The desert adapted black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis bicornis) in the Kunene Region (covering the tourism regions Damaraland and Kaokoland) are the only rhino in the world that have survived on communal land with no formal conservation status.

In the early 1980's in slaughter of desert wildlife took place. Members of the South African Defence Force and government officials paid subsistence farmers to hunt the rhino living high in the mountains where they were not easily shot from vehicle or helicopter.

As rhino numbers shrank to near extinction, a group of concerned people (scientists; geologists; community leaders; nature conservation officials; farmers; journalists; housewives and businessmen) gathered to form Save the Rhino Trust.

The aim of the Trust was to stop the slaughter of rhino, elephant and other wildlife in the area. After a few years of determination and hard work, and with the help of international funds, Save the Rhino Trust was officially recognized and registered as Charitable Organization number 53.

At first, convicted poachers were employed by the Save the Rhino Trust (as they had extensive knowledge of the habits of rhino). Since then, poaching has drastically declined and the rhino population has more than doubled.

Today the organisation collaborates with local communities, the Namibian tourism industry, the government, the scientific community and concerned members of the public. The trust provides security for the rhino, monitors the population in the region, and brings benefits to the community through conservation and tourism.

• To protect, monitor and conduct research on the Kunene Rhino population in accordance with the Mandate from MET and to particularly strive to achieve the following strategic objectives in the Black Rhino Conservation Strategy for Namibia i.e. Expansion of Range, Biological Management, Protection and Law Enforcement and Co-ordination and Collaboration.
• The active collaboration between all stakeholders (Government, NGO and Communities) is supported.
• An improved understanding and awareness amongst all stakeholders and other interested parties is created.
• SRT is financially secure and attempts to become self-sufficient, e.g. Rhino Camp Joint Venture with WSN, expanding to include the Camel Team and Camel Safaris in 2006.
• SRT is managed in an effective and productive manner.
• The regular assessment of the population status of the black rhino is maintained and to accomplish the Terms of Reference detailed in the Mandate from MET.
• The capacity of relevant stakeholders to sustainably manage natural resources is enhanced.
• An improved understanding of human and rhino related conservation and tourism benefit potential, plus data collection on Human Induced Disturbance (HID) through monitoring and tourism activities.
• Patrol and monitor the rhino range.
• Enhanced technical capacity through: (a), involving communities in collection of field data, training them on-the-job using SRT field-staff and conservancy field-staff; and (b), identifying the key requirements from field-staff to ensure efficient monitoring and evaluation.

Even though all staff members of the SRT are Namibians, international donors are primary the basis of the Trust's continued success in protecting the desert rhino and elephant. Major donors are: The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, Rhino Rescue, Save the Rhino International, PTES from the United Kingdom, PACT, Berolina Schriftbild, Deutsch Namibische Gesellschaft and the German Embassy, the Barbara Delano Foundation and Caterina Ramella from Italy.

In the long term, Save the Rhino Trust aims to make its projects self-sufficient and managed by local staff. For this reason training in eco-tourism and support for rhino based tourism is provided. The Ugab Base Camp and Training Centre already generate funds to cover most of their operational costs. The Trust also engages in a number of revenue-generating activities. (See 'Traveller Activities', below.)

Hon. Mr. S. Tjongarero
Hon. Mr. S Nuuyoma
Dr. A. Hartmann
Mr. W. Rossouw
Mr. R. Loutit
Hon. Mr. H. Booys
Mr. B. Beytell

SRT is managed as a charitable trust with 5 Namibian Trustees taking the management decisions.

At present the following staff is employed:

CEO: Rudi Loutit
Director of Fieldwork: Bernd Brell
Director of Research: Simson Uri-Khob
Financial Manager: Erica Brell

A craft center manager in Swakopmund; two project managers; three drivers/team leaders; and 34 trackers/ camp staff. Less then 10% of the staff are based in towns/ offices. The rest are field-based. At present all except three staff are Namibians.

The majority of staff are from the areas neighbouring the rhino range within the Kunene region. Amongst the employees are several rural women. Many more community members benefit indirectly from the work done by SRT, through the Trusts promoting income from craft sales and tourism.

Blythe Loutit (1940 – 2005) grew up in the freedom of the African bush on a farm in South Africa, where a herd of wild eland ran free with their horses. She trained in scientific illustration at the Botanic Research Institute of South Africa. She illustrated two published books on the flora of Namibia and also illustrated 193 (80 in colour) of the trees and shrubs of Namibia (unpublished). She also painted landscapes and wildlife.

Blythe Loutit was instrumental in founding Save the Rhino Trust. She worked on Rhino projects in Namibia from 1982 until her death. In 1986 she received the IUCN Species Survival Commission's Peter Scott Merit Award. In 1992 she won the Survival Award for the Conservation of an Endangered Species. In 2001 she received the BBC's Animal Award for the Conservation of a Species.  Although her death passing left an indelible hole in the heart of Save the Rhino Trust, her legacy and dedication continues through her husband Rudy Loutit, CEO of the Trust.

She is buried near the Damaraland rhino centre to which she dedicated her life.

Rudi Loutit, CEO of Save the Rhino Trust, has an economics degree and has, since 1974, has worked for several different Namibian government organizations in the field of wildlife conservation since 1974. He was a ranger in Etosha National Park, warden of the Skeleton Coast National Park and later Chief Warden for Damaraland and Skeleton Coast.

In 1998 he began working towards an Msc. and studied arid area management at the Gatton University (University of Brisbane) in Australia. On his return he was appointed Rhino Co-ordinator for the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET).

He represents Namibia at the IUCN’s Species Survival Commission in the African Rhino Specialist Group. He has now been appointed the Namibian Specialist in charge of the Custodianship Rhino project and oversees training, management and data analysis.

Save the Rhino Trust operates a craft center in the Woermann and Brock Mall in the centre of Swakopmund. Part of the proceeds of the centre go towards sustaining activities of the trust. Further proceeds go back to communities to alleviate poverty and reduce the incidence of poaching.

A crafts workshop and conservation information centre at the Crafts for Conservation Centre in Khorixas offers the local unemployed a means to earn an income from the estimated 40,000 tourists passing through this town annually. The alternative income reduces the need for poaching for economic survival.

A number of courtesy stops, developed by Save the Rhino Trust, are located along travel routes which cover the ranges of the desert-dwelling rhinos and elephants. Information is provided to tourists, curios are sold, donations for local communities can made and some control of access to the sensitive areas and the rhino and elephant range is exercised.

The Kowareb camel station, from which camel patrols of the rhino and elephant ranges depart, has a craft shop to sell their crafts. The community at Khowarib also runs a small tourist camp with traditional huts situated on the cliffs overlooking the  only sporadically running river in the region.

Khowarib Schlucht is a spectacular river canyon with towering cliffs through which the Hoanib River has cut its course. The desert elephants use this route through the mountains during the dry season. Adventurous tourists can join the Camel Patrol Team on their patrols.

Rhino still inhabit the foothills of the spectacular Duareb mountain massive, overlooking the Ugab River. Save the Rhino Trust has a training centre in the area and a small community campsite has been developed. Travellers visiting the site may join a rhino patrol with a registered safari company and Save the Rhino Trust trackers.

Several travel ventures in the Kunene region have been supported by Save the Rhino Trust for the benefit of the community. These ventures provide travellers with the opportunity to book trips and day trips to see the black rhino and desert elephants in their natural habitat. Consult with your local operator.

Local game guards work in five groups, each regularly patrolling a specified area within the 25,000 square kilometres rhino range. Patrols normally begin in vehicles or on camels. When fresh rhino tracks are found, the patrols continue on foot.

Rhino are observed at close range using binoculars to note any distinguishing marks and assess body condition. All observations are recorded on detailed ID forms. Good quality ID photographs (front, side and rear view) are taken, and the exact position of each rhino is recorded using a GPS. All this information is fed into a coded computer database and analyzed.

Apart from the regular monitoring work a complete photographic census of all the rhino in the area was completed in 1992 in conjunction with the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET). The census was repeated in 1997/98 in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and with assistance from IRDNC field staff. During this census all information on the rhinos, track logs of the patrolling routes as well as accurate locations of all springs and waterhole's were recorded.

Save the Rhino Trust’s monitoring data is provided to MET (who are responsible for the conservation of all wildlife in Namibia) and also made available to the African Rhino Specialist Group and the Rhino Management Group of Southern Africa through MET's representative on these conservation bodies.

Over the years the tracking teams have photographed and identified every rhino in the 25,000 square kilometres. Every newborn calf is recorded, as are all mortalities. This monitoring effort needs to be maintained, as the rhino population grows and rhino change appearance over time.

At the village of Kowareb, Save the Rhino Trust has pioneered a community based camel patrol project. The camel programme was introduced due to the very rugged terrain in which some of the rhino live. It is too difficult to get into the mountains to monitor the rhino by vehicle and too far away from water to walk with donkeys.

The camel patrols visit all the outlying settlements and stay a few days with the herders, finding out any news about rhino. Any rhino tracks are followed and the rhino are identified.

Three camels were donated and another three untrained camels have since been purchased, one of which has died. The response from the community has been enthusiastic and there is great pride in being able to work with the camels. A request has been made for more camels to be introduced to the area to replace donkeys.

Save the Rhino Trust aims to help communities to take on more and more of the responsibilities of conserving and monitoring the desert rhino and elephant. The camel project employs 10 community based game guards who live with their families.

The Kowareb project has grown to include a craft center and a community campsite.

Proactive security work is done in collaboration with the MET and the Protected Resources Unit (PRU) of the Namibian Police. For example a Rhino and Elephant Security Action Plan for Namibia has been drafted by this specialist police unit, in collaboration with the rhino co-ordinator of MET, Save the Rhino Trust and private landowners involved in rhino conservation.

The Trust has direct radio contact with the PRU and key officials in MET. The plan makes provision for aircraft and helicopters to be mobilized if such a need arises. Recently a Cessna 172 was donated by the Deutsch Namibische Gesellschaft for rhino monitoring and security in the Kunene region.

Dehorning of rhino in danger of being poached in the communal land was very successful after infiltrators killed 7 rhino in late 1988. In early 1989 the most vulnerable Rhinos were dehorned. Five of the cows, which had calves either before or after the dehorning were able to successfully raise their calves which are now sub adults fending for themselves. More rhino were dehorned in 1991. By dehorning the rhino, the animals are no longer of interest to poachers.

One of the key factors in preventing poaching is that poaching was an economic necessity. In order to reduce poaching, Save the Rhino Trust developed a number of initiatives to provide alternative incomes to communities and to assist them to benefit from tourism and the presence of the desert-dwelling elephants and black rhinos. Sustainable streams of revenue are developing from rhino-based tourism, community tourism, crafts and patrol operations.

Save the Rhino Trust established one of the first Community Based Species Survival (CBSS) Projects for the rhino in Africa, with direct community involvement in the conservation of rhino, and benefits received through conservation and tourism going to the local population. Save the Rhino Trust built an "indaba" (meeting) centre near Palmwag at the Mai Go Ha base camp where community leaders discuss conservation matters with their colleagues.

Meetings with headmen and community groups on conservation matters are important to ensure a future for the desert wildlife.

Other forms of community involvement run by Save the Rhino Trust in conjunction with the government and traditional leaders include planning wildlife conservancies to be managed by the community, information and awareness programmes including travelling TV shows, visits to neighbouring farms and villages, showing conservation videos at schools and developing projects specially designed to involve women in self-help income generating projects.

Although information on wildlife in the area is sensitive, and misuse of information can lead to poaching, Save the Rhino Trust recognises that the species are part of the natural heritage of mankind, and that sound, eco-sensitive practices can provide sustainable economic benefits to the people living in and around the areas ranged by the black rhino and desert dwelling elephants.

Several commercial tourism ventures in the Kunene region have been supported by SRT for the benefit of the community. The Kowareb community has developed a campsite overlooking the Hoanib River, on the range of the desert elephants. Additionaly, Save the Rhino Trust has put in place a number of craft and information centres so that communities can sell their crafts and benefit from promotion of tourism to their concession areas.

Rhino still inhabit the foothills of the spectacular Duareb mountain massive. In this area, on the banks of the Ugab river Save The Rhino Trust has developed a training centre. SRT's Training Camp is a basic facility designed to provide training in eco-tourism to rural people who have minimal scholastic qualifications. Local inhabitants and visiting groups are taught how to present and conduct walking trails in rhino and elephant country. Additionally, a small tourist camp has been constructed. Much of the camp is constructed with the use of the ruins and debris left by the Brandberg West mine that closed down in the late 1980's.

The Save the Rhino Trust is represented at the international meetings of the African Rhino Specialist Group (AFRSG), which is a member of the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Contributions from Save the Rhino Trust have been made to other international meetings and conferences, throughout Africa, Europe and the Americas.

Inclusion of Save the Rhino Trust activities in intineraries will assist Save the Rhino Trust to become self-sufficient. There are two ways to do this: either through craft purchases and donations at courtesy stops and craft centres, or through participation in rhino excursions by local operators working in conjunction with Save the Rhino Trust. Fees for excursions are used to support Save the Rhino Trust and local communities.

At times, or on tours, travellers and operators may discover information about movement of the desert-dwelling black rhinos and elephants. Please be aware and remind your travellers that information about locations should not be divulged to others as this can be used by poachers.

E-mail karenpr@rhinotrust.org.na or srtall@rhinotrust.org.na or call / fax + 264 64 403 829 in Swakopmund.

For more information on inclusion in itineraries, contact your local operator.

While on tour, donations can be made to the Save the Rhino Trust at the major craft centres. Donations to communities can be made at community camps or courtesy stops. Every little bit helps and is gratefully received.

Although Save the Rhino Trust is working towards self-sufficiency, the organisation still requires the funding of larger corporate and institutional donors. The Trust is a registered charitable organisation in Namibia, and will provide proof of receipt of donations if requested.

Please make donations using the following details:
Bank: Nedbank of Namibia
Branch: Swakopmund
Account No: 1052 024300
Swift Code: CBONNRNX

For more information on recognition for publicity purposes and use of the Save the Rhino Trust logo, please contact the Trust.

Save the Rhino Trust regularly puts in place sponsored activities such as the 2007 Rhino Walk. Proceeds of these activities are used to support activities of the Trust. E-mail Save the Rhino Trust for information on activities.