Buffet Foundation Donates $23.7 Million to Combat Rhino Pouching in South African National Park

While pouching has always been a problem on the African continent, over the last several years, the decimation of rhino populations in South Africa’s Kruger National Park has accelerated at a frightening rate, and conservation groups as well as investment institutions are stepping up efforts to help.

Protecting the African rhino. Photo courtesy of South Africa’s Kruger National Park.

SANParks (the South African National Parks system) reported last year a total of 1,004 rhinos were pouched in country, up from 668 pouched in 2012, and 448 pouched in 2011.

The rampant pouching is increasing, and the latest report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) found that, “This year alone, 172 rhinos have been poached since January with 113 of those occurring in the Kruger National Park.”

To add to the significance, “Kruger is currently home to over 40 percent of the world’s remaining 22,000 rhinos, the largest single population of rhinos in the world,” says SANParks.

In response to the worsening situation, authorities have continued stepping up their prevention efforts. SANParks reported that last year, the number of people arrested for rhino poaching-related offenses climbed to 343, with 133 of them in the Krugar National Park. Since the beginning of 2014, six alleged poachers have been arrested.

SANParks says that Kruger’s poaching problem is fueled mainly by illicit criminal networks in Mozambique, South Africa, and East Asia, but evidence suggests that armed groups elsewhere in Africa derive significant funding from poaching activities.”

Click to read more ...

Sumatran Elephants Status Now At Critically Endangered On List Of Threatened Species

The Sumatran elephant has just moved up in status from ‘endangered’ to ‘critically endangered’ on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Red List of Threatened Species.

Sumatran Elephant. Photo from World Wildlife Fund-Indonesia/Samsul Komar.

“Nearly 70 percent of its habitat and half of its population have been lost in one generation,” said the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), adding that a major contributing factor has been “the clearing of forests for conversion to plantations.”

The elephant is an Asian subspecies called Elephas maximux and is only found in Sumatra, Indonesia. The WWF estimates that there are currently about 2,600 elephants left in the wild, which is about have the population of 30 years ago.

On an even more localized scale, the WWF said that in the province of Riau – located in the center of Sumatra, along the Strait of Malacca – “elephant numbers have declined by a staggering 80 percent in less than 25 year, confining some of the herds to small forest patches.”

The conservation group attributes much of the blame for the habitat destruction on the pulp and paper industries that make their fortunes by clear-cutting forests and replacing them with pulpwood plantations.

These plantations are composed of trees such as aspen, hemlock, pine, or spruce which are used in making pulp for paper.

The WWF is calling on the Indonesian government to “prohibit all forest conversion in elephant habitats until there is a conservation strategy to save the species.”

Also under threat to deforestation are the Sumatran tigers, which currently number about 400 in the wild.

Click to read more ...

World Wildlife Fund Says: Buying Products Made From Sustainable Forests Saves the Great Apes

African eastern lowland gorillas. Photo courtesy of thewildsource.com

When we commonly think of voting power, we think of political elections, or calling into television talent shows, but possibly where we show our greatest voting power is when we shop.

The World Wildlife Fund is working to encourage people to use their day-to-day shopping decisions as a way to foster a more sustainable planet for all creatures. One area where the WWF believes this strategy can be most effective is in the preservation of forests around the world.

“U.S. consumers can use their purchasing power to promote responsibility and species protection by buying Forest Stewardship Council-certified products, which are increasingly available,” said Linda Kramme, manager of the WWF’s Global Forest and Trade Network of North America.

Click to read more ...