The country will unveil the recovery and action plan 2022-2026, detailing how it intends to protect the iconic species even as it joins the global community to mark World Rhino Day.
The World Rhino Day is an international ecological observance celebrated on September 22.
The day was inaugurated in 2010 to help raise awareness of the need to protect the five existing species of rhinoceros: white rhino, black rhino, Indian rhino, Javan rhino and Sumatran rhino.
Internationally, the them will be : “Keep the five species of rhinos alive.” while the one suggested for the country is: “Securing the future for rhinos though enhanced stakeholder collaboration.”
The 2022-2026 action plan seeks to enhance rhino surveillance and monitoring, conduct population surveys and expand rhino ranges.
KWS has in collaboration with all the rhino areas in private and community Rhino Sanctuaries, County government of Narok and relevant government agencies and conservation partners, put in place robust rhino monitoring and surveillance systems.
This has largely contributed to significant reduction in rhino poaching in the last five years. Mortalities attributed to poaching being less than one per cent for five consecutive years and zero poaching recorded in 2020 for the 1st time in the last two decades.
The African Rhino Specialist Group of the IUCN's Species Survival Commission recommends the use of individual based ID rhino monitoring as the most reliable method to provide accurate rhino population estimates.
This is mainly undertaken through use of ear notching by cutting out a combination of V shaped patterns unique to each rhino in a population.
It is recommended that, the exercise be undertaken every three years before calves leave their mothers noting that calves can be identified with their mothers. However, when they leave and form a group association with other sub adults, it becomes challenging to differentiate them thus compromising meta-population management.
The National Wildlife Census 2021 report showed that Kenya has the third largest population of rhinos in Africa after South Africa and Namibia.
The census report said the country has a total rhino population of 1,605 (853 black rhinos, 750 southern white rhinos and two northern white rhinos) as at end of 2020.
The census was officially launched May 6, 2021, at Shimba Hills National Reserve.
The census report noted that the country was implementing the sixth edition of the Black Rhino Action Plan (2017-2021).
The report said the long term vision of the action plan was to have a meta-population of at least 2,000 black rhinos of the eastern African subspecies in Kenya, and in suitable habitats as a global heritage.
The overall goal is to achieve a meta-population of 830 black rhinos by the end of 2021.
“Kenya has already surpassed its goal in the action plan having achieved a population of 853 black rhinos as at December 31, 2020,” part of the census report said.
The state is now reviewing the 2017-2021 Action Plan to have new goals and activities.
The census report also shows that Kenya remains the stronghold of the eastern black rhino subspecies conserving just over three quarters (approximately 80%) of the wild population of the sub species.
Kenya’s black rhinos are conserved in nine state, four private, one county and one community lands across the country
The census report said Kenya is for the first time developing the first White Rhino Conservation and Management Action Plan (2021-2025).
It said the population of the southern white rhino has undergone rapid growth since introduction with current population estimated at 750 individuals from the 51 individuals introduced from Southern Africa in the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s.
Kenya rhino population is managed as a meta-population.
This means that the country has a number of sub-populations of a species or sub-species managed collectively as one single population.
The animals are occasionally moved from one sub-population to another.
The 2017-2021 action plan noted that rhinos are a flagship species and a highly charismatic animal that can serve as a rallying point for conservation, capturing the attention of people from all over the world and generating significant returns from wildlife-based tourism.
The lapsed plan says rhinos are an umbrella species as their conservation depends on large areas of ecosystems being conserved and protected.
They therefore serve the objective of wider biodiversity conservation, part of the plan says.
It also notes that rhinos are keystone species with significant roles in ecological dynamics.
This means that their persistence is important to the conservation of other elements of biodiversity.
The lapsed plan identified poaching as a major challenge.
It noted a dramatic reduction in their population in the 1970s and early 1980s as a result of the illegal trade in their horn.
“Kenya’s black rhino population declined from approximately 20,000 animals in 1970 to fewer than 400 animals in 1987,” part of the lapsed plan says.
Between 2012 and 2016, 5,703 black and white rhinos were reported poached in sub-Saharan Africa, with Kenya losing 145 animals over that period.
The country has however put in place several strategies that have seen poaching decline.
In 2020, there was no rhino poached in the country– the first time since 1999.
In Asia’s black market, rhino horns are traded merely for status symbol and for its superstitious ability to cure diseases as serious as cancer.
