Meet the Man Who Has Orchestrated The Donation of Over $8 Million to Rhino Conservation

President of Save African Rhino Foundation, Nicholas Duncan, shares with us his story of 30 years campaigning to raise funds for rhino conservation initiatives in Zimbabwe. During this time, Nicholas has seen the black rhino numbers increase from 3,500 in 1987 to 5,100 in 2017, to which Save African Rhino Foundation has played a large contribution.

Nicholas shares a personal moment with a hand reared orphan rhino whose parents were killed in a poaching incident at Imire in 2008. Image: Nicholas Duncan.

What’s your story?

In early June, 1987, I read an article saying that Africa’s black rhino numbers had decreased from 65,000 in 1972 down to only 3,500 in 1987, a 96% decrease! At the time I was in my early forties and doing quite well as a small businessman, had a massive love of animals and was open to new challenges. Three days later I was co founder of Save African Rhino Foundation and have proudly been its President for the last 28 years. We have raised and donated more than $8 million of equipment, kit and vital supplies into the field, particularly to the 12 rhino projects of Zimbabwe, plus NW Namibia and the Mozambique frontier with Kruger. We are wary of paying money out in the hope that it may be used correctly. We are a totally voluntary organisation and we all pay all of our own expenses in regularly visiting Zimbabwe.

The original Newspaper cutting describing a talk that was held by Babette Alfieri. It was here that the Save African Rhino Foundation was formed. And now, 30 years later, they are one of the leading supporters of rhino conservation in Zimbabwe.

We raise our funds in four main ways: memberships, donations, safaris and our annual dinner/auction. The majority of our funding goes to two private conservancies in the SE Lowveld of Zimbabwe, an area that has 88% of the country’s rhinos, black and white. We have a most interesting five day Rhino Ranger Support Scheme which provides funding for a year for a ranger in the field.

Nicholas with David Pocock, Australian rugby union player and a patron of Save African Rhino Foundation. Image: Todd Back.

The reason for keeping on going for all these years is the clear objective of preserving and conserving a species that has been around for more than 40 million years and hence, can’t be allowed to disappear in the future. We do this on behalf of all mankind in order to sustain Nature as we know, love and respect it.

The most difficult thing working with rhinos

One of the hardest things to overcome is the simple fact that most people aren’t too bothered about the plight of the rhino other than to pay lip service to it. With the enormous wealth with the public it wouldn’t take too much for amazing amounts of capital to be raised that could go a long way towards preserving the species. But then there is cancer, heart disease and all sorts of human causes that attract far more attention and dollars. After all, we are all susceptible to suffering from one of these issues.

The carcass of a poached and mutilated white rhino is seen laying on the banks of a river at Kruger National Park, as forensic investigators arrive, on September 12, 2014. Image: Sibongile Khumalo

Your most memorable experience with rhinos?

My first lasting impression of seeing rhinos in the field was three years after the foundation was started, at Imire Game ranch, just outside Harare. They received seven rhino orphans from the rhino wars in the Zambezi Valley in 1987, and to meet them having a wallow in 1990 will always last in my memory. Since then, there have been all sorts of interactions, from kissing a few baby rhinos, bottle feeding them, being charged in the wild, tracking with expert rangers and generally enjoying watching my safari guests marvel at their ‘up close and personal rhino moments’.

Imire Game Ranch received 7 orphan rhinos after the rhino wars in Zambezi Valley in 1987. Nicholas cherished moments watching them wallow in the mud, after experiencing the tragic poaching that occurred it is reassuring to see them enjoying life in the wild. Image: Nicholas Duncan.

The changes we must see if poaching is to decrease

With the ridiculously high price of rhino horn, and reputed rewards of $10,000 per dead rhino being paid to a poaching gang of four, their sound protection is fraught with problems. Mobile phones now enable rangers to be tempted by the offer of $2,000 rewards from poachers for rhino location data. So there is an obvious need for maximum security status for any rhino population, in situ or ex situ, as there will always be opportunistic ratbags seeking to cash in on rhino horn. And the value of good intelligence should not be underestimated, nor the need to educate the surrounding communities on the value of wildlife.

At the other end of the overall picture is the need for horn demand reduction campaigns in Viet Nam and China. These should be more than mere educational programmes and should get to the heart of the matter, why the users are buying and how to change their mindsets for progress to be made in reducing the demand and usage. Such work is being carried out by www.breakingthebrand.org.

To have been involved in rhino conservation in such a big way for 30 years, and to have umpteen rangers and managers depend on us for their basic needs, and to see the black rhino numbers to have increased from 3,500 in 1987 to 5,100 in 2017, is indeed a great pleasure, but to know that three rhinos per day, mainly whites, are being slain in South Africa, is truly depressing, and gives me even more determination to crack on, expand our scope, and fight all the way to a successful conclusion, and we need everyone to come on board and not just to pay lip service and let others get on with it.

Nicholas enjoying some affection from a gentle black rhino. Image: Nicholas Duncan

If you would like more information about Save Africa Wildlife Foundation and how to get involved please see the below links:

www.savefoundation.org.au

Follow SAVE on Facebook: @SAVE.African.Rhino.Foundation