In Rhino We Trust by Dave Butler

Author:Dave Butler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2019-09-28T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

JULY 26

The sun was on its downward slide toward the horizon, and cicadas filled the air with their tinny calls as Danny Trang and Carolina Musso sat in the shade of the porch outside the Klip River Lodge dining room. Glasses of water sweated on the wooden table between them, leaving circles in the dark wood. Guests splashed in the pool below, ignoring a pair of swallows intermittently using it as a drinking fountain. Trang couldn’t keep his eyes off the view to the west, the deep gorge of the Klip River. He’d arrived at the lodge late last night and had found himself staring westward ever since first light. He knew that one of the dramatic images he’d captured on his camera as the sun first came up would be front and centre in his article for Outside magazine.

“I’ve read the annual reports,” Trang said to Musso, “and there’s plenty of great background there. Thanks for sharing those.” He pointed to the stack of State of Community Conservation in Namibia reports at his elbow, each of them heavily marked with sticky notes. “What I want to focus on in my article is the link between the conservancies and Save the Rhino Trust Namibia in the context of rhino conservation. It seems like a fascinating story that needs to be told.”

“I agree, Danny.” Musso’s red hair glowed in the afternoon sun.

“Where would you like to start?” Trang asked.

Musso leaned back in her seat and stared out into the distance. Trang could see the passion and determination in her eyes and in the set of her jaw.

“In short,” she said, “it’s a story about finding innovative and outside-the-box ways to get people to care about rhinos. And by people, I don’t just mean Namibians. I mean people across the globe. At the local level, we’re finding ways for people to benefit from having the rhinos around — employment, diverse income opportunities, being able to stay here rather than move to the larger cities, support for elders, new water sources, new schools, the ability to practise traditional agriculture … the list goes on. Beyond that, it’s helping them see that everyone in the community is moving further ahead.”

“Is it working?”

“We have lots of challenges, but it is. Rhino poaching has dropped dramatically, and we see young people attending local schools, rhino rangers taking pride in their work and what they bring home to their families, and local farmers being compensated when their crops are damaged by elephants or when they lose a goat or a cow to a lion.”

“So, this is not just about rhino biology, then.”

“Far from it. It’s as much psychology, governance, and economics as it is biology. I’ve had to become more multidisciplinary in my approach than I was when I first got here.”

“And what about the international level?”

“There are two sides to that coin. On the one side, we have international aid and conservation organizations providing us with significant funds for social and conservation programs, because this community conservancy model is so unique and so successful.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.