Hugging the tembusu tree

fotojournalismus:

[World Press Photo 2012]

Nature, 1st prize stories :

Rhino Wars by Brent Stirton

Photos : 

1. A White Rhino mother and calf in the landscape of iMfolozi Game Reserve in Natal, South Africa. It is the world’s largest repository of Rhino, home to an estimated 2,300. Rhino horn is now worth more than gold on the international market. South Africa alone has lost more than 400 rhino to illegal poaching incidents in 2011. The demand for Rhino horn is fueled by a wealthy Asian middle and upper class and used overwhelmingly as medication. (01 May 2011)

2. A female rhino in Natal, South Africa, that four months earlier survived a brutal dehorning by poachers who used a chainsaw to remove her horns and a large section of bone in this area of her skull. She survived the dehorning and has joined up with a male bull who now accompanies her. (09 November 2010)

3. A White Rhino cow is dehorned as a precautionary anti-poaching measure on a game farm outside of Klerksdorp, South Africa. A vet’s assistant holds the horns for an identity picture while the vet does a final check on the animal. (25 March 2011)

4. A Black Rhino in transit after being captured for security translocation at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, South Africa. The park is famous for its translocation programs that saved the Southern White Rhino from extinction. The Black Rhino remains critically endangered in Africa today, with less than 3,500 surviving. (07 November 2010)

5. A wealthy Vietnamese woman sits and grinds Rhino horn for her personal consumption in a roadside cafe in Baoloc, Vietnam. The dealer who sold her the horn sits next to her. Rhino Horn is an illegal substance in Vietnam yet both the woman and her dealer have no fear of the police, grinding the horn in a cafe in full view of the street. The woman says that ground Rhino horn has cured her kidney stones and she now takes it daily for her general health. Rhino horn is now worth more than gold on the international market. South Africa alone has lost more than 400 rhino to illegal poaching incidents in 2011. The demand for Rhino horn is fueled by a wealthy Asian middle and upper class and used overwhelmingly as medication. (06 October 2011)

[Credit : Brent Stirton/Reportage by Getty Images for National Geographic Magazine]

On first read a few weeks ago, dehorning the rhinos as a preventive measure seems pretty counter-intuitive. But with weak regulations, I would still say it is the lesser of two evils. Human greed, see what a spot you have put conservationists in- that they have to go to the extent of removing what was meant to protect, to guard against you.

(via climateadaptation)