Proceeds from white rhino hunt will help ‘calm’ community members

The Mduku community, which was this month paid R960000 for a white rhino hunt, said some of the money would be used to "calm" members who were angry they had not yet benefited from the reserve’s existence.

SUE BLAINE

Published:2012/01/06 08:28:26 AM

THE Mduku community, which was this month paid R960000 for a white rhino hunt, said some of the money would be used to "calm" members who were angry they had not yet benefited from the reserve’s existence.

News of the hunt has caused a furore in SA, where more than 440 rhinos were killed by poachers last year, up from 333 in 2010 and markedly up from 2007’s 13. Simon Bloch, a representative of Outraged South African Citizens Against Poaching, highlighted the online hunt bidding process at the weekend and warned that the wildlife protection authority’s move sent the wrong message to the world.

John Mathenjwa, chairman of the Makhasa Community Game Reserve, which is co-run by the community and Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife, said the community had never benefited directly from funds raised by the reserve and this was resented by some community members, "who (had) even contemplated poaching the animals".

Some of the money raised would be spent on building markets for the community to trade with tourists and more on improving the security around the reserve. Funds would also be used to "address certain educational and health needs of our community, like improving the conditions of our local schools (and) clinic and extending our creche and other facilities", he said.

"I have read the articles (on the hunt) and I think that certain animal rights groups are blowing things out of proportion. Ezemvelo is an authority responsible for nature conservation and they would not agreed to facilitate our hunting tender if they thought that there was something troublesome with the request.

"Hunting has been used before to raise funds which were used to improve the security around our reserve and assist us to implement certain projects within the reserve. Our reserve would be history today if it had not raised funds to sustain itself."

Between 45 and 70 white rhino had been legally hunted in SA over the past few years, and the money raised was put back into conservation, said Mike Knight, chairman of the Southern African Development Community rhino management group and of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s rhino specialist group. "We have no problem with the sustainable use of wildlife. Because of hunting, rhino have been brought onto private land. Hunting has brought 1-million hectares under conservation (in SA)," Dr Knight said.

SA is home to almost 90% of the world’s estimated 22800 rhinos. The animals are under unprecedented attack linked to increased demand thought to be sparked by increased affluence in the east, where there is a mistaken impression that the horn has medicinal properties.