Half of Africa's white rhinos in private hands

Hayley Clements, a researcher at Stellenbosch University, Dave Balfour, a freelance conservation ecologist, and Enrico Di Minin, an associate professor in Conservation Geography at the University of Helsinki, explain how and why the approach to rhino conservation on the continent has to change

Southern white rhinos are widely known as a conservation success story. Their population grew from fewer than 100 individuals in the 1920s to 20 000 in 2012, mostly in South Africa.

This success was partially due to the inclusion of the private sector, which started in the 1960s when white rhinos were moved from their last remaining population in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park and placed in other state reserves as well as on private land. In 1991, the Game Theft Act formalised conditions for private rhino ownership and use. Poaching pressure was low at the time, and the demand for rhinos by ecotourists and trophy hunters gave private landowners incentives to grow their rhino populations.

Based on publicly available data, our recent paper shows that, today, private landholders conserve over half of South Africa’s white rhinos. Communities conserve a further 1% of the white rhinos. This trend is not unique to South Africa: more than 75% of Zimbabwe’s and Namibia’s white rhinos are on private lands. Although outside their natural range, in East Africa 72% of Kenya’s white rhino populations are conserved by private landowners.

In South Africa, the increasing contribution of private rhino custodians over the past few decades is due partly to their success and partly to shrinking rhino populations in key state parks. Poaching is largely to blame for shrinking populations. A decade ago, the two-million-hectare Kruger National Park held over half of the world’s 20 000 white rhinos. Today the park has just over 2 000 of the remaining 16 000 white rhinos. Kruger lost 6% of its population to poaching in 2020 alone. Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park has suffered similar declines.