The categories include Best Field Ranger, Best Conservation Practitioner, Best Political and Judicial Support, Best Science Research and Technology, and Best Awareness, Education or Funding. The additional Special Youths category honours youngsters that have taken action against poaching.
Nominations can be made by and/or on behalf of any person or organisation that has played a part in rhino conservation, on any scale. Nomination forms can be requested from Janyce Dalziel at janyce@currintevents.co.za, or downloaded from the website, rhinoconservationawards.org. Once nominations are closed on 1 June 2015, an executive committee will review all nominations and draw up a short-list for the winners to be chosen from. A panel of adjudicators will then identify the winners and runners up in each category.
According to a recent article written by photojournalist, Scott Ramsay, rhino poaching in South Africa is at record levels, with more than 1,215 having been killed in 2014. The game rangers are the soldiers on the front-lines in this war against the desecration of a species, putting their lives and that of their families on the line for nature conservation.
Lawrence Munro, winner of the Best Conservation Practitioner Rhino Conservation Award in 2014, previously the head ranger of the iMfolozi wilderness area in the southern section of Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, now heads up the Rhino Operations Unit, the anti-poaching task force for the whole of KwaZulu-Natal. Munro's unit has been relatively successful and he attributes much of the success to targeting poachers and their syndicates outside of protected areas, rather than waiting for poachers to come into the reserves.
A great advance in the war against poaching is the listing of rhino poaching as a priority national crime, indicating that government's intelligence and security agencies now support conservation agencies such as Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.
This essential yet dangerous line of work is unforgiving, unrelenting and dangerous. Thirty-nine year-old Munro, who has a young family, is constantly armed and on guard. "I am thinking combatively all the time," he explains. "My family and I have had very directed, pointed death threats. Letters addressed to me that say: we don't want you around any more."
The implications of his line of work mean that his family cannot travel after dark without Munro acting as escort; he works strenuously long hours - preparing in the day and hunting poachers at night. This places stress on his family and affects every facet of his life. Munro is often forced to keep a lot of his work secret, unwilling to reveal anything to his family that will endanger their lives. Despite the danger, Munro loves his work. "It's such a great feeling to catch a rhino poacher or middleman. But the job does take its toll."
