The largest rhinoceros farm in the world, set up in South Africa by a millionaire with the ambitious project of saving the species from poaching but who had been struggling for months to find a buyer, was finally bought by an NGO.
African Parks, an organization to which Prince Harry is linked and which manages around twenty protected parks on the continent, announced on Monday, September 4, to be the new owner of the 7,800 hectares of land located less than 200 km to the south-west. Johannesburg and the 2,000 white rhinos they contain, representing 15% of the species’ global population. “African Parks has become the new owner of Platinum Rhino, the largest private captive rhino breeding company in the world,” the NGO said in a statement.
Wealthy businessman John Hume, 81, opened the farm in 2009. Burdened by the exorbitant costs of his vast project, he put his property up for auction in April, saying he was looking for another “millionaire” to take over. raises. “Rhinoceros breeding is an expensive hobby,” the breeder conceded in an interview with AFP before the sale, adding that he had “run out of money”. Hume, who did not respond to a request for comment on Monday, said he spent a total of $150 million on saving the large mammal.
“No offers have been received, putting these rhinos at great risk of poaching,” African Parks said. The organization’s CEO, Peter Fearnhead, quoted in the statement, said he had a “moral obligation to find a solution for these declining wild animals”, even though he originally “never had the intention to own a captive rhino breeding business”. The NGO, which did not specify the amount disbursed, received support from the South African government and conservation bodies, as well as financial assistance for the buyout.
Less than 13,000 specimens
South Africa is home to almost 80% of the world’s white rhino population, estimated today at less than 13,000 individuals. The country has become a poaching hotspot, driven by demand from Asia, where keratin horns (the same substance as human fingernails or hair) are used in traditional medicine for their purported therapeutic or aphrodisiac effects.
In 2022, 448 rhinos were killed in the country, according to the government, despite tightened anti-poaching measures in national parks. The horn thieves, whose price per kilo on the black market rivals the price of gold and reaches 60,000 dollars, have adapted their strategy and are now attacking private parks, which are more vulnerable.
South Africa’s Minister for Forests, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy, in the statement hailed an “important agreement”. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has applauded a “lifeline thrown to a near-threatened species”.
African Parks plans to reintroduce farmed rhinos into the wild over the next ten years, including relocating them to protected areas in Africa. “This is one of the largest species rewilding projects on the continent,” the NGO said, noting that the goal is to “reduce the risk to the species in the future and phase out to the breeding project”.
One of the strategies to fight against the massacre of rhinos is to preventively cut the coveted horns, which can then grow back. In South Africa, domestic trade in rhino horn is permitted – although controversial – but export is illegal. John Hume had organized an online sale of horns in 2017 to raise funds and finance conservation, provoking the indignation of the defenders of the environment.
