World Rhino Day – 22 September – is the 265th day of 2023 and we’ve already lost over 231 rhinos to pointless, senseless, brutal poaching this year in South Africa, alone. That number brings to 10 017 the number of rhinos that have been poached in the country since 2008.
We may have lost over 10 000 of these magnificent creatures to poaching – but we should focus our energies on the 12 968 white rhinos and 2 056 black rhinos still alive in South Africa today, along with the greater one-horned, Sumatran and Javan rhinos in Asia. That’s exactly the aim of the MyPlanet Rhino Fund – a beneficiary of the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet program.
The MyPlanet Rhino Fund was established in 2011 and has funneled over R25 million in support, via over 50 000 Supporters’ card swipes, to fund best practice initiatives in rhino protection and conservation. The fund supports organisations dealing with rhino security, securing populations, equipment, technologies, training, detection, and management of rhino populations.
World Rhino Day is an international observance celebrated on September 22 every year. Inaugurated by WWF South Africa in 2010, World Rhino Day’s purpose is to raise awareness of the need to protect the five existing species of rhinoceros – where 500 000 rhinos once roamed in Asia and Africa at the start of the 20th century, the global population now numbers less than 27 000.
Rhinos have been around since creation and their evolution has seen them shape the landscape in which they live. The white rhino’s extensive grazing habits have helped to define the African savanna and rhinos remain a popular sighting for tourists and an important ecotourism drawcard, which, in turn, benefits local communities whose lives and livelihoods depend on the tourist industry.
“We need to protect rhinos for future generations, but also for the future of our environment,” says MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet General Manager, Pieter Twine. “Rhinos are an integral part of our ecosystems and our heritage and, as much as World Rhino Day is there to raise awareness of their plight, it’s vital that we continue to work every day – with every swipe – to combat the serious threats which they face. Our Supporters are passionate about protecting, nurturing and bettering people, the planet and animals’ circumstances and it’s their card swipes which allow us to play a role in supporting vital conservation work like this”.
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