Durban - Dwindling numbers of KwaZulu-Natal’s rhino population could be disastrous for the province’s tourism sector.
There are concerns that should the rhino population in KZN be decimated, there would be no attraction for tourists to come to the province.
Tourism KZN said rhino poaching would definitely have a knock-on effect on the R7-billion tourism industry, as 27 percent of KZN’s international tourists visited the province for the nature and wildlife.
KZN is home to roughly 21 percent of South Africa’s white rhinos and 24 percent of the country’s critically endangered black rhino population.
So dire is the situation that smaller private game reserves are selling their rhinos to larger reserves as it has become too expensive to protect the animals from poachers.
Tourism KZN’s chief executive Ndaba Khoza said the latest figures indicated that about 1 million tourist came to KZN in the last financial year, spending an average of R7 000 per person.
Khoza said the industry could not envisage a future of tourism without the Big Five and it was working with KZN Ezemvelo to arrest the disaster.
Dulcie Olivier, the general manager of Thanda Private Game Reserve in northern Zululand, a five-star lodge that boasts the Big Five said: “You can get wonderful rooms, sea views and landscapes in many other parts of the world, but the Big Five you get here in KZN, and if we don’t protect the animals, we will lose tourists to other provinces.”
Thanda is one of the many reserves showcasing their attractions at the Tourism Indaba being held at the ICC this weekend, and Olivier said there were definite fears in the game reserve industry over the plight of the rhinos.
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Simon Naylor, the reserve manager for And Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve in northern KZN, said losing rhino in KZN would be “disastrous” for the wildlife tourism market.
Don Airton, the chairman of the Zululand Rhino Reserve, said when tourists came to game reserves, they asked to see the lions and rhinos.
“There is certainly more and more interest as to what is happening with rhinos, and international tourists come to see rhinos as part of their experience in the country,” said Airton.
Sheelagh Antrobus, the co-ordinator of Project Rhino KZN, which arranges anti-poaching initiatives, said game reserves undertook community development initiatives such as supporting community schools and crèches, but the sustainability of these were directly related to KZN’s ability to maintain its attraction as a top tourist destination.
At the Tourism Indaba today, Fritz Breytenbach, a ranger with the Tintswalo Safari Lodge in Mpumalanga which has an open boundary to the Greater Kruger National Park, will announce his 1 000km walk that begins on Wednesday through the Manyeleti Reserve and the Kruger National Park.
He aims to raise awareness, and engage with communities to inform authorities of any planned rhino poaching.
“We all need to do something and this is my way of helping to stop poaching,” said Breytenbach.
His walk is part of the Tintswalo Property Group’s Tintswalo Rhino Extreme Campaign to raise R5 million to stop rhino poaching.
The battle against rhino poaching was given a major boost this week when Ezemvelo confirmed it had signed a R4m sponsorship, one-year deal securing the use of several aircraft to patrol several game reserves and parks.
The Post Office has decided to bring in a postal stamp celebrating the Big Five, and called for aspiring designers to submit designs, which will be turned into postcards. - Independent on Saturday