Our first featured Wildlife Conservation Trust

Since a percentage of proceeds from the sales of AfricAnatomy products will be donated to Wildlife Conservation Trusts in Africa, I will, from time to time, be featuring some of the trusts.

Please let us know if you would like to nominate a trust for a donation by posting a comment or contacting us by email…

These Wildlife Conservation Trusts are hugely important in looking after the need to protect our wildlife heritage for the future. Individual Trusts range over a broad spectrum – from protecting specific endangered species, campaigning for the conservation of vital habitat areas (e.g. wetlands and breeding grounds), animal rehabilitation, education and community participation programmes, to anti-poaching measures, and more.

In this post I would like to introduce you to the Rhinose Foundation, who I collaborated with on my ‘Red Nose’ post in December… This is an excerpt from their website at www.rhinose.org

 

Only by ending the consumption of rhino horn will we end the slaughter...

 

EXTINCTION
Having walked the earth for millions of years the world’s five remaining rhino species are headed for extinction in the wild as the result of a recent myth arising in Vietnam in 2007 that rhino horn is a miracle cure for cancer.

Another myth has since taken hold where the wealthy elite believe that it rids the body and blood of toxins after a big night out, and it has now become a desirable social status symbol due to its extremely high price of around USD80,000 per kg.

The Rhino War is being lost because we keep focusing on the reactive physical war that has failed to defeat poaching on the ground, while ignoring the tried and tested proactive mental war for the hearts and minds of consumers that will…
END THE DEMAND

 

Rhino Horn Demand Reduction campaigns have worked in several countries between the 1970s and 1990s:

Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Yemen were all once major consumers of rhino horn, but no longer are thanks to the three-step strategy used:

1. Government-initiated medical research into the efficacy of rhino horn, which found that it had no medicinal benefits whatsoever and was no cure for anything.

2. This resulted in rhino horn being officially removed from the Traditional Medicine pharmacopoeia of each of these countries by their respective governments.

3. Government-driven Rhino Horn Demand Reduction (RHDR) campaigns launched and maintained until the consumption was effectively ended.

When driven by governments, Rhino Horn Demand Reduction campaigns have proved to be a massive success in every country they were applied.

The Vietnamese government has a responsibility to do the same if we are to win the Rhino War.

 

With thanks to Andrew Paterson, CEO of the Rhinose Foundation. Image courtesy of Clipart Kid.