Goldman Conservation Prize Winner For Africa

[Tim Smith]

It's hard to imagine the level of risk these people have faced to do what they've done to save rhinos.

Kind of puts things into perspective.

From the AFS message board...

Fish and Wildlife Service Grantee Wins Prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize

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On April 11, 2011, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grantee and long-time partner Raoul du Toit was named to receive the internationally recognized Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa.

Each year, the Goldman Foundation selects six environmental heroes, one representing each of the six inhabited continental regions of the earth: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. The honor recognizes individuals for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk.

Each winner receives an award of $150,000, the largest international award for grassroots environmentalists. The Goldman Prize views “grassroots” leaders as those involved in local efforts where positive change takes place through community or citizen participation in the issues affecting them. Through recognizing these individual leaders, the prize seeks to inspire other ordinary people to take extraordinary actions to protect the natural world.

Mr. du Toit was selected for the prize for his heroic efforts to protect rhinos in his native Zimbabwe. Rhinos have become extinct in thirteen African countries in the past thirty years, but rhinos survive in healthy numbers in southeastern Zimbabwe, largely due to the bravery and commitment of Mr. du Toit and the Lowveld Rhino Trust. He and his dedicated team of Zimbabwean rhino monitors, land managers, owners, veterinarians, and community members have successfully protected more than 340 black rhinos and 175 white rhinos on private conservancies in Zimbabwe’s southeastern lowveld. Overall, the team currently takes care of 77 percent of the country’s rhinos.

In 2008 and 2009, Zimbabwe suffered the highest levels of rhino poaching recorded since the late 1980s, with 192 rhinos illegally killed for their horns. At this rate, rhinos would have been driven to extinction within a decade. However, the Zimbabwe government and Mr. du Toit managed to stop the decline by getting ahead of the poachers by moving rhinos from hazardous areas onto more secure areas offering a strong local commitment to protect rhinos from outsiders.

Simultaneously, law enforcement authorities in the United States, South Africa, and Zimbabwe shared their evidence concerning an illegal poaching syndicate operating out of South Africa. In September 2010, South African authorities arrested nine veterinarians, professional hunters, and businessmen implicated in a rhino poaching syndicate that may have coordinated more than 100 of the recent rhino killings.

“We are thrilled that Raoul and his team are getting the recognition they deserve. With the incredible poaching pressure Africa is currently facing, protecting rhinos is a difficult and dangerous job, and the Lowveld Rhino Trust has done a remarkable job in simultaneously saving rhinos and building a wildlife-based economy for the area in spite of tremendous obstacles.” said Dr. Michelle Gadd, African Rhino and African Elephant program coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Mr. du Toit has been a partner of the Service since 2002, receiving grants from the Rhino Tiger Conservation Fund. Lowveld Rhino Trust work supported by the agency has included the costs to dart and translocate rhinos to safer habitat, and emergency veterinary expenses to intervene when rhinos are caught in snares or otherwise injured.

Other Goldman Prize winners that have been sponsored by Service species programs have included Eugene Rutaragama of Rwanda, Corneille Ewango of Democratic Republic of Congo, and Tuy Sereivathana of Cambodia.

To learn more about the work the Service is doing to help protect rhinoceros in Africa and Asia, go to http://www.fws.gov/international/DIC/species/rhino/rhino.html.

Follow the Service’s International Program on Twitter @USFWSInternatl and on Facebook, USFWS_International Affairs.

-FWS-

[joeD]

Tim- Are you implying that we lack perspective? That we (Ozark anglers, middle-class white suburbanites, self-absorbed consumers, what?) are frivolous with our narrow concerns with Ozark fishing, and lack empathy with others less fortunate? That there is a big, bad world out there, with people suffering in countless ways, and our inconsequential mewling over Missouri fishing is anathema with respect to the "big picture" or a "larger reality" of the human condition? Because, in essence, that is what you are doing. By giving this example of noble bravery and commitment against all odds (admirable though it is), you are secretly scolding us, wagging your finger at our lack of awareness and gravitas. "See, look at this guy, and what he's done. We have no right to complain about anything anymore."

Please. I am tired of being scolded that (insert whatever disaster/disease/human plight, that suits your fancy) "puts things into perspective." I thought 9/11 did that. Katrina. AIDS. A neighbor whose child was (murdered, got deathly ill, killed by a drunk driver, etc. etc. et. al. ad nauseum). I could list hundreds of things that "puts things into perspective." Rhinos? Sure. Whales? Yes. Songbirds? Without question. Parentless children in Africa? Asia? South America? What about public education in our own urban schools? See. There are many "causes." And none of them have any more moral imperative than the other. But, the fact that we don't discuss them in this forum, doesn't mean we are unfeeling and unknowing Americans, oblivious to the world.

Is this an overreaction to a positive, up-with-people post? Probably. (Tim, your post about your experience in Belize also chided us, and was meant to "put things in perspective"). But, and this is important, to me anyway: Just because I can and others can't, doesn't mean I shouldn't. Or feel guilty about it. (Example: Our neighbors and friends up the street cannot conceive. In deference to them, should we not have children? We can, they can't. Does it show a lack of empathy, "perspective" if you will, to go ahead and procreate, when we know our friends cannot?)

Honestly, I don't need an intellectually superior but philosophically guilty poster chastising my myopic world-view, when, really, all I want to do is fish. Which I haven't been doing.

[Outside Bend]

Tim- Are you implying that we lack perspective? That we (Ozark anglers, middle-class white suburbanites, self-absorbed consumers, what?) are frivolous with our narrow concerns with Ozark fishing, and lack empathy with others less fortunate? That there is a big, bad world out there, with people suffering in countless ways, and our inconsequential mewling over Missouri fishing is anathema with respect to the "big picture" or a "larger reality" of the human condition? Because, in essence, that is what you are doing. By giving this example of noble bravery and commitment against all odds (admirable though it is), you are secretly scolding us, wagging your finger at our lack of awareness and gravitas. "See, look at this guy, and what he's done. We have no right to complain about anything anymore."

Please. I am tired of being scolded that (insert whatever disaster/disease/human plight, that suits your fancy) "puts things into perspective." I thought 9/11 did that. Katrina. AIDS. A neighbor whose child was (murdered, got deathly ill, killed by a drunk driver, etc. etc. et. al. ad nauseum). I could list hundreds of things that "puts things into perspective." Rhinos? Sure. Whales? Yes. Songbirds? Without question. Parentless children in Africa? Asia? South America? What about public education in our own urban schools? See. There are many "causes." And none of them have any more moral imperative than the other. But, the fact that we don't discuss them in this forum, doesn't mean we are unfeeling and unknowing Americans, oblivious to the world.

Is this an overreaction to a positive, up-with-people post? Probably. (Tim, your post about your experience in Belize also chided us, and was meant to "put things in perspective"). But, and this is important, to me anyway: Just because I can and others can't, doesn't mean I shouldn't. Or feel guilty about it. (Example: Our neighbors and friends up the street cannot conceive. In deference to them, should we not have children? We can, they can't. Does it show a lack of empathy, "perspective" if you will, to go ahead and procreate, when we know our friends cannot?)

Honestly, I don't need an intellectually superior but philosophically guilty poster chastising my myopic world-view, when, really, all I want to do is fish. Which I haven't been doing.

And sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

[awhuber]

And sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Here is another guy doing his part to help the poor people in Africa!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ktla-go-daddy-elephant-hunt,0,5203023.story

[eric1978]

Joe, entertaining and hilarious as always, but I'm with OB...it's just a cigar.

[Tim Smith]

Here is another guy doing his part to help the poor people in Africa!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ktla-go-daddy-elephant-hunt,0,5203023.story

Huber, the link isn't working. If it's about the managed elephant hunts, that would be a pretty good topic.

[Buzz]

Huber, the link isn't working. If it's about the managed elephant hunts, that would be a pretty good topic.

If it's the one I read, it's about the billionaire who is supposedly invited (every year) to kill off rogue elephants which are terrorizing the villages crops..... Something like that. Anyway I don't buy it.

Good story Tim.

[Tim Smith]

If it's the one I read, it's about the billionaire who is supposedly invited (every year) to kill off rogue elephants which are terrorizing the villages crops..... Something like that. Anyway I don't buy it.

Good story Tim.

Thanks, Buzz. I was inspired too.

[Al Agnew]

There used to be an environmental saying, "Think globally, act locally." The way I look at it, you do what you can for whatever you are most concerned about, or most interested in. There are organizations for protecting just about every critter that needs protecting, as well as the more general environmental organizations. If you are so inclined, you can join them and/or donate to them. Few people have the will or the way to do what that guy is doing to save rhinos, but anybody with some spare change can do at least a little bit to make a difference there.

Meanwhile, I will continue to work on the things that are most immediate, and most dear, to me where I live.

I'm fortunate in that in some ways my profession allows me to do things for conservation that the average person cannot. I've donated artwork and prints to conservation organizations that have brought in millions of dollars to all those organizations combined. I once did and donated the artwork for two posters on wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone Park that I was told brought in more than a million dollars in sales to the organization that was working toward that goal, so I like to think that every time I see a wolf in Yellowstone I had something to do with it being there. I also like to think that people viewing my artwork in print and on products may have gotten a little more appreciation for wild creatures and wild country, which might translate to them being more mindful of the threats facing such things.

But it takes a kind of singlemindedness and fortitude that few people have to do what that guy is doing for those rhinos. I know I don't have it.

By the way, I once spent a week as a guest artist at a private conservation area in Zimbabwe, and got to see both white and black rhinos in the wild there. That was just before Mugabi started turning all the private farms and preserves over to his cronies and his army personnel, and I haven't heard what ever happened to that preserve. But it was in southern Zimbabwe.

[Tim Smith]

There used to be an environmental saying, "Think globally, act locally." The way I look at it, you do what you can for whatever you are most concerned about, or most interested in. There are organizations for protecting just about every critter that needs protecting, as well as the more general environmental organizations. If you are so inclined, you can join them and/or donate to them. Few people have the will or the way to do what that guy is doing to save rhinos, but anybody with some spare change can do at least a little bit to make a difference there.

Meanwhile, I will continue to work on the things that are most immediate, and most dear, to me where I live.

But it takes a kind of singlemindedness and fortitude that few people have to do what that guy is doing for those rhinos. I know I don't have it.

By the way, I once spent a week as a guest artist at a private conservation area in Zimbabwe, and got to see both white and black rhinos in the wild there. That was just before Mugabi started turning all the private farms and preserves over to his cronies and his army personnel, and I haven't heard what ever happened to that preserve. But it was in southern Zimbabwe.

Well said as always, Al.

I've never been to Africa and probably won't be able to afford to go any time soon. But I am amazed by these people and their commitment. What you don't get in the story above is that these patrols protecting the rhinos are often up against paramilitary poaching groups armed with automatic weapons. They are literally at war to save the last few rhinos in the world.