The Rhino Renaissance Campaign – a collaboration between SANParks, the private sector and non-profit organisations – aims to reinvigorate the white rhino population at Kruger National Park.
This G20 legacy project represents “a focused, coordinated national response to one of the most urgent threats facing our biodiversity … turn(ing) a narrative of loss into one of renewal”, said Dr Dion George, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, at the initiative’s launch in Skukuza in July.
According to SANParks, the campaign will “rebuild rhino populations, strengthen security, empower communities and reassert South Africa’s leadership in rhino conservation in the world”.
Turning the tide
South Africa is home to more than 80% of the continent’s white rhino population.
Just over a decade ago, there were 20,000 white rhinos in the country, of which 12,000 lived in the Kruger Park.
However, as a result of poaching, in 2023, only 17,500 remained in South African reserves, just over 2,000 of which are in the Kruger.
George said that in the first half of 2025, 195 rhinos had been poached nationwide – a decline of 35 compared to the same period in 2024, but still an alarming figure for this near-threatened species.
Rhino Renaissance director and Londolozi co-founder Dave Varty, who also serves on GWF’s board of directors, says positive strides have already been made to protect these creatures.
This includes the establishment of several safe havens in South Africa and Africa, where rhino numbers are increasing significantly as breeding efforts bear fruit.
But more needs to be done to restore local rhino populations to their previous levels, and he believes the Rhino Renaissance Campaign will turn the tide while creating sustainable jobs in the wildlife economy.
Rhino renaissance
“It’s changing the rhino conservation narrative from death and despair to one of a rhino renaissance,” says Varty.
“It marks a new chapter in South Africa’s conservation story – one that understands that we belong together, and that we as South Africans will bring South African solutions to South African problems.”
The project will entail the 24/7 monitoring of white rhino herds across large areas, with 90 specially trained rhino monitors from the Tracker Academy (part of the Peace Parks Foundation) being deployed in the Kruger Park every year.
These monitors or guardians will stay close to the rhinos in virtual bomas to protect them, supported by the park’s security personnel.
They will use drones, GPS collars and digital reporting systems to provide real-time data to anti-poaching enforcement teams.
Community involvement
Importantly, local communities surrounding the Kruger will be more closely involved than ever in rhino conservation, using their ancestral knowledge to build sustainable careers in wildlife.
GWF – an education non-profit with five digital learning campuses serving villages bordering the Sabi Sand Nature Reserve – will be pivotal to the project, says Varty.
“Most of the rhino monitors will be drawn from the local villages where GWF operates, and therefore their future career paths and livelihoods are tied to the economy of wildlife.
“Through the Rhino Renaissance project, thousands of young people who are invested in the area will be capacitated. This will conscientise them to the benefits of conserving wildlife in the Kruger – and the vital importance of looking after the rhinos,” says Varty.
In keeping with SANParks’ Vision 2040 to transform communities living adjacent to game parks from observers to co-guardians of protected areas, GWF will be involved in the Rhino Renaissance Campaign through its tried and tested conservation-focused programmes for learners and young adults, such as:
- Open Learning Academy: reaching 12,000 learners weekly with coding, robotics and gamified conservation lessons. These include:
- Coaching Conservation: interactive programmes like Rhino Rap and Vulture Rap that teach ecosystem dynamics through sport and storytelling.
- Kids in Parks: field trips to the Kruger Park, where GWF learners experience conservation in action.
- Conservation Academy: vocational training for young adults in field guiding, conservation technology and digital storytelling.
Varty says young people have a meaningful role to play in protecting and conserving rhino populations.
“There’s a new generation of South Africans who are seeing rhinos in a different light. We believe the future heads of the Kruger and SANParks, and our future leaders in conservation, will be graduates of the Good Work Foundation. That’s our vision.”
He adds, “When South Africans come together, we win World Cups. We’ve won the rugby, we’ve won the cricket, and now we’re going to win the ‘Rhino World Cup’!
“As the sporting mantra goes, we are stronger together. We are confident that by 2040, the rhino populations in Kruger will have returned to their former numbers and South Africans will once again be recognised by the world as the keepers of this iconic species.”
