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How a tiny town in Namibia saved its beloved rhinos

Every day and every night, rhino trackers trek into the desert plains of northwest Namibia in search of a rare, desert-adapted subspecies of black rhinoceros. They aren’t alone.

Last year, poachers killed 87 rhinos in Namibia. But this community hasn’t logged a rhino poaching in three years. That’s because, under Namibia’s community conservation model, safeguarding the animals is more lucrative than selling them on the illegal market.

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As poaching soars across Namibia, one community hasn’t lost a rhino to poachers in three years. How’d they do it? By working with the community.

At Palmwag Lodge, tourists from around the world laze around two pools after spending around $150 for a half-day rhino-trekking tour. “The rhinos attract the white people, and that gives us jobs,” says one server and mother of three who has found steady work at the lodge for the past seven years. “We all care about rhino conservation here.”

The model also appears to be working for the rhinos.

When Save the Rhino Trust was established in 1982, only 50 black rhinos roamed this area. Forty years later, Namibia hosts almost 35% of the world’s remaining black rhino population. As to the exact number? “That’s a state secret,” says the organization’s CEO.

The rhino trackers trek a mile into the open desert plains of northwest Namibia. They stop 300 feet from a desert-adapted black rhinoceros grazing on the rocky hillside.

Rhinos have poor eyesight, so the windy day works in the trackers’ favor, making it harder for the animals to locate them by sound or smell. Sebulon Hoeb, the principal field officer of Save the Rhino Trust Namibia, wants to get closer, but his partner today, Ebson Mbunguha, has his binoculars trained at the distance. He tells the group to back away. He has identified this rhino: Matty 2. She is 4 years old, which means her mother probably has a new baby and could appear on the open plain at any moment. There are no trees to climb if the crew is suddenly surrounded by creatures that can weigh as much as 3,000 pounds.

Plus, they’ve identified her. Their job is now done. 

Why We Wrote This

A story focused on

As poaching soars across Namibia, one community hasn’t lost a rhino to poachers in three years. How’d they do it? By working with the community.

Every day and every night, trackers from Save the Rhino Trust, alongside rangers from the local community, patrol 25,000 square kilometers (just under 10,000 square miles) in Namibia’s northwest, the only place in the world where this desert-adapted subspecies of the black rhino is still truly wild. Even if these animals are spotted from a distance, the trackers know them so well that they can identify them from their behaviors, roaming patterns, and physical features like birthmarks. It’s all documented on small pieces of paper that pile up back at Save the Rhino Trust headquarters in the pinprick of a town, Palmwag.

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

Ebson Mbunguha scans for rhinos through binoculars.

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

A female rhinoceros named Matty 2 forages for food on the hillside.

The trackers are not just building a living database of conservation or scientific study; patrolling is the best tool they have against rhino poaching. And the work is paying off. 

Rhino conservationists discourage publishing the price of horns on the black market, in order to deter criminal activity, but rhino horns are in high demand, especially in China and Vietnam. After years of successfully clamping down, Namibia saw rhino poaching increase by 93% last year over the year before, according to the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism. But here the community hasn’t logged a rhino poaching in three years. That’s because, within the structures of Namibia’s community conservation model, safeguarding the animals is more lucrative than selling them on the illegal market. It’s an ultimate win-win. 

“Most of us understand that the rhino pays us,” Mr. Hoeb explains plainly.

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