Rangers and others involved in the national effort to stop rhino poaching received a welcome boost to continue the fight, thanks to generous sponsors.

American philanthropist Howard Buffet announced last week that he will donate R225 million over three years towards the anti-poaching fund of the Kruger National Park (KNP). On Monday, the KNP received a further R1 million from Unitrans Volkswagen. 

The donation was announced on Friday, at the same time as the Department of Environmental Affairs released its latest rhino-poaching statistics. While slightly down from the year’s earlier rhino death statistics, South Africa is still losing more than two rhinos a day to poachers.

Spokesperson for SANParks Mr Reynold Thakhuli said the extra funding would go toward creating an intensive protection zone, which will see the use of sophisticated detection and tracking equipment and infrastructure on the ground and in the air, elite canine units, improved intelligence gathering and observation and surveillance systems.

In addition, part of the Buffet funding will also be utilized to test anti-poaching tactics that can be applied in other parts of Africa where rhinos are also under threat.

Speaking at the funding announcement, Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa said the illicit wildlife trade was the fourth-largest syndicated criminal activity in the world after drug and human trafficking and arms smuggling.