Africa’s endangered wildlife at risk as tourism dries up

NANYUKI, Kenya (AP) — armed rangers set off at dusk in pursuit of poachers. COVID-19 pandemic has brought a new alertness, and a new fear.

With tourists gone and ir money, too, protecting endangered wildlife like black rhis has become that much more challenging. And poachers, like many desperate to make a living, might become more daring.

Rhis have long been under threat from poachers who kill m for ir horns to supply illegal tre fueled by mistaken belief that horns have medicinal value.

w re are concerns that COVID-19 pandemic may increase such poaching, said John Tekeles, a patrol guide and he of dog unit at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.

“We are more alert because maybe more poachers will use this time to come in to poach,” Tekeles said.

number of black rhis in Africa has been slowly increasing though species remains “critically endangered,” according to a report in March by International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN. It credits, in part, effective law enforcement.

Ol Pejeta is home to more than 130 black rhis, single largest population in East and Central Africa, said Richard Vigne, conservancy’s managing director.

Protecting m is expensive. Ol Pejeta spends about $10,000 per year per rhi on that protection, Vigne said.

“In our case that comes to close to $2 million a year,” he said. “In time of COVID, when tourism has completely stopped, where most of our revenue comes from tourism, revenue we need to earn to protect rhi comes from tourism, it’s a complete disaster.”

conservancy expects to see $3 million to $4 million in lost revenue this year. refore, Vigne said, “our ability to look after rhis is compromised.”

Conservationists across Africa are w monitoring to see how poachers might try to take vant, and wher more rare wildlife will be killed.

Africa’s various rhi species h been seeing a downward trend in poaching, according to IUCN, with 892 poached in 2018, a drop from a peak of 1,349 in 2015.

And population of black rhis h been growing by an annual rate of 2.5% between 2012 and 2018 to more than 5,600.

That growth was projected to continue over next five years, IUCN has said.