Khorixas community celebrate World Rhino Day
Community members joined the march on Friday 20 September through Khorixas to celebrate World Rhino Day. The march was led by Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism, Bernadette Jagger and U.S. Ambassador Lisa Johnson, flanked by Save the Rhino Trust CEO Simpson Uri-Khob and USAID Country Representative Dr. Randy Kolstad.
More than 400 community members joined the march through Khorixas to celebrate World Rhino Day on 22 September 2019. The march was led by Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism, Bernadette Jagger, and U.S. Ambassador Lisa Johnson.
The march was a call for the protection of the rhino population. “Together, we must save Namibia’s rhinos from illegal poaching,” Johnson said in Khorixas at a ceremony to mark Rhino Day, which occurs on 22 September.
“Our hard work is paying off,” she said in her remarks at the World Rhino Day ceremony, which was hosted by the Namibia Nature Foundation and Save the Rhino Trust.
Community game guards and rangers
Remarks by U.S. Ambassador Lisa Johnson at the World Rhino Day Celebration
I am very happy to be here today with you all to celebrate World Rhino Day. Many of you here are those who are responsible for protecting Namibia’s natural resources, including its rhinos, and you are to be congratulated on the Kunene region’s remarkable success in doing so in recent years.
Wildlife trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar illicit business that is decimating Africa’s iconic wildlife populations. Many targeted species, such as the African rhinoceros, face the risk of significant decline or even extinction. Between 2007 and 2018, over 9,000 African rhinos were poached.
U.S. Ambassador Lisa Johnson highlighting the successful partnership between the United States and Namibia in protecting rhinos at World Rhino Day in the Khorixas stadium.
Wildlife crime undermines Namibia’s economic prosperity and threatens the country’s natural capital resources. It obstructs sustainable economic development, including the development benefits derived from legal, nature-based enterprises such as tourism. In Namibia, wildlife tourism is an increasingly important and growing industry that benefits both communities and the national economy.
Wildlife crime, including poaching, also erodes social stability and cohesion. It impoverishes communities at the same time as robbing their cultural and natural heritage. Communities that are dependent on natural resources are exposed to security threats and to the loss of their livelihoods and income.
The governments of the United States and Namibia have been working in close partnership to combat wildlife crime, including poaching and wildlife trafficking.
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