NGO brings Vietnamese youths to KZN wildnerness

Vietnamese teenagers last month spent a week in the KwaZulu-Natal wilderness to study conservation issues, notes a report in The Mercury. The tour was organised through the youth conservation awareness initiative #VietnamBeMyHero Wild Rhino campaign and supported by the Wilderness Foundation, Peace Parks Foundation, Olsen Animal Trust and SOUL Music and Performing Arts Academy (SMPAA). ‘Demand reduction is vital to the survival of rhino in the wild. Wildlife crime is decimating many of Africa’s iconic species and rhinos have suffered the most severe effects of this illegal trade,’ the organisers said in a statement. The Wilderness Foundation said: ‘With the older generations for the most part set in their ways, much hope lies with changing the hearts and minds of the 10 to 24 year olds, who make up almost 25% of Vietnam’s 94m strong population.’ This is the second time that the Wild Rhino campaign has brought a group of Vietnamese youth to SA for a wilderness experience. The first group visited in 2015 and went on to be ambassadors for the cause in their home country.

Staying with rhino poaching matters: Four armed men are on the run with two rhino horns stolen last week from a game farm in the Uitenhage cluster policing area. According to a report in The Herald, police spokesperson Captain Gerda Swart said the suspects, armed with rifles, had forced their way into a storeroom. The horns had been harvested from a rhino that died about a month ago. ‘The suspects fled in a vehicle from the scene,’ she added. The name of the property is being withheld. Swart said a special task team was following the case.