The International Rhino Foundation

Zimbabwe: irf and the lowveld rhino trust (lrt) helped translocate the first rhinos into zimbabwe's bubye valley conservancy 22 years ago. Since then, we have supported the conservancy's rhino management and monitoring program and successfully helped bubye's black rhino population grow into the second largest in the world. We work with communities to protect rhinos while ensuring that conservation generates benefits for local people.irf and lrt hire and train community members as rhino monitors. These teams work tirelessly to identify and track every rhino in the area. Keeping close track of individual rhinos allows for early detection of poaching spikes, so the conservancy can respond quickly to poaching threats and reduce rhino deaths. Our unique education program helps incentivize local communities to support rhino conservation by providing school repair kits, textbooks, workbooks and other supplies to schools to reinforce the communities' understanding of rhinos and their conservation needs. The annual inputs are calibrated to the rate of rhino population growth in the adjoining conservancy, with a baseline level of support of $25,000 per year, and a bonus of $1,000 added for every percentage of annual rhino population growth above 0%.

South africa and eswatini (formerly swaziland):south africa is home to the world's largest rhino population. It is also the epicenter of the rhino poaching crisis, with at least one rhino killed per day. The small country of eswatini, located within south africa, continues to do a remarkable job protecting its rhinos from poaching. While those dedicated to rhino conservation in many of south africa and eswatini's reserves have had tremendous success, it comes at a price - the toll it takes on rangers and their families. Rangers put their lives at risk daily to protect rhinos. In south africa and eswatini, irf provides targeted security grants to reserves, providing financial and technical support for innovative technologies and new methodologies to fight poachers and save rhinos. Key initiatives we are funding in the coming years include license plate recognition cameras, night operations equipment, ai-enabled rhino trackers and monitoring technology, k9 units and intelligence and informant networks. We also fund ranger training and well-being programs. Through local ngo stop rhino poaching (srp), irf has funded training for more than 1,000 rangers and purchased specialized equipment for rhino reserves in eight of the nine provinces in south africa and in eswatini. Upcoming training priorities include tactical first aid, advanced anti-poaching tactics, human tracking, night operations, intelligence gathering and technology best practices and our innovative legal training and assistance program. Namibia:namibia holds one-third of the remaining black rhinos on the planet and despite a recent poaching surge, the population is still increasing, growing by 10% over the past decade. For the population to continue expanding, securing more rangeland where rhinos can be reintroduced is important. The nyae nyae conservancy, a communal conservancy in the remote northeast of namibia, is a key rhino reintroduction site. The nyae nyae conservancy is managed by the ju/'hoansi ethnic group, one of the most marginalized groups in namibia. Irf's partner, save the rhino trust (srt), has expanded its proven community rhino ranger incentive program into the conservancy.with support from irf, srt has hired, trained and equipped 6 rangers and 1 data analyst from communities, using local skills and knowledge to improve rhino monitoring while providing income from rhino conservation. Over the next year, we will continue to fund community rangers, while also helping srt expand its rural women in conservation initiative to recruit and train more female staff.

Other african regions

Other programs