Biodiversity Management Plan for white rhino gazetted

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Members of the public are invited to submit, within 30 days of the publication of the notice, written representations on, or objections to the draft Biodiversity Management Plan.

The gazetting of the Management Plan was developed in accordance with the National Norms and Standards for the Development of Biodiversity Management Plans for Species published in 2009.

The Biodiversity Management Plans for Species allows for the monitoring and review of actions taken to conserve species in the wild amidst a changing environment. It also requires that all management plans compiled by conservation authorities are approved by the Minister for public participation and implementation respectively.

Intention of Plan

The development of the Biodiversity Management Plan for white rhino is intended to enhance conservation of the species. Additionally, the development of this Biodiversity Management Plan is in response to an instruction from the Environmental Parliamentary Portfolio Committee as a result of the current upsurge in rhino horn poaching.

It also reflects on the commitment of the key partners involved to work together in order to effectively achieve priorities highlighted in the Minister's rhino summit as well as try to curb the illegal poaching and trade in rhinos.

The main purpose of the proposed Biodiversity Management Plan is to ensure the long-term survival in the wild of the species and provide for monitoring and reporting on the progress with implementation of the plan.

The plan enables the evaluation of conservation progress and management and sets out key actions and strategies needed to ensure that monitoring, protection, conservation and sustainable management of the species will contribute to meeting conservation goals and contribute towards meeting the long-term vision for conservation of white rhino.

Short-term targets

The South African white rhino Biodiversity Management Plan sets short-term or five-year targets and provides a long-term vision aimed at ensuring the successful management and growth of the species.

The short-term or five-year target is aligned to the present escalating poaching situations, setting a 'realistic goal' of a meta-populations of at least 20,400 white rhino in South Africa by 2020. The key components of the proposed Biodiversity Management Plan are protection, monitoring, permitting and stock control, sustainability, biological management, effective communication and collaboration and hunting of rhinos.

The proposed Biodiversity Management Plan also outlines the present process being led by the Committee of Inquiry into the feasibility, or not, of a legal rhino horn trade ahead of the 16th Conference of Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in South Africa in 2016.