EAZA Rhino Campaign grants
As a result of the success of the Campaign, we have been able to send out the following grants:
December 2008: We made the last of the grants from the EAZA Rhino Campaign, which eventually raised a staggering 662,922 euros (against an original target of 350,000 euros). The final £12.398 remaining went to the North Luangwa Conservation Project in Zambia, for its Conservation Education Programme. Zambia’s black rhinos were poached in the 1980s and the species became nationally extinct, but the NLCP’s re-introduction programme means that the rhinos have returned to Zambia. This grant covers about 50% of the costs for the coming year, so we’re now busy looking for other potential funders.
October 2008: We sent out almost the last EAZA Rhino Campaign grant: 70,000 euros to the International Rhino Foundation for the Rhino Protection Unit programme in Indonesia: specifically, for a new RPU team for Ujung Kulon National Park in Java, the establishment of an Intelligence and Law Enforcement Unit there, and for a survey to research possible disease transmission from livestock to the Javan rhinos. We’re delighted to be able to support Javan rhino conservation in this way.
September 2008: We sent 5,000 euros, thanks to a second grant by Stuttgart Zoo, to the International Rhino Foundation / Aaranyak, to help build a fence around the perimeter of Manas National Park in Assam, as part of Indian Rhino Vision 2020, to prevent the newly translocated rhinos from straying out of the Park. Thanks very much to Stuttgart Zoo for enabling us to make this grant.
May 2008: We gave a final £5,218 to ZSL for its Nepalese rhino conservation work in partnership with the
National Trust for Nature Conservation. Previous grants went towards bolstering the anti-poaching and monitoring effort in Bardia National Park, while this grant will support education and community awareness-raising activities. Our thanks to all the European zoos who made this grant possible.
March 2008: We granted a further £5,735 to the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) in Nepal, to pay for three outboard motors for the rafts previously bought. These rafts will greatly help improve access for the rangers to far corners of Bardia National Park and Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in their anti-poaching and monitoring patrols.
January 2008: We sent £9,179 to pay for anti-poaching and monitoring equipment for Bardia National Park in Nepal. Raj Amin and Richard Kock of the Zoological Society of London are working closely with the local NGO leading this project, the National Trust for Nature Conservation, and sourced 20 pairs of binoculars and 3 inflatable rafts, which are now being shipped to Nepal. Bardia only has one main camp, meaning that it's difficult to patrol the far side of the Park, and rangers need to be able to respond quickly to any emergency situations. These rafts will greatly improve access, while the binoculars will support the monitoring of the rhino population in Bardia.
December 2007: We are delighted to announce that we sent a grant of £10,575 to the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) in Nepal, formerly known as the King Mahendra Trust, for its work in Bardia National Park. Although the EAZA Rhino Campaign formally closed in October 2006, some zoos are still sending in donations, with the result that we had a surplus of around 100,000 euros, even having given out grants to the eight waiting list projects in addition to the original 13.
We analysed the Campaign's past support and concluded that since some two-thirds of the Campaign's funds had gone to African rhino projects, we would like to use the surplus to support Asian rhino projects. Nepalese NGOs had not featured at all on the original or waiting lists, largely because when we were choosing the beneficiary projects in June 2005, Nepal was in a state of considerable political turmoil. However, now, the situation has much improved, and the EAZA Rhino Campaign Core Group felt that we should address urgent anti-poaching needs.
We are therefore giving a total grant of £30,755 to pay for equipment to support the anti-poaching and monitoring teams in Bardia NP and Suklaphanta WR. This first transfer, of £10,575, will pay for the equipment that can be easily bought in Nepal (motorbikes, bicycles, torches, sleeping bags, mattresses, tents, rucksacks, cooking devices and waterbottles). The rest of the equipment (rafts, GPS, digital cameras, binoculars, battery chargers and memory cards) will be bought in the UK and then shipped out.
We are really pleased to be supporting rhino conservation in Nepal, the first time for the EAZA Rhino Campaign and for Save the Rhino.
October 2007: We awarded the second and final installment of £10,500 to the Sebakwe Black Rhino Trust for the Midlands Black Rhino Conservancy in Zimbabwe. Although poaching of the black rhinos has been a major problem there this year, there is still a worthwhile population that needs protecting, and these funds will pay for an increased anti-poaching presence.
September 2007: The EAZA Rhino Campaign has already sent £11,568 to the Chyulu Hills rhino programme in Kenya, to help pay for scouts' salaries, medical expenses, rations and transport. Now, the Campaign has also contributed £5,472 to a dung DNA project, that will study the genetic make-up of a small fragment remnant black rhino population that inhabits the Chyulu Hills in Southern Kenya to a) use the study as an advisory and guidance example for KWS to build capacity within this field b) determine the structure of this population for improved biological management. This research project is a collaboration between Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Liverpool and the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi. Funding has been provided by the EAZA Rhino Campaign, Chester Zoo, Amneville Zoo, the Kenya Wildlife Service, Manchester Metropolitan University and Save the Rhino International. Work began in October 2007 and the results are expected in April 2009.
September 2007: We also sent £20,400 to pay for research into black rhino nutrition: the role of plant digestibility, nutrients, minerals and secondary plant chemistry in black rhino diet selection, population performance and habitat carrying capacity. Comparisons of black rhino population performances across southern Africa during regional status reporting have highlighted the contrasting survival rates and breeding performance achieved in different populations. Habitat characteristics which determine vegetation structure and therefore diet quality are thought to contribute to these differences in most cases. The EAZA Rhino Campaign funding will complete the necessary work primarily in the western, lower rinfall areas of southern Africa (additional funding is being sought to complete the work in other areas. The researchers - Keryn Adcock, Jo Shaw and Kenneth Buk - will spend approximately two years on the project.
August 2007: We were able to award £15,425 to the Lowveld Conservancy rhino project in Zimbabwe to buy a new Toyota Landcruiser in order to strengthen the rhino monitoring units there. Despite the troubles in Zimbabwe, the Lowveld is still home to significant populations of rhino. The EAZA Rhino Campaign also supported the purchase last year of a new Fassi lifting crane for translocations in Zimbabwe, and the truck and crane are in great demand, moving rhino from unviable locations to safer ones.
August 2007: We paid the final £650 towards the cost of buying and shipping monitoring equipment to the Kenya Wildlife Service.
August 2007: And lastly, we sent £2,735 to the
Ministry of Environment and Tourism in Namibia from Opel Zoo's continued donations to the EAZA Rhino Campaign. The grant was used to buy spares and equipment for the specially adapted Landrover used by the MET's vets during rhino translocations.
July 2007: We sent £8,497, the second and final installment, for the new Massey Ferguson tractor that is being shipped as we write to the Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary in Tanzania. It's currently expected to arrive around 16 September but will take a while to go through customs. The tractor will be used for a six-week period, twice a year, to cut firebreaks, access and tracking roads, external firebreaks, airstrips and external security outpost areas. It will be fitted with a trailer to be used for murram-ing roads, movement of personnel, movement of cement and sand. It will also be used for movement of poles; the MRS fence was constructed between 1995 and 1997, so the imported talinised poles (over 10,000) are in constant need of repair. The tractor will also be employed for upkeep of monitoring areas in open spaces.
July 2007: We also spent £567 on getting durable stickers made up with the logos of EAZA, the EAZA Rhino Campaign and Save the Rhino International, which are being distributed to field projects that received the grant. Representing 0.1% of the total income, we felt that this was justified in terms of helping raise the profile of the Campaigns and of its achievements.
June 2007: We awarded a total of £15,189 to the Kenya Wildlife Service to buy new monitoring equipment for six National Parks in Kenya: 7 Canon cameras and accessories, 30 GPSs, 7 power data cables, 7 rechargeable battery kits, 7 cigarette lighter adapters, and 40 pairs of 10-40 Opticron binoculars. These are being shipped out and all the equipment will then be put to really good use by the KWS's rhino monitoring teams.
May 2007: We awarded 25,400 euros £17,280) to the African Rhino Specialist Group to support the work of Martin Brooks and Richard Emslie, Chair and Scientific Officer respectively. Richard assisted the Campaign Core Group a great deal in the early days, helping with the selection of beneficiary projects, and subsequently providing further advice. The AfRSG's work for 2007 includes representation at CITES as well as the usual range of technical support for field projects on a whole range of issues. We are delighted to be able to assist the AfRSG in this way.
May 2007: The Association of Private Land Rhino Sanctuaries in Kenya received a grant of 15,000 euros (£10,200) to help pay incentives and rewards to people from local communities giving information about illegal poaching activities. This grant would cover seven years at present payout levels, but we hope that by guaranteeing funding for some years, it will possible to advertise the scheme more widely, and thus increase the flow of information.
May 2007: The Midlands Black Rhino Conservancy in Zimbabwe received 15,000 euros (£10,200) via the Sebakwe Black Rhino Trust, as a first installment towards strengthening its law enforcement, anti-poaching and monitoring activities. John Gripper met Conservancy Warden Norman English in July to determine exactly how the funds will be used. Provided that an assessment in six months' time is favourable, another 15,000 euros will be made available to the Midlands.
May 2007: We put down £8,538 as the first of two installments on the purchase of a Massey Ferguson tractor for the Mkomazi Game Reserve. Agco-UK, the owners of Massey Ferguson, very kindly gave us a discount of Euro 7,000 on the total cost price. The tractor is being built in Brazil and will then be shipped to Dar es Salaam at the end of June. The new tractor will be used to help maintain the Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary and the Reserve as a whole.
March 2007: We gave 17,100 euros / £11,593 to the Chyulu Hills rhino programme in Kenya, one of the eight projects initially placed on the waiting list. This will pay for scout salaries, medical expenses, rations and transport. A further 7,900 euros are being held for a dung DNA analysis research project, to be carried out in 2008.
March 2007: We sent over 30,000 euros / £20,314 to Save the Rhino Trust in Namibia, which will be allocated towards camel team salaries, housing, uniforms and camel saddlery (camels are used in the more remote parts of the Kunene Region, where vehicle access is difficult), the salaries of the Director of Research and Director of Field Operations, and for the purchase of field equipment such as GPSs, handheld radio chargers, gas cookers, tents, sleeping rolls etc. The area patrolled by SRT has seen its rhino poplation double over the last 10 years.
November 2006: €27,400 for the Environmental Education programme at the Laikipia Wildlife Forum in Kenya. This programme was launched in 2003 and has been a great success, reaching approximately 2,350 pupils, 160 teachers and 100 adult members of community groups in 2006. The grant will pay for the programme costs for the whole of 2007, including the salary of the EE Officer, Ephantus Mugendi Mugo, and the running costs of the specially adapted EE Bus.
November 2006: A total of €15,000 to SOS Rhino for its work in the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in Sabah (Malaysia). €8,600 will pay for an enhanced community outreach programme, while the remaining €6,400 will pay for the creation of two more Rhino Protection Units to help monitor and protect the rhinos in Tabin.
November 2006: We sent over €5,550 towards the rhino horn finger-printing project, which will determine the degree to which one can successfully identify the source of rhino horn as well as to determine the number of horn samples per park needed to be able to discriminate between regions and parks. This information will ultimately be useful in the fight against the illegal trade in rhino horn.
October 2006: £19,100 to the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation / Aaranyak for a project focusing on the "Conservation of rhino in India and strategy framework to reduce rhino poaching in range countries". This project dovetails with the new strategy, Indian Rhino Vision 2020.
October 2006: €92,000 to the International Rhino Foundation for "Indian Rhino Vision 2020", a partnership with WWF-India and the Forest Department of Assam, which aims to increase Assam's rhino population from 2,000 up to 3,000, distributed throughout at least six Protected Areas with populations of 50-100 animals each, by 2020.
October 2006: €50,000 to the International Rhino Foundation for the Rhino Protection Unit programme for Javan and Sumatran rhinos in Indonesia.
October 2006: €10,100 to Esmond Bradley Martin and Lucy Vigne, to enable them to carry out research into "Combating the illegal trade in and demand for rhino horn in Yemen."
October 2006: €17,000 for the Hluhluwe Game Reserve in South Africa, to pay for new rifle safes for the safeguarding of field rangers' rifles (mandatory due to new legislation in South Africa) as well as paying for camping equipment for the rangers.
October 2006: €12,400 for North Luangwa Conservation Project in Zambia, for the construction of observation huts, night vision equipment, telescopes, binoculars and water tanks; together with another €8,600 for the NLCP's Conservation Education Programme, which will buy colouring books, pencils, crayons, envelopes and exercise books.
October 2006: €19,500 for the International Rhino Foundation for the purchase of a Fassi lifting crane, which has already been fitted to a capture truck used in the Lowveld Conservancies in Zimbabwe.
June 2006: We sent over £9,554, the second and final instalment of Opel Zoo's grant through the EAZA Rhino Campaign in payment for the rhino translocation equipment that was bought for the Ministry of Environment and Tourism in Namibia.
May 2006: We spent £1,528 on new camera equipment for the Kenya Wildlife Service's rhino monitoring programme in six Kenyan National Parks. The remaining funding will be allocated later in the year.
February 2006: We sent over £12,069, the first instalment of Opel Zoo's grant through the EAZA Rhino Campaign in payment for the rhino translocation equipment that was bought for the Ministry of Environment and Tourism in Namibia.