The Story Behind Rhino Rewild
About Us
Rhino Rewild, led by African Parks, is an audacious 10-year plan to rescue and rewild 2,000 rhinos, and renew the wild habitats they require.
We became the owners of the world’s largest captive rhino breeding operation in September 2023. The operation, which had been set up as a commercial venture, was facing financial collapse putting the rhinos at extreme risk of poaching or being sold off as part of a liquidation process, which would have resulted in losing their value to conservation forever.
Given African Parks’ track record in creating safe wild spaces, and our experience in carrying out wildlife relocations at scale from moving 500 elephants across Malawi, to bringing rhinos back to Rwanda, Malawi and to the Democratic Republic of Congo, we agreed to requests from the NGO, governmental and philanthropic sectors to provide a solution to this potential conservation crisis. We therefore made an informed decision to purchase the rhino farm as a broader conservation solution with one clear intent: to rewild 2,000 southern white rhinos and their offspring across Africa over the next 10 years.
These animals, which represent 15% of the world’s remaining southern white rhino population, will be translocated over the next decade to well-managed protected areas across the African continent, helping to restore a species and revitalise ecosystems to benefit Africa’s people and its biodiversity. Once returned to protected areas, these rhinos will contribute towards healthy ecosystems, provide nutrient cycling, sequester carbon, and increase tourism revenue for local people as well as the respective governments. The benefits of their rewilding will be immense for Africa and go beyond saving a species. Their return will symbolise conservation success across multiple, large wild landscapes, and will help secure ecosystem functions and biodiversity during the most critical decade for the health of our planet.
About African Parks
African Parks is a non-profit conservation organisation that takes on the total responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of protected areas in partnership with governments and local communities. By adopting a business approach to conservation, supported by donor funding, we aim to rehabilitate each park making them ecologically, socially, and financially sustainable in the long-term. We currently manage 22 parks across 12 countries, amounting to 20 million hectares under conservation. Our goal is to manage 30 protected areas by 2030, spanning 30 million hectares, and contributing to the larger global goal of protecting 30% of the planet for nature.
To learn more please visit www.africanparks.org