THE HISTORY OF SANWILD:
In 1989, a South African based
conservation organization, the Rhino & Elephant Foundation,
launched a fundraising campaign for black rhinos under the
name of Project Rhino. The campaign received considerable
media coverage and it caught the imagination and attention
of Louise Joubert, an account executive for a major
advertising agency in Cape Town. She contacted the Rhino &
Elephant Foundation and suggested that they run a telethon
to raise funds. This was an entirely new concept in
fundraising at the time, but Louise’s initiative and
dedication resulted in National Rhino Pledge Day on 29
October 1989.
The telethon, which was televised throughout the day, raised
R1.78 million and much of the funding was used to buy land
to extend the Addo Elephant National Park, which has a
significant population of black rhino. Funds were also used
to purchase much needed anti-poaching equipment and to
translocate black rhinos from danger zones.
Louise's brush with wildlife conservation and its
personalities throughout the run-up to Pledge Day changed
her life and in 1990, she decided to leave Cape Town and
leave her career behind and went to live in the Limpopo
Province in order to work with wild animals. However, she
inadvertently found herself involved in a component of a
then fledgling wildlife industry - game capture.
Over the ten years that followed, Louise saw many things
that did not sit well with her, but the game-and-wildlife
trade industry has a persuasive way of justifying its
activities and as Louise herself says, “If you silence your
conscience for long enough, it eventually stops speaking to
you”. It was especially the young un-weaned animals
suffering as a result of mass game relocation that prompted
her into action and she began taking in orphaned and injured
animals for hand raising - particularly plains game species
such as zebra, kudu and blue wildebeest. This one on one
close contact with young wild animals and the success of her
efforts to rehabilitate them to become independent,
free-ranging wild animals awoke her silenced conscience.
Louise became increasingly empathetic to the animals caught
up in South Africa’s wildlife industry and more and more she
became an outspoken critic of the industry’s unethical and
inhumane operators.
While still working for a game relocation company, she
started taking in orphaned and injured animals for hand
raising and veterinary care for which she paid privately.
Rescued animals were treated and hand raised on a small
21-hectare property. The intake of animals slowly increased
and also diversified to include all species of wild animals:
birds, small mammals, reptiles and smaller predators. There
was a great need for a formal rehabilitation centre and
emergency response when wild animals found themselves in
trouble.
One of the biggest challenges facing the small centre was a
desperate need for a safe and protected release area.
National Parks and Provincial Game Reserves were simply not
interested in taking in rehabilitated or hand raised animals
for release. This left Louise with only one option:
privately owned game farms. Sadly, many of the privately
owned game farms are being used a hunting farms and this
most definitely did not present a safe option as a release
site.
In a bold attempt in 1998 to secure the animals’ future that
she had already saved, Louise signed a lease contract for a
960-hectare piece of land with the option to purchase it at
a later stage. The small property on which the
rehabilitation centre started was sold and the funds used to
establish a small rehab centre on the larger property. In
2000, she founded the SanWild Wildlife Trust, a non-profit
organisation whose main objective would be to raise funds to
pay for the land, rescue injured and orphaned wild animals
and to secure the animals’ long-term welfare and safety. For
the first time in South African history, a wildlife reserve
was being established that belonged to the wild animals
themselves.


Although the new property, named
the SanWild Wildlife Sanctuary, could accommodate many more wild
animals, it was acknowledged by the SanWild trustees that it was
too small to be viable in the long term. Louise continued her
efforts to increase the size of the sanctuary while being
supported by the Board of Trustees.
Despite many failed efforts, perseverance finally paid off and
on the 1st July 2002 the deposit to purchase a terribly
neglected adjoining tomato farm was paid with a substantial
donation received from France in memory of Mr. Claude Detave.
Bulldozers moved in and the old cattle fences were removed. Work
to fence in the new land started within days. Once all fencing
was completed the fences between the two pieces of land could be
taken down and wild animals started traversing on both sections.
However before the animals could be allowed to move onto the new
land a professional team of environmentalists were contracted to
do relevant impact assessments and prepare full EIA’s in order
to assist the SanWild’s management team to address the bush
encroachment and soil erosion problems caused by previous
overgrazing with cattle and the agricultural farming activities.
Truckloads of rubbish consisting on old tomato wire, plastic
piping, discarded glass bottles, beer cans, and open pit
latrines had to be cleaned up and removed. More than 389 snares
were removed from a 20-hectare area adjoining the old tomato
fields. It was evident that this piece of land was particularly
abused and neglected and that the plants and animals had very
little protection indeed. Continued efforts to restore the land
to its original state are progressing well.
Early in 2006, the trust was asked
to help save a small herd of African elephants from an imminent
culling operation when the reserve in which the elephants lived
reverted back to farm land as a result of a number of successful
land claims. The elephants were no longer welcome here. To read
about this rescue
click here.
At the time SanWild the Murry
Foundation (UK) had purchased an adjoining property that was
incorporated into the SanWild Wildlife Sanctuary. When Adam
Murry defaulted on his bond installment with ABSA BANK, the
SanWild trustees who had signed personal surety for Mr. Murry’s
bond had to meet the yearly installment and the shares in the
company that purchased the land was transferred to SanWild.
The SanWild Wildlife Trust has no other beneficiaries other than
the wild animals themselves and ensure protection of the land
and the animals in perpetuity.
The Story of SanWild's logo Zebra - click SanWild below to
read more.
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