African Parks, a conservation NGO that manages 22 protected areas in partnership with 12 governments across Africa, has announced that it will take over the 7,800 hectare "Platinum Rhino" site near Klerksdorp in South Africa's North West province from wealthy property developer turned conservationist/wildlife rancher/rhino breeder John Hume (81). The world’s largest private captive rhino breeding operation is home to over 2,000 southern white rhino, which is equivalent to 15% of the world's remaining wild population of southern white rhino. According to African Parks, it has one clear objective: to rewild these rhino over the next 10 years to well-managed and secure areas, establishing or supplementing strategic populations, thereby de-risking the future of the species. The breeding programme will be phased out and the project will end once all the rhino are released into the wild. This is one of the largest continent-wide rewilding endeavours to occur for any species.
John Hume's "Patinum Rhino" farm went up for auction on 26 April 2023 due to financial reasons, but did not receive any bids. On 04 August 2023, African Parks CEO Peter Fearnhead confirmed in a statement that his organisation had agreed to take over the farm and and all its rhinos – with the endorsement of the South African Government, which will support African Parks with technical and scientific advice, and the African Rhino Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
African Parks is a non-profit conservation organisation that takes on the responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of protected areas, in partnership with governments and local communities. African Parks manages 22 national parks and protected areas in 12 countries covering over 20 million hectares in Angola, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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