The country has two of the three significant populations of endangered black rhinos and close to 90 percent of all the southern white rhinos remaining on the continent. A key reason is game privatization. Rural landowners are selling off their cattle, bringing in expensive game and charging admission. The country's private reserves now account for three times as much conservation land as its expansive national parks. But in the new democratic South Africa, if conservation continues to be a game for the white elite, the safety of rhino sanctuaries, public and private, cannot be ensured.
Many public reserves sit on traditional lands.
Today rural tribal communities want to get their land back, but a return to subsistence farming and cattle grazing inside the parks would be an ecological disaster. So it is important for conservationists and activists to work in partnership with the tribal communities to help them build their own game reserves and reap the benefits. Until that happens, the long-term survival of rhinos remains in doubt. To purchase a copy of the March 2001 issue, click here . Abstract of an article by Doug Stewart, originally published in the March 2001 issue of Smithsonian .