(Kingsley Holgate)
Africa & Beyond – the next world-first Kingsley Holgate
Expedition.
Well-known explorer Kingsley Holgate’s latest expedition, Cape
Town to Kathmandu, at the end of September had a special rhino conservation
focus and carried messages of solidarity against rhino poaching from South
African youth to Chitwan National Park in Nepal.
In a first-ever youth-focused rhino conservation activation
between the two countries, the expedition team will return to South Africa with
reciprocal messages of support from Nepalese children.
Like Africa, Asia’s rhino populations have also been
decimated by poaching, driven mainly by demand for rhino horn from China and
Vietnam. Today, less than 2,000 greater one-horned rhinos remain in the wild,
with only two populations containing more than 100 rhinos: Kaziranga National
Park in India and Chitwan National Park in Nepal.
“Chitwan National Park, despite being on the border with
China, is a rhino conservation success story,” said Kingsley. “Tens of thousands of greater one-horned
rhinoceros once roamed throughout South East Asia, but the population was
reduced by poaching and human population explosion to only a few surviving
pockets.
“Nepal’s population reached a low of just 100 rhino in the
1960s but today, Chitwan is home to a growing population of 600 greater
one-horned rhino, thanks to political will, support from the King of Nepal and
commitment from neighbouring communities.”
Holgate is a keen conservationist and founder of the
award-winning Rhino Art youth education campaign, which in partnership with
Project Rhino, has now reached over 500,000 school children throughout South
Africa and abroad in the past five years.
Its premise is simple yet effective: using art as the medium, children
living in communities bordering game reserves receive a fun-filled, rhino conservation
lesson and are encouraged to create their own Rhino Art messages. The programme also assists game reserves to
build good relations with their neighbouring communities and generates
awareness of the real threat rhino poaching poses to tourism and rural job
creation.
Using a specially-designed Rhino Art template that contains
both the South African and Nepalese flags and images of both African and Asian
rhino species, the Cape Town to Kathmandu expedition visited schools in the
Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, conducting educational Rhino Art events and
soccer matches.
“We were amazed at the response,” said well-known
conservationist Sheelagh Antrobus, who heads up the expedition’s community
conservation work. “The children not
only created amazing rhino-themed art pieces but also wrote heartfelt messages
of solidarity to their counterparts in Nepal.”
Hundreds of Rhino Art messages from South African children
are now stored in the expedition’s three Land Rovers and are en route to Nepal.
These were handed over to Nepalese conservation officials and children living
in communities bordering Chitwan National Park, before Kingsley and the team
head to Kathmandu for the expedition’s finale in mid-December.
For more information visit http://www.kingsleyholgate.com/
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