Our support for rhino and community-based conservation projects
 

The funds we raise are used to support projects that address rhino conservation through a number of measures:

• Community conservation programmes that develop sustainable methods by which local communities can creatively manage natural resources
• Environmental education programmes that teach children and adults about the importance of preserving natural resources and address human-wildlife conflict issues
• Anti-poaching and monitoring patrols, which detect and deter poachers and gather information about rhino ranges and numbers
• Translocations, so that rhinos from established populations can be reintroduced to former habitats
• Research, for example into the threats to rhino survival and alternatives to the use of rhino horn
• Veterinary work, such as the implanting of transmitters into horns, or removal of snares

SRI has historically focused on black rhino projects in Africa, although for many years SRI has also supported the Northern white rhino in DRC and most recently Southern white rhino projects in Uganda and South Africa. Since 2002 SRI has funded Sumatran rhino projects in Indonesia and Malaysia, and since 2006 SRI has helped fund a major strategy aimed at the recovery of the Greater one-horned (Indian) rhino.

SRI also focuses on people-based projects (environmental education and community conservation programmes) in key rhino areas, allocating between 21% and 45% of our funding to such programmes each year.

Our approach

• We employ a pragmatic approach focused on viable populations, and are not sentiment-driven
• We support the sustainable use of natural resources for the mutual benefit of wildlife, habitat and local communities
• We do not create or run our own projects in the field; rather, we find rhino conservation projects that we think are doing a good job, and then fund them
• We prefer to work with projects on a long-term basis, rather than making one-off or ad hoc grants
• SRI is a fundraising organisation, not a campaigning one: we do not get involved in political lobbying or petitioning
• We believe in the value of partnership working with other in situ and ex situ NGOs and conservation organisations