Recent Save the Rhino grants
December 2008: We sent £8,154 to the Zambezi Society in Zimbabwe, for rhino monitoring work in Matusadona, leopard research and other ongoing projects.
November 2008: We were delighted to be able to send £7,000 to our partners, the International Rhino Foundation (IRF), for work in Manas National Park in Assam as part of IRV 2020. One of the rhinos recently translocated to Manas broke out of the Park, and recapturing him cost thousands of dollars. This grant, made possible by Chester Zoo, will pay for three motorbikes to strengthen patrolling both within and outside the Park and in particular focusing on the new perimeter fence that is being built with funds already secured from Stuttgart Zoo; for cemented Hume pipes, which will allow a rivulet to flow under the fence and the patrol path, enabling elephants, cycles, motorbikes and vehicles to pass over it, but prevent rhinos escaping along the path of the river; and for community participation in orientation camps and field visits into the Manas NP, to increase their enthusiasm for wildlife conservation and seek their active support and cooperation in re-building Manas NP.
November 2008: We also sent £3,500 to the IRF for veterinary equipment and non-browse food for the
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Sumatra, Indonesia, where it is hoped that the young male, Andalas, might breed with Rosa and Ratu. This grant was again made possible by Chester Zoo, and we are deeply grateful for their long-standing and continuing support.
November 2008: We sent a large £12,582 to the Zambezi Society in Zimbabwe, made up of a mix of things including the purchase of a new vehicle for ZamSoc’s leopard project funded by WildCRU in Oxford.
October 2008: As a result of SCI (London Chapter)’s fundraising auction in September, we were able to send £6,275 to Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park in South Africa, to buy essential equipment for the rangers there, including 16-litre day packs, First Aid kits, protective Kevlar vests, torches and spotlights, heavy-duty fence-pliers, battery charger packs, 2-way radios, Camping Gaz stoves, hiking mats and rainproof camouflage backpack covers. This is the third year that SCI’s London Chapter has supported Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, and we, Dirk Swart and Dave Robertson are very grateful for their support.
September 2008: We sent £1,500 to help cover the Secretariat costs of the IUCN SSC African Rhino Specialist Group, raised by Richard Emslie, Scientific Officer of the AfRSG. Richard ran the legendary Comrades Marathon, a double marathon from Durban to Pietermaritzburg in South Africa. Congratulations to Richard on completing the event.
September 2008: We awarded a grand total of £16,000 to the Selous Trust in Tanzania, to help cover the salaries of Fraser and Kes Smith, Technical and Scientific Advisors respectively. This was made up of a grant of £8,000 from our long-standing partners on Eastern black rhino conservation, Chester Zoo; £7,000 from the fundraising efforts of Oliver Wilcox, who climbed Mt Kilimanjaro in August; and a donation of £1,000 from Cazenove+Loyd at the request of Chris Barlow. Thank you to everyone who made this grant possible.
September 2008: We sent £8,980 to Save the Rhino Trust in Namibia, as a result of the fundraising efforts of the Desert Cycle team, who rode through the baking heat of the Kunene Region in May 2008. We’re waiting to hear how SRT would like to use these funds.
September 2008: iMfolozi Game Reserve in South Africa benefited from a grant of 3,000 euros from us, courtesy of Salzburg Zoo in Austria. Dave Robertson, the Conservation Manager of iMfolozi, will use the funds to buy tents, backpacks, sleeping bags and hiking mats. We’re very grateful to Salzburg Zoo for this support.
September 2008: We sent £6,581 to the Laikipia Wildlife Forum in Kenya, to pay for the salary costs of Ephantus Mugo, Environmental Education Officer. Our heartfelt thanks to Chester Zoo’s Education Department, and in particular Maggie Esson, Education Programmes Manager, for this grant and for her continued invaluable support.
July 2008: £10,000 to the Lowveld Conservancies in Zimbabwe. Overall, the Lowveld conservancies have remained as Zimbabwe’s primary rhino breeding areas despite land invasions (leading to snaring risks, loss of habitats and reduced law-enforcement) and economic problems associated with the deteriorating national situation. By mid 2008, the conservancies contained at least 74% of Zimbabwe’s remaining black rhino population and 48% of the national white rhino population. Despite poaching pressure that accounted for the deaths pf 13 black rhinos in the Lowveld, the population as a whole grew by 7.6% to 398 animals. The white rhino population grew to approximately 140 animals, with one death from poaching during the previous 12 months. The grant will help fund rhino monitor salaries and vehicle running costs as needed by the project.
July 2008: £10,000 to the North Luangwa Conservation Project in Zambia. Black rhinos are being reintroduced to Zambia over a period of three years, as part of a three-way agreement between Namibia, South Africa and Zambia. We first came across NLCP through the EAZA Rhino Campaign, which awarded a grant in October 2006, and now SRI is keen to support NLCP on an ongoing basis. This grant includes £6,100 for the annual ranger training programme, and £3,900 for the construction of new fences and observation posts.
July 2008: We awarded £5,000 to the Selous Trust in Tanzania to help pay the salaries of Kes and Fraser Smith, Scientific and Technical Advisors to the project. Sightings in the Selous have greatly increased with Fraser’s use of the SuperCub, and recent sightings near Beho Beho lodge have revised upwards the population estimate. The Trust is recruiting new Trustees and pursuing a revamped funding strategy to put itself onto a secure footing for the future.
July 2008: The Rhino Resource Center received a final £69 in proceeds from the 2008 Rhino Mayday. The RRC’s website - www.rhinoresourcecenter.com – is a great reference base for researchers and the general public alike.
July 2008: We sent £9,000 to Silver Jungle, the publishers of a series of books on wildlife, from a couple of restricted grants received. Have a look at the website www.silverjungle.com for more information on the books and to hear a rhino singing!
July 2008: We awarded £3,322 to the Zambezi Society for its rhino and carnivore work in Matusadona National Park and elsewhere in Zimbabwe.
July 2008: Kenneth Donaldson made a donation of £577 to by four new digital cameras for the Chyulu Hills rhino programme in Kenya, where the Maasailand Preservation Trust game scouts and Kenya Wildlife Service rangers are building up photo IDs of the rhino population.
July 2008: We received a wonderful grant of £4,930 from the Body Shop Foundation for the Laikipia Wildlife Forum’s Community Conservation programme in Kenya. The LWF’s focus on conservation enterprise projects, that sustainably use natural resources, was of particular interest to the Body Shop Foundation, and we very much hope that this will be the start of a long and successful partnership.
July 2008: We sent £2,100 from SRI’s core funds and 5,000 euros from Stuttgart Zoo in Germany to Aaranyak in Assam, towards IRV 2020. Two of the rhinos that we reintroduced to Manas National Park in April have strayed out of the Park along the southern boundary, and injured three villagers in so doing. The funding – together with a further 5,000 euros from Stuttgart Zoo, expected to coincide with the birth of an Indian rhino calf in September – will pay for 10 kms of electric fence, to prevent further breakouts. We are delighted that Stuttgart Zoo wishes to continue its support for rhino conservation in this way, beyond the end of the EAZA Rhino Campaign.
June 2008: We sent £945 in proceeds from the Rhino Mayday to the Rhino Resource Center, which organised the event.
May 2008: We sent £8,984 to the
Chyulu Hills rhino programme in Kenya, to pay the salary of Richard Kech, the retired KWS ranger who is in the final year of passing on his skills to the Chyulus’ rhino monitoring team. Kech has a sixth sense for rhinos and his leadership skills are exemplary. Our grateful thanks to Amneville Zoo in France for its grant of 5,000 euros, and to the Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation for its grant of £5,000.
May 2008: We transferred £7,358 to Save the Rhino Trust in Namibia, a project we have supported for years, to pay for the running costs of Lesley Karutjaiva’s vehicle. Fuel prices have risen dramatically in Namibia over the last few months and budgeting ahead is proving challenging. £6,168 of this came from the proceeds of the Rhino Cycle Namibia in 2007, while the rest came from private donations from John West, Alex Wood and Lucy Holmes, and others. We’re really grateful to all of these for helping cover one of the less interesting but nonetheless vital aspects of rhino conservation work.
May 2008: We also sent £4,331 to the Selous Trust in Tanzania, made up of several donations from recent visitors to Sand Rivers and the Kidai Ranger post. Our thanks to Robin and Patrizia Cooke-Hurle, the Garrett and Mary Moran Family Foundation, the Townsend Family Foundation, Sir Matthew Goodwin’s Charitable Trust, Dr the Hon A and Mrs P Todd, and other donors who wish to remain anonymous. This grant will help pay the salaries of Kes and Fraser Smith, Scientific and Technical Advisors in the Selous, without whom the project would not be the success that it is. Morale was greatly lifted in May with the sighting of three previously unknown rhino near Beho Beho lodge.
May 2008: We received a donation of £2,434 from Serengeti Asset Management for Grumeti Reserves in Tanzania. Grumeti was the recipient of two Eastern black rhinos in 2007 from Port Lympne Wild Animal Parkm, and has plans to acquire more from South Africa. The grant will go towards monitoring the rhinos and preparing the way for the next arrivals.
May 2008: We sent £1,376 to the Zambezi Society for its conservation work in Zimbabwe.
May 2008: Finally, we sent £3,792 to the Environmental Investigation Agency, as its share of the proceeds from the Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture held in March (though there’s more to come next month!)
March 2008: We gave £871 to the Zambezi Society in Zimbabwe for its non-rhino work.
March 2008: We gave £1,006 to Hluhluwe Game Reserve in South Africa, thanks to a grant from the Safari Club International Foundation in the USA. This will pay for new tyres for the rangers’ Landcruisers, which quickly get worn down. Kenneth Donaldson, husband of Save the Rhino’s Director Cathy Dean, visited Hluhluwe in April with RAW Africa team mates, and was very impressed to see the work done by Dave Robertson and Dirk Swart and the ranger team.
March 2008: We sent over an amazing £22,692 to the Chyulu Hills rhino programme in Kenya, which broke down as follows: US $17,797 from the US Fish and Wildlife Service to pay for game scout and village scout salaries, vehicle fuel and maintenance, radio maintenance, camping equipment and flying time. £3,349 to pay for rucksacks, sleeping bags, boots, handheld radios and solar panels and a further £480 for 6 x GPSs, both donations from Kenneth Donaldson. And finally, £8,850 from Chester Zoo for wages and rations, vehicle fuel and maintenance, and prosecution costs. Our thanks to all the donors for enabling us to provide such significant support to this project.
March 2008: Also for the Chyulu Hills rhino programme, we sent £4,080 from Chester Zoo, 5,000 euros from Amneville Zoo in France and £750 from Save the Rhino to pay for a specific dung DNA project currently being done by Antony Wandera at Manchester Metropolitan University.
March 2008: We awarded £1,200 to the Lowveld Conservancies in Zimbabwe, to help pay the salaries of the rhino monitoring teams led by Jackson Kamwi and Israel Ngaria, who go on daily patrols to ID rhinos, deter illegal activity, and to check that none of the rhinos have snare wounds requiring veterinary treatment. These grants were made possible by the Walker 597 Trust and the Marjorie Coote Animal Welfare Trust.
January 2008: We gave a grant of £5,796 for air compressors, generators and fencing materials for Hluhluwe Game Reserve in South Africa, and for rifle safes for neighbouring iMfolozi Game Reserve. This grant was provided by Colchester Zoo's Action for the Wild fund - a new partnership for Save the Rhino, arising out of the EAZA Rhino Campaign's success. Colchester Zoo has bought land some 200km from Hluhluwe-iMfolozi at UmPhafa Private Nature Reserve, on which it plans to introduce white rhinos, and perhaps black rhinos in the future. As well as the financial support, staff from Colchester Zoo and Hluhluwe have been liaising closely over stocking, security and education issues, and assisted by Richard Emslie, Scientific Officer of the African Rhino Specialist Group. We are really pleased to have helped create this great working relationship between a UK zoo and a South African field project.
January 2008: We gave £10,126 to the
Laikipia Wildlife Forum in Kenya to support the core costs of its
Community Conservation programme in 2008. £10,000 of this was provided by our regular partner,
Chester Zoo, as part of its East African black rhino programme, and the remainder came from individuals via web donations. Josephat Musyima, the CC Programme Manager, oversees a team of 5 Community Liaison Officers, who work across the Laikipia District on five themes: rangeland rehabilitation, forest management, water management, tourism and human-wildlife conflict. Save the Rhino and Chester Zoo have supported this programme since its inception in 2002 and we are delighted by its continued success.
January 2008: We transferred £8,565 to the
Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary for its new
Rafiki wa Faru environmental education programme, made up of grants from Capital International and the Rothschild Foundation, and funds raised from the Mkomazi Matatu party held in February 2007. These funds will pay for the bus driver's salary and PAYE, fuel, and for training, stationery and fax / phone / internet upgrade for the EE Officer, as well as for educational aids and for lunches for the children participating in the programme. Unfortunately the programme launch has been delayed: initially because delays with paperwork for the bus's registration meant that it didn't arrive until the start of the rainy season, when the Reserve's roads are impassable, and then because the political situation in Kenya has disrupted school terms, meaning that research via the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya and a visit by
Chester Zoo's Education Programmes Manager, Maggie Esson, have had to be delayed. However, the bus is ready, the Visitor Centre is complete, and we're looking forward to the launch.
January 2008: Thanks to the
BBC Wildlife Fund, we sent £10,520 to the
Rhino Protection Units in Sumatra, to buy 5 motorbikes each for Way Kambas and for Bukit Barisan Selatan National Parks, and then to cover the fuel and running costs of the 10 bikes for one year, to help patrol and protect wild populations in the Parks. We also sent £6,460 to the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Way Kambas National Park, where five rhinos (2 male, 3 female) are kept. It is the hope that these rhinos will breed in captivity, providing a tandem approach to Sumatran rhino conservation. Our thanks to the viewers of Saving Planet Earth and the BBC Wildlife Fund for this tremendous grant.
January 2008: We sent £1,445 from restricted donations to the Zambezi Society for its conservation work in Zimbabwe.