GA4

Thursday, July 14, 2005

NORTHERN WHITE RHINOS - 5 to 10 left, Garamba to lose World Heritage status

Of all the Last Chance To See endangered animals, the Northern White Rhino is most definately the closest to extinction. (We're making the unofficial assumption that the Baiji Dolphin is already extinct - See Sticky Post).

Several websites are reporting on the news that...
The World Heritage Committee is considering removing Garamba National Park from the World Heritage List in 2006 if the Northern White Rhino becomes extinct by then.

"No rhino, no World Heritage site" was the echoing comment of the World Heritage Committee meeting yesterday, 12 July 2005, during a long and heated debate about the situation of Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
[...]
"The Northern White Rhino is a flagship species for this site and every effort must be made to protect the remaining 5-10 individuals", commented David Sheppard, Head of the IUCN delegation in Durban.
Full story at Harold Doan, with more coverage at The Mercury.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a nightmare. Reading the linked articles, I'm surprised that the IUCN didn't vote to spit on the surviving wardens and staff and chant "Looooo-sers, looooo-sers" after they are eventually delisted.

Dammit. This is an example of everything going wrong, of everyone with power doing exactly the wrong thing in their own interests and helping to bring about the worst possible outcome.

It seems that NOW would be the time to start docking the horns of the surviving rhinos, eliminating their value to poachers. It may cause serious stress to the rhinos, it may not even save them from the poachers, but if nothing is done the species will probably be extinct by Christmas.
Harold