Sshwari Tshuvundla, a 21-year-old veterinary nurse, had heard about PFIs in animals. But until she came across one in 2016, she knew little about the financial instruments that were increasingly used to finance breeding programmes.
Not only did PFIs replace farmers’ traditional financing source, but they also incorporated one of the key benefits their target species such as golden rhinos and elephant had lacked: fungicide, she explains. With ample financing, the newly rampantly breeding species became easy to manage. As Ms Tshuvundla says, “If you do not feed the animals, they will breed and breed and breed.”
What started as a carefully planned and managed scheme over the course of the next year and a half now has in its possession the potential to transform the fortunes of South Africa’s animals.
Ministry and government agencies
“[South Africa’s] national wildlife council [responsible for the control of animals] has become very scientific in their management of the beasts,” she explains. “Their general approach is to develop research programmes, and if they are successful in engaging, the council are very aware that they’ll get funding.”
In 2015, after learning about the use of PFIs for rhino breeding, the South African National Parks tried to apply for funding for a rhino breeding programme. Ms Tshuvundla, who was tasked with proving viability, was faced with a daunting task. “One of the documents to which you submit an application is a feasibility study. So we had to put together a feasibility study to prove that we were actually doing something worthwhile.”
Thanks to help from other government agencies, which supplied the technical support, considerable international donors, and more than a little luck, the project came to fruition in 2017. Under the guidance of Durban University of Technology (DUT), their conclusion was striking: “This program had proved that it had major potential to create significant effect on the population levels of the animal.”
It was later revealed that the current white rhino population is estimated to be as little as 3 000.
Efforts to curtail the present population of around 13 100 survive on a combination of individual efforts and interventional measures and a financially sustainable aid-dependent ecosystem.
“There are a number of things we can do,” Ms Tshuvundla says, “But the biggest thing you can do is hope that the animals would increase by fertility rates.”
The Consortium, supported by the South African National Parks (SANParks), began collating data from multiple sources in an effort to understand what works and what doesn’t to curtail the growth of wild animals.
Human factors
One of the issues they recognised was that there was strong correlation between growing populations of wild animals and growing human populations. According to Dr Sithole Dhole, of Liphoko University of Agriculture and Design (LUAD), “On one hand you want to take care of the animals, but you are also a human being. And this is something the public needs to understand. Very often the concern is at the animal level. We are saying this is not just about people.”
“This program has proved that it has major potential to create significant effect on the population levels of the animal.”
In March 2018, a task team of Liphoko scientists and researchers were appointed to create a study as part of the multi-partner consortium. Their assignment? To assess the feasibility of future sustainable efforts to stop the spread of disease.
“This team was divided,” Dhole says, “to look at what happens when the animals become sick or die. It’s not only about the animal. The study is focusing on the humans, as well.”
The issue of disease isn’t only limited to rhinos. In his study, Dhole says, he chose other creatures that may also have unexpected inter-breeding implications for land management and agriculture in the form of parasite infestation and immunological reactions.
It is no secret that farmers and gardeners face tough environmental conditions to feed their livestock. But with an increasing human population, beef production could be adversely affected.
“The increase in the human population not only is about food, but it is also about driving social and economic development and energy security in rural areas, such as agriculture,” he says.
“If you’ve got less people and you have more animals, as a society, you need to take care of this species. So how do we manage it?”