Water4Wildlife: Community Rhino Conservation Initiative: A model for community-based conservation & development: Q1 2024 Progress Report Summary
Honorable Minister opens CRCI
Photo: Community Rhino Initiative
The project has seen significant successes, particularly at the Ngamo community rhino sanctuary, with ongoing training of Cobras CWPU scouts, rhino behavior monitoring, scrub clearing, and community education, resulting in over 850 school visits and increased revenue for local communities. Notably, CRCI's efforts have created a human-wildlife conflict buffer and facilitated numerous guest visits. New achievements include growing community engagement, successful establishment of a K9 unit, and no supplementary feeding needed for rhinos since September 2022. At the Mlevu sanctuary, accomplishments include training new scouts, electrifying conflict fences, drilling boreholes, establishing a scout camp, and initiating habitat management. These efforts have garnered recognition from the Minister of Environment, Climate, and Wildlife, highlighting the project's substantial progress.
Next steps:
Continue planning for a rhino translocation to Community Rhino Sanctuary 2 at Mlevu in September
Continue with developments and conversations about Sanctuary 3
Continue training Cobras and K9 unit
Continue to increase community engagement
Luther and Ragnar
Photo: Community Rhino Conservation Initiative
Building slabs for Mlevu Sanctuary 2
Photo: Community Rhino Conservation Initiative
