitated the recruitment of a national rhino coordinator and funded a detailed survey of the remaining black rhinos in Selous Game Reserve.
Throughout the decade, TRAFFIC's investigations of trade in African rhino horn focused on local market surveys in consuming countries, as well as facilitating workshops for traditional medicinal practitioners, particularly in East Asia. In Africa, TRAFFIC's East and Southern African programme has also tackled illegal trade in wildlife products, including rhino horn. This has included technical support to several governments in the region to establish specialized wildlife intelligence units, and a new project on rhino stock control.
In 1994, WWF set up an African Rhino Conservation Fund to receive donations with which to provide rapid support for strategic, catalytic or emergency actions. This has proven an efficient means for providing funds to areas where they are needed most. Since 1990, WWF has spent in excess of CHF16 million on projects to conserve Africa's rhinos.
While the fate of rhinos in countries such as Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and Tanzania hangs in the balance, the mid- to late-1990s have signalled a changing tide for Africa's rhinos as poaching has notably declined. Overall, rhinos have responded favourably to consolidation in carefully managed and intensively protected areas, with some populations stabilizing and others increasing. Today, 98 per cent of Africa's remaining 11,000 rhinos occur in Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. These four countries, together with Garamba National Park, have been the focus of significant WWF support over the years.
2 A species whose range is composed of more-or-less geographically isolated patches, interconnected through patterns of gene flow, extinction and recolonization is said to form a meta-population, or population of subpopulations.