OWN CORRESPONDENT, Gland | Wednesday 3.15pm.
THE African rhino population is slowly growing, in response to intensive conservation work, the World Wide Fund for Nature announced in Gland, Switzerland on Wednesday.
The WWF said the known total of all African rhinos grew from 9971 in 1995 to 11065 in 1997
“It may not seem a very large increase but when you take into consideration the difficulties in dealing with illegal hunting over large areas, this is definitely good news,” said Holly Dublin of the WWF African Rhino Working Group.
While 30 years ago there were 65000 black rhinos in Africa, there are now just 2599. This is an increase, however, over 1995’s 2408. White rhinos are up to 8466 from 7563.
Rhinos are threatened principally by the high demand for rhino horn in China, where it is used in “medicine”, and in the Middle East, where it is used for making decorative dagger handles.
An international ban on trading rhino products imposed in 1997 has not affected the trade.B Worldwide Fund for Nature