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Conservation & Development
Rhinos without borders – & Beyond South Africa and Botswana
Ride 4 A Woman
in Buhoma, Uganda
This retreat in the local community offers local women a place to stay, something to eat and a wage while they learn new skills. Every day we welcome visitors to Learn From Us, Shop or simply drop by to see what is going on.
You can visit Ride 4 a women when you visit any of our partner lodges during your gorilla trekking experience in Bwindis Impenetrable Forest National Park along with other wonderful projects in the area.
Chipego Bike Shop
Chipego Bike Shop in Nakatindi was Sanctuary Retreats first women’s social enterprise project. The five women who are employed at the shop chose the name which means “gift”. The passion of the five mechanics is infectious; they love having guests visit to learn more.
All five women have improved the quality of life for themselves and their families, through building houses, supporting school fees and putting food on the table. And while they are at it, they are breaking down gender stereotypes across the community!
You can visit and rent these bikes during your stay at Sanctuary, Sussi & Chuma, Mosi -ao -Tunya, Zambia
Rhinos Without Borders &Beyond
The inspiration for Rhinos Without Borders is a response to the dire situation that is facing rhinos in Africa. With rhino poaching at an all-time high, concerned conservationists need to be proactive. Great Plains Conservation and andBeyond, two leading conservation and tourism companies, have teamed up to translocate rhinos from South Africa in order to create new source populations in Botswana’s wilderness areas.
In partnership with the Botswana government, the Rhinos Without Borders project has exceeded our original goal to establish a substantial new wild population of rhinos. The success of this project is evident not only in the current total of over 130 animals, but also given the fact that every sexually mature female that we translocated, has had a calf: breeding is the ultimate litmus test of a successfully translocated population.
Faced with a devastating exponential rise in illegal rhino poaching in South Africa, Rhinos Without Borders was formed in order to start moving these endangered animals away from the poaching hotspots to create an additional source population.
Rhino poaching is at an all-time high in Africa and is spreading at an alarming rate. The illegal trade in rhino horn has seen the number of these magnificent creatures poached throughout Africa rise significantly in recent years. Since 2008, a disturbing 8 493 rhinos have been poached in South Africa alone. This total onslaught has led to the decline of many populations. With a rhino killed every twelve hours, more of these African icons are now being lost to poachers every year, than are being born.
Rhinos Without Borders is a joint initiative between andBeyond and Great Plains Conservation, two leading conservation and tourism companies. The project aims to translocate rhino from high-risk poaching areas in South Africa and create other source populations in Botswana’s wilderness areas.
Where appropriate, the rhinos are transported by air as opposed to road, in order to shorten the journey and lessen the amount of stress placed on the animals. The budget to translocate just one rhino is USD 50 000, with 25% of this amount exclusively set aside for the security and monitoring of the rhino in their new home for a period of three years. The whole project, including ongoing and monitoring and security, requires a total budget of USD 5 million.
Botswana was carefully selected as the recipient country due to its ecological suitability and the government’s commitment to the long-term success of this newly established rhino population. With the population from the translocated rhino now exceeding our original target of 100, our focus is now on maintaining the security and monitoring of these animals.
Rhinos Without Borders’ experienced monitoring teams on the ground and in the air, work daily with the Botswana Government, the Department of Wildlife & National Parks (DWNP), the Botswana Defence Force (BDF), the Rhino Conservation Botswana (RCB) team and other rhino conservation stakeholders to monitor the translocated rhino. The good news is that the incredible co-operative conservation effort from all the partners behind this project, has already resulted in the birth of a significant number of calves – an absolutely phenomenal achievement.
Rhinos Without Borders will continue to seek support for the security and monitoring of these translocated rhinos. The more funding we manage to generate, the more effective our dedicated support teams will be.
You can learn about this initiative and see the impact of Rhinos without borders when you visit any of the &Beyond and Great Plains lodges, especially in Southern Africa.
K9 Conservation
Working dogs in protected conservation areas can perform a multitude of different functions ranging from tracking animals (injured or otherwise) to tracking and apprehending human suspects as well as detecting contraband, firearms, bullet cases and even snares.
It is proven that once working dogs are deployed onto a protected area, the news quickly spreads amongst the poachers and criminal syndicates alike, resulting in the level and frequency of poaching incidents (and often other crime) dramatically reducing.
“K9 Conservation has assisted in the procurement of working dogs and the training of K9 Units in several countries, namely; Central African Republic, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, and India.”
Back in 2005 as a ranger working for Mthethomusha Game Reserve bordering on the Kruger National Park, Conraad de Rosner did intensive research on what dog breed would be the most suitable to assist him in the field. It needed to be a dog that was capable of assisting him with following the spoor of wounded or poached wildlife, but also had to be able to protect him against the dangerous human element. After careful consideration, Conraad decided to invest in a Weimaraner puppy.
The Weimaraner, bred centuries ago by aristocrats in the German province of Weimar, was not only a hunting dog for big game, but also a defense asset for its master.
Zingela proved his weight in gold, having defended Conraad on numerous occasions and landed several rhino poachers in jail through the use of his keen sense of smell. Suddenly, criminals could no longer hide evidence or make use of the night as their cover, as the canine was incorruptible and capable of tracking without a need for daylight. Dogs, although being but one tool in the Anti-Poaching Unit’s toolbox, proved to be of invaluable assistance.
Zingela’s progeny and proud legacy remains operational in the conservation field, including an endangered species research canine for WTC (Wildlife Conservation Trust of India) and a rhino- and pangolin monitoring dog based in Limpopo, currently owned by Canines for Africa.
Zingela paved the way for us as a canine anti-poaching company. Today, we make use of many dogs from several breeds in the fight against wildlife criminals, each with its own important function….
You can visit these dogs during your stay at a number of camps including the Sabi Sand in the Kruger.
A Conservation Code:
Our goal is to support travelers to Africa’s wild places to sustain ecotourism and conservation. We support reserves and lodges who are conservation stalwarts: they’ve built their operating models around sustaining their fragile ecosystems and working in harmony with their local communities.
These private, often not-for-profit, companies are stewards of the African wilderness and have long-term initiatives in education, health and nutrition, career development, and wildlife conservation.
We can be with you every step of the way.
