Water4Wildlife: Community Rhino Conservation Initiative: A model for community-based conservation & development: Q2 2024 Progress Report Summary
Rhinos with villagers
Photo: Community Rhino Conservation Initiative
Since the last project update at the end of March 2024, CRCI has made several important developments and strides. Here are the most significant ones:
1. We have done extensive community surveys in villages further afield to find out about their ongoing challenges, evaluate their knowledge about CRCI and its potential benefits, and gauge their interest and appetite for engaging in CRCI. These surveys were very valuable in helping us raise awareness of the Initiative and establish where our priorities need to be when developing its next phase and “community rhino sanctuary 3” in the next set of villages. The surveys also highlighted the need to bring community members from the villages constituting what would be sanctuary 3 to our rhino sanctuary 1 at Ngamo where we have rhinos and tourism and where the benefits of the Initiative to the local communities are obvious. We have had over 100 villagers travel from +40km to meet our two rhino at the Ngamo sanctuary 1 and hear from the local people there. It was a huge success.
2. Given point 1 above, we are ready to expand and start establishing our third community rhino sanctuary in villages even further afield! This is fantastic news but will require some serious infrastructural developments: new wildlife-proof fencing alone will cost at least US $50,000, a new scouts’ camp will be needed, new water wells drilled to ensure sufficient water for rhinos, scrub clearing and habitat management will need to be carried out to open up grazing land for rhinos etc. Logistics and fundraising will not be easy but the prospects of expanding this Initiative into areas where people have a very negative attitude towards wildlife and bear enormous burdens from human-wildlife conflicts…to benefit them and help them better appreciate and feel the value of conservation are incredibly motivating.
3. Our permits to bring rhinos from the Malilangwe Trust to our second community rhino at Mlevu have been officially approved! We are working towards translocating the rhino, with a convoy of vets, National Park representatives, scouts, police, traditional leaders, and ecologists … in September 2024…watch this space!
4. We have increased interest from National Parks to include park land in CRCI and open up a much larger portion of available land for a viable population of rhinos. This is again a very positive step in the right direction, but will incur significant costs that we need to be able to manage. How CRCI is unfolding and its reach and impacts are proving much more impressive than we could ever have hoped!
5. We have purchased over 11 tonnes of lucerne/alfalfa to ensure our rhinos are fed throughout this drought in case our natural vegetation is not sufficient- it is going to have unprecedented impacts on wildlife and people and we are doing everything we can to alleviate these (including pumping water for wildlife, drilling, equipping, flushing and repairing water wells for people, establishing community vegetable gardens …).
6. 22 May 2024 marked 2 years since our first two rhinos, Thuza and Kusasa, arrived at Ngamo! This was a great celebration of everything accomplished since then.
7. Thuza and Kusasa, the Initiative’s first two rhinos are doing very well, to the delight of guests from around the world and local people. Thuza has had an eye infection that was very swiftly treated. His eyes bulge more than the average rhino’s and so he is more vulnerable to grass and seeds getting into his eyes when he is grazing. He was very well taken care of and is flourishing!
Next steps:
Get two more rhino bulls into Mlevu Sanctuary 2 from the Malilangwe Trust. The translocation and its logistics will involve many stakeholders and a lot of organization and will take up some time and resources during July and August- in line with the timeline submitted. The website and a communications plan will also be put in place to capitalize on this event and turn it into an opportunity to continue sharing our story! Any ideas from the ATCF and its network (or help to do this) would be very much appreciated.
Purchase another vehicle and promote another 4 scouts in preparation for the new rhino arriving. Scout training will be ongoing as always to ensure we are as ready as possible - in line with the timeline submitted.
Land allocation for sanctuary 3. We will work with the communities to agree on how much and which land they want to allocate to Sanctuary 3 - a new development.
Progress with a formal agreement with National Park regarding park land being a part of CRCI - a new development.
Rhinos with guests
Photo: Community Rhino Conservation Initiative
Vet intervention with Thuza’s eye
Photo: Community Rhino Conservation Initiative
