JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – The largest rhino farm in the world, which is home to 2,000 animals and located in South Africa, has been bought by the NGO African Parks, the organisation said on Monday.
Home to nearly 80 per cent of the world’s rhinoceroses, South Africa is a poaching hotspot, driven by demand from Asia, where horns are used in traditional medicine for their supposed therapeutic effect.
The government said 448 of the rare animals were killed across the country last year, only three fewer than in 2021 despite increased protection at national parks such as the renowned Kruger.
“African Parks has stepped in as the new owner of the world’s largest private captive rhino breeding operation,” the conservation NGO said in the statement. The NGO will take over the 7,800-hectare ‘Platinum Rhino’ site in the North West province, which it says currently is home to 15 per cent of the world’s remaining wild population of southern white rhino.
The rhino farm was previously owned by 81-year-old South African conservationist John Hume, who auctioned the property earlier this year.
Although he said he was looking for a “billionaire” to take it over, African Parks said that no offers were received, leaving the rhinos at “serious risk of poaching”. The NGO said it received support from the South Africa government.
CEO of African Parks Peter Fearnhead said the NGO had “no intention of being the owner of a captive rhino breeding operation with 2,000 rhino.”
“However, we fully recognise the moral imperative of finding a solution for these animals so that they can once again play their integral role in fully functioning ecosystems,” he added, describing the scale of the operation as “simply enormous, and therefore daunting”.
“However, it is equally one of the most exciting and globally strategic conservation opportunities,” he said in the press statement.
African Parks, which manages 22 protected areas across the continent, said it plans to phase out the breeding programme and return the 2,000 southern white rhino to the wild over the next 10 years.
The species was hunted to near extinction in the late 19th Century but gradually recovered thanks to decades of protection and breeding efforts.
