Rhino Monitoring, Botswana
2023 - Support the Rhino Monitoring in Botswana - Donation of USD 10'000
We are proud to announce that in the area where our monitoring takes place, no rhino has been poached in recent years whereas we saw a drastic decline in rhino numbers in other areas in Botswana over the same period.
Botswana revealed in February 2023 that it suffered a huge spike in rhino poaching during five years through 2022, translating to about a third of its population of the endangered species. In all, 138 rhinos were slaughtered from 2018 to 2022, Tourism minister Philda Kereng told parliament.
This compares to two rhinos poached in the preceding five years from 2012 to 2017, according to official figures. Statistics that Kereng presented to parliament showed killings suddenly rose to seven in 2018, before spiking to 30 the following year. In 2020 the killings rose sharply again to 62, then halved to 33 in 2021 before dropping to six in 2022.
Botswana does not publicly disclose its rhino population, but a document the government presented before the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Panama in 2022 showed there were an estimated 285 white rhinos and 23 black rhinos across the country.
We are proud of our rhino monitoring rangers who work tirelessly under very difficult conditions to secure the survival of the rhinos in Botswana.
More success stories related to this project
Our partner
Dereck & Beverly Joubert - Great Plains Foundation
Dereck and Beverly Joubert are globally recognized, award-winning filmmakers, conservationists, and National Geographic explorers-in-large based in Botswana. Their mission for more than 30 years has been the conservation of key wildlife species, with a focus on large predators. They are the owners of Great Plains Conservation, which operates some of the most beautiful camps in Botswana and Kenya. Through the Great Plains Foundation, various nature conservation projects are driven forward.
The Jouberts have published 12 books, produced 30 films for National Geographic, and written half a dozen scientific papers as well as many articles for National Geographic magazine. They have received 8 Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, a Grand Teton Award, multiple Golden Panda Awards, a World Ecology Award (along with Britain’s Prince Charles, Sylvia Earle, and paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey), and a Presidential Order of Merit awarded by Botswana’s ex-president, Seretse Khama Ian Khama, for their conservation work.
The Jouberts’ films have received widespread attention and have been viewed by millions of people. Films like «Eternal Enemies», «The Last Lions», «Soul of the Elephant» and their masterpiece «Eye of the Leopard» are known world-wide. For more information, please visit their website
www.wildlifefilms.co
All of Dereck & Beverly's work has one goal: to save the wild areas of Africa and protect the wildlife that depends on them. The President of Botswana described them aptly when he said, "Theirs is a life long passion; for each other, for big cats, for Africa...they are true "children of Africa."
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