Give a  Gift that actually means something #JustOneRhino.

Too often, people buy one another gifts that really have no meaning and are quickly assigned to the back of the cupboard or to the re-gifting pile. This year we are giving a gift that matters to family and friends.

For as little as little as $20 we will be making a difference in stopping the poaching of rhinos for their horns in Africa. #JustOneRhino aims to help save at least one rhino by helping to move them out of the danger zone of the poachers. To aid our efforts and the efforts of countless others,  from royalty to National Geographic, many sponsors have come on board to offer prizes for people who donate. The significance of these prizes shows how very vital this is.

Why us?

We have joined with 150 fellow travel writers, Travelers Building Change, which is a non-profit group to raise awareness and funds in the #JustOneRhino campaign. Travel writers and travel bloggers are very influential, and bringing issues to people we do not come with an agenda. Yes we want to show you the latest places to go, and if there are no animals in Africa if poaching continues, then you can take that vast continent of your list. We also believe that responsible travel and standing up for something that is just wrong is what we must do.

#JustOneRhino is among the largest Collaborative Travel Blogger Efforts ever assembled to bring awareness to the #JustOneRhino campaign and was co-ordinated by Bret and Mary of Green Global Travel.

Photo courtesy Susan Portnoy_The Insatiable Traveler

Why are people hunting the rhino?

It is awful, but the rhino horn is coveted in many Asian countries for its medical uses and because it makes a person more sexually active. Demand is being driven by the market in Asia, which believes powdered rhino horn can cure ailments including cancers – despite no scientific evidence to back this up.

That is a lot of animal being killed for a very small piece of its body.

Rhinos in South Africa are being killed at an alarming rate of one every 7 hours so the horns can be ripped off and sold. However, there is no proven evidence medically or otherwise that the rhino horn has these properties that makes them so wanted. Regardless if there was, it is wrong on every level.

Unfortunately, it is something that as the rich are getting richer, particularly in China, the demand for the rhino horn is increasing. Game hunters take no consideration whatsoever in the fact that they are assisting to rapidly make the rhino extinct.

Even baby Rhinos are being killed now for the nub where the horn will form, and for their mucous.

The rhino horn sell for about #65,000 per kilo

Many of you may have heard Prince William recently say that the illegal trade in rhino horn was “ignorant, selfish and utterly wrong”. He is right. Like his late mother Princess Diana, he is an active conservationist and preservationist, and this issue has him angry, with good reason.

This has become such an issue that the South Africa Department of Environmental Affairs indicates that rhino poaching stats have risen by more than 300% in the last four years. It has gone from 333 in 2010 to more than 1020 animals in 2014.

 

This is putting the rhino close to extinction because people want its horn.

With the poaching if elephants and lions, the rhino will be yet another animal that our children and grandchildren will not get to see unless we all help in this cause.

Photo courtesy Susan Portnoy_The Insatiable Traveler-2

The solution #JustOneRhino

It would be nice to say that poaching should be globally outlawed and it should, but quite simply the rhinos need to be relocated to an area that is not so geographically easy for poachers to get to, and to get the rhino horn out off. 80% of the wild rhinos live in South Africa, mostly within the Kruger National Park – a vast expansive area where poachers are rife, and the government does not overly enforce any rules.

National Geographic Explorers In Residence, acclaimed wildlife photographers/filmmakers, and wildlife conservation advocates Dereck and Beverly Joubert are working to save the Rhinos, by translocating 100 of them from South Africa to Botswana in 2015. This is called Rhinos without borders and will help to protect them from the tragic rise in this insidious poaching. It’s an extremely expensive project, with costs estimated to range around the $5 million mark.

Botswana is a less easy place for the poachers as it has wide-open spaces, a lot more security and no easy access to ports. Botswana is a virtually corruption-free country, and these large wild reserves make it really difficult to access the coveted horn.

This may not totally stop the poaching but with a much more supportive government it will be a lot more difficult to do. However, every cent that can be put toward this campaign can be put towards moving the rhinos to a safer environment and raising people and government awareness of the need to protect the rhino.

Flow on effects

Many people go to Africa to see the elephants, the lions and the tigers and the rhinos. With such rampant poaching, many of these countries in Africa will lose prime tourism –  one of their biggest assets.

With an ecomomy dependent on tourism this will plunge an already beleaguered country into further dire condtions.

photo by Bret Love_Green Global Travel-3

 

How we and you can help

By making a donation to Travelers Building Change

 

All donations also receive a free origami rhino and a set of 12 rhino wallpapers by National Geographic photographer Beverly Joubert.

 

You will also go into the draw to win some amazing prizes like:

 

outside-my-front-door

 

 

Further information about this issue of #JustOneRhino.

Rhinos Without Borders Executive Summary: 

National Geographic Story on RWB

Interview With Rhinos Without Borders Founder Dereck Joubert

Telegraph UK Story: Time Is Running Out To Save the Rhinos

Conservation Magazine Story: What Will Happen When the Rhinos Are Gone?

 

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