“How long will the land lie parched and the grass in every field be withered? Because those who live in it are wicked, the animals and birds have perished.” Jeremiah 12:4

Rhinos were close to extinction in the early 1990s. Two decades of painstaking conservation efforts succeeded in increasing the population of rhinos in Africa, from fewer than 2,500 in 1992, to over 24,000 by 2010.

Rhinos at Risk

Now a sharp increase in poaching of rhinos is threatening to reverse decades of conservation efforts and plunge rhinos back into decline and the threat of extinction. In the last three years over 800 rhino have been killed, most of those in South Africa.

The drastic surge in rhino poaching is being driven by an insane demand in Asia for rhino horn. In Vietnam and China, people are willing to pay thousands of dollars for just a sliver of rhino horn. Rhino horn is considered a miracle drug and an aphrodisiac. Although there is no scientific evidence to support this bizarre belief, rhino horn can fetch $22,000 per kilo on the black market. Rhino poaching is now a R150 billion industry annually.