Developing Story

"We need to learn to work with nature, rather than against it."

David Attenborough

Over the past decades, we have already lost up to half of all animals who shared the planet with us. Unlike previous mass extinctions, this loss is man-made. As a result of increasing human expansion and its collateral effects, wild animals have become refugees on our planet.

In this developing story, we're looking into the case of the iconic species of the rhinoceros, which – living for 50 million years on earth – is now at the forefront of extinction for various reasons, but poaching in particular.

Without determined anti-poaching measures, a significant decrease in demand for rhino horn and efforts to transform the socio-economic environment in regards to wildlife and communities, rhinos will very likely be extinct within the next decade.

Throughout the next year, FairPlanet will tell this developing story from all angles. We will follow the work of the non-profit organisation RHINO FORCE on the ground in South Africa and Zimbabwe as it faces the complex task of saving the rhino and of developing opportunities for local communities to get involved in conservation.