"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?  You have made them a little lower than the angels  and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. Lord , our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

Psalm 8

Why should we be concerned about the loss of an animal, plant or insect species from our natural environment?  

So what if we lose the rhino?
 
Imagine a puzzle and that you live in the puzzle. All the pieces fit tightly together. We are part of a bigger picture where all natural things are inter-dependent or influence other things in our picture.  Losing one aspect of the picture, or a puzzle piece, has a lasting effect on the picture. The picture can never be whole again. There will always be something missing. Our children will come into the world and look at the incomplete picture, and wonder what the missing piece looked like and what difference it made.
 
The hole in the puzzle causes the other pieces to become looser.

They start to move with the restless movement of the earth and its inhabitants.

Eventually, we cannot see where the missing piece went.
 
But, things are different... More chaotic... Less balanced...
 
Pieces that relied on the missing piece are no longer supported and have to look elsewhere for their support.

What does the rhino support? What role does it play – what depends on it? Will our landscape be complete without its tank like body roaming our bushveld? Will things ever be the same without the mammoth elephants roaming our landscape like a scene in a “Land before Time”?  Will we ever be the same when we lose the majestic lion and we no longer hear his deep, chilling challenge in the darkness?  No. The time to act is now- before it is too late and we face the reality of our loss without any way to redeem it.

South Africa is home to over 90% of the world’s population of rhino and at the heart of the rhino crisis.

The situation is critical with 333 being killed illegally for their horns in 2010 compared to over 1200 in 2014.

The World’s rhinos are being wiped out in order to satisfy a small market in Vietnam and China where it fetches up to $65 000 a kg – it is more expensive than gold.

Elephant poaching is once again on the rise as they are slain for their ivory.

There is concern that the number being poached will exceed the number being born.

According to CITES at least 20 000 elephants were poached annually from 2011 – 2013.

In 2018 the last Northern White Rhino died.  This species which inhabited the Sudan and DRC was destroyed by militant activity and became extinct in the wild with a few remaining in captivity.  Currently only 2 females survive in a Kenyan reserve. They are no longer able to reproduce and once they die this species will be extinct. 

 
How did this happen? Who let it happen?

 
It is too late to do anything about it…
There is no solution or recourse for that species…
It is too late!
 
Do we want to have to say this again?

WE ARE CUSTODIANS OF NATURE
 
"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them?  You have made them a little lower than the angels 

and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands;

you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild,

the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.

Lord , our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

 

Psalm 8