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The potential extinction of a species as important as the black rhino in this day and age is indeed deplorable. How have we, of this age and generation, allowed this to happen?
It has been suggested that the world`s rhino population is endangered because evolution overtook them; because they could not compete with cattle, antelope, and other comparative newcomers. Not so!
In their history, which stretches back 50 million years, rhinos have been the most varied and versatile of all the large mammals, and have dominated a vast area of ecosystems. Until recent centuries, and even in the last century, each of the remaining five species have roamed over huge areas in their hundreds of thousands.
They have become rare not because they are unable to compete but because they have been shot!
When the shooting stops, rhino CAN recover, even, sometimes when extinction has seemed inevitable. Yet there is no room for complacency. Huge co-ordinated efforts are needed - biological, diplomatic, judicial, financial and even military - if the rhinos are to be saved. But they have shown themselves to be such resilient creatures that salvation must be considered possible. Broad principles of modern conservation must apply to them, and to all other large vertebrates.
 Both the African species, the black and the white rhino, are threatened in the medium by Africa`s rising human population; but neither has yet run out of habitat.
Rhino, like so many of the megavertebrates, are species that vanish well before their habitat disappears. It is poaching that endangers them and is the principal immediate threat for all rhinos.
Namibia as the youngest independent country in Africa, faces many budgetary and developmental challenges but has committed itself to conservation in its constitution. Conservation areas extend over 14.5% (99 616KM sq in 1999) of Namibia`s total surface area. Smuggling of illegal animal products such as rhino horn and ivory continue to use Namibia as a route and illegal hunting is expected to increase as a result of economic pressure, drought and the drastic decline in Zimbabwe`s rhino population.
The land issue is central to the problems being experienced, including increasing demands for farming lands. The rhino in Namibia will not be able to enjoy a secure future unless the land issue is resolved quickly and effectively. Government policy includes the establishment of new populations in parks and reserves as well as the possibility of transferring individuals to private lands for safekeeping.
 Budgetary cuts in Governmental financing for the department of Nature conservation and research further limited the possibility of regular and efficient patrolling government officials in the areas which have no formal conservation status. Understandable, government funding has been ploughed into existing parks and formal conservation areas. The monitoring and controlling of the black rhino population, the only free-ranging population left in the world, has allowed the population to expand and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has identified the population as the fastest growing in Africa.
SRT operates in remote and sparsely populated Damaraland, a region of limited resources and virtually no employment opportunities. SRT believes that the rhino will only be saved if the local people are involved, see direct benefits from its preservation, and to understand that this requires conservation of an Eco-system upon which they themselves may ultimately depend.
We need your support - the rhino needs your support!
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