Author / Lei

On 23 November 2018, the president of WILD Foundation and an ardent promoter of the concept of “Wilderness” Mr. Vance Martin had a friendly and constructive conversation with the Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) Dr. Zhou Jinfeng. The focus of the conversation was on the 11th Wilderness World Congress (WILD11), a congress with the theme of “Wilderness and Ecological Civilization — About the Future of Human and Nature”.

WILD11 or more broadly the concept of “Wilderness” embodies, as what CBCGDF and Mr. Martin both believe in, the at least 3,000-year-old Chinese philosophy told: the harmonious coexistence between human and nature is an inherent feature of the ecosystem and the fundamental law underlying sustainable development. Yet with the continual construction of industrial infrastructure and human invasion into the wild, there is an increasingly worrying trend of wild habitats being excessively occupied and exploited by people, depriving the living conditions of wild species and endangering their survival. “Wilderness” highlights the restoring of an open space where wild species have the freedom of being released from too much human intervention, and it has now been widely recognized as a main weapon for biodiversity conservation.

However, the question of how to effectively apply the concept of “Wilderness” to wildlife protection is what deserves more careful consideration, as suggested by the contrasting evidence on the protective effort of White Rhinoceros in Kenya and South Africa. White Rhinoceros, or Ceratotherium Simum, belongs to the category of Dicerorhinus and has two subspecies: One is Ceratotherium Simum Cottoni, living primarily in Kenya and Central Africa; the other is Ceratotherium Simum Simum, living primarily in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. In 2016, White Rhinoceros has been included in the “IUCN Red List of Threatened Species” and classified as “Near Threatened” (NT). Although during the 20th century Kenya had more White Rhinoceroses than South Africa, today the number of Kenya rhinoceroses has declined to lower than 5, as opposed to the number of South Africa rhinoceroses which has risen to more than 16,255, according to IUCN (the International Union for Conservation of Nature) statistics. This sharp reversal in White Rhinoceros distribution in Kenya and South Africa does not mean that Kenya has been sloppy with its protection of White Rhinoceros since the 20th century; rather, from 2015 four fully-armed policemen have been appointed on 24/7 basis by Kenya to save its White Rhinoceros species. Then how can Kenya’s protective work be so disappointing, compared with the achievement made by its counterpart in South Africa?

“Wildlife protection is in fact a way of management.” The key behind the success of the South Africa story lies in its integrative and innovative protective proceedings with regard to White Rhinoceros protection. Unlike Kenya, whose protective actions can be deemed predominantly passive and limited only to the traditional defense of White Rhinoceros against illegal poaching, South Africa has integrated various sectors and combined diverse resources to prevent White Rhinoceros from becoming extinct. For instance, government departments such as South African National Park Service, local protection authorities, the Tax Bureau, financial institutions and the State Procuratorate have all been involved to develop a fully-supportive national institutional network for White Rhinoceros protection. Moreover, state-of-the-art technologies have also been positively sought after to enhance the effectiveness of inter-regional communication and regulation enforcement while at the same time considerably reducing the risks faced by forest rangers. Perhaps the most innovative approach may be the donation of White Rhinoceros to community-owned animal farms so that work tasks centered around this endangered species can generate incomes for local impoverished households, contributing significantly to the raising of public awareness of wildlife preservation.

Despite this, there remains much work to be done. At least, the incessant popularity of rhinoceros horns and their associated flourishing black trading market imply that White Rhinoceros will continue to be severely threatened by illegal poaching. What’s more, with respect to the mission of biodiversity conservation as a whole, the protection of White Rhinoceros represents only the tip of an iceberg; the present rescuing and saving activities around other endangered animals like elephants and pangolins are also sources of concern. It has long been acknowledged that mankind will bear the ultimate destructive cost of species extinction unless immediate remedial measures are taken to halt the trend of the endangering of wildlife. Yet considering the Kenya and South Africa case, another important lesson may be for people to sit down and carefully think about what can be the best way of protection before any practical actions are taken.

(Photo source: Internet)