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Visa pour l'image 2012 : Brent Stirton
TUGELA PRIVATE GAME RESERVE, COLENSO, NATAL, SOUTH AFRICA - NOVEMBER 9: A female rhino (left) who 4 months ago survived a brutal dehorning by poachers who used a chainsaw to remove her horns and a large section of bone in this area of her skull in Natal, South Africa on November 9, 2010. The poachers surveyed the area by helicopter, mapped out the movements of the Rhino and the Guards and then darted the animal and hacked of the horn with a chainsaw. In an act of callous brutality they left the animal alive when they left with her horns. This Rhino was consequently found the next day wandering around in unimaginable pain. She also had a young 4 week old calf who was seperated in the incident and subsequently died of starvation and dehydration. The female adult miraculously survived the dehorning and with some supervision has gone on to join up with a male bull who accompanies her and helps her to survive. © Brent Stirton/Reportage by Getty Images
MESSINA, SOUTH AFRICA - MARCH 25: A White Rhino skin is salted for curing after a morning hunt on Dawie Groenewald's hunting estate in Messina, South Africa on March 25 2011. South African hunting laws currently allow for an unlimited number of White Rhino hunts annually. The hunts cost an average of $50 to $70 000 but the horn of a large Rhino can sell for up to $300 000 thus there is a large loophole in the law for Asian hunters and horn traffickers to exploit. Groenewald along with his wife and 11 of his employees are currently accused of involvement in the illegal Rhino Horn trade. He is suspected of killing a number of rhino on his farm and de-horning them without permits for the conservation authority. Groenewald denies this but has become the posterboy for the Rhino poaching epedemic sweeping South Africa. He is free on bail and authorities have not confiscated his helicopter or his guns. He continues to conduct hunts on his property for a majority Vietnamese and Eastern European clientele. Groenewald claims that he would prefer to conduct green hunts, with anathetics administered by dart and subsequent dehorning replacing killing the animal but admits that there is a section of the Asian marker that prefers horn that comes from an animal which has been shot. © Brent Stirton/Reportage by Getty Images
KLERKSDORP, SOUTH AFRICA - MARCH 25: A White Rhino cow is de-horned as a precautionary anti-poaching measure on a game farm outside of Klerksdorp, South Africa on March 25, 2011. The Vet's assistant is seen holding the horns for an identity picture while the Vet does a final check on the animal. Rhino Poaching has reached epedemic proportions in South Africa, with 334 killed in 2010 and over 400 killed in 2011. Many game farmers are increasingly turning to de-horning their animals as a protective measure against poaching. A 2 year study in Zimbabwe on the effects of de-horning has revealed no negative repercussions to the animal, and has seen less animals killed through fighting and horn damage. A large horn grows back after 5 years to its full size without trauma to the animal and thus can be seen as a renewable, sustainable resource for the Asian markets if legalized. At this time the only legal means to obtain a horn in South Africa is through a permitted hunt with a member of the conservation authority present. This means that the animal has to die before the horn is available. Statistics on poaching prove that the lack of access to legal horn has seen poaching become common practise and the price of Rhino horn has reached an all time high, surpassing that of gold. The counter argument to de-horning for profit is that it will lead to an interference in the natural world and an abuse of the resource in terms of animal treatment. Most Vets across South Africa have adopted de-horning as a neccesary anti-poaching technique to save the animals from being killed for their horn. © Brent Stirton/Reportage by Getty Images
OL PEJETA CONSERVANCY, KENYA - JULY 13: A four man anti-poaching team permanently guards a Northern White Rhino on Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya on July 13, 2011. The Ol Pejeta Conservancy is an important non-profit wildlife conservancy in the Laikipia District of Kenya and the largest sanctuary for black rhinos in East Africa. It is also the home of 4 of the world's remaining 8 Northern White Rhino, the worlds most endangered animal. There has been an increase in poaching incidents on Ol Pejeta recently, in line with a massive worldwide increase in rhino poaching linked to the rise in the Asian middle class. Anti-poaching teams provide close protection to the rhino, with 24 hour observation over all rhino on Ol Pejeta and 24 hour armed guard protection over the 4 Northern White Rhino who are kept in their own Boma area. The team have developed extraordinary relationships with these Rhino, leaning on them, scratching them and displaying tremendous affection towards these most endangered of animals. Each of the men in these teams feels a genuine vocation towards the protection of these animals, something the rhino seem to sense, and this emerges on a daily basis as the men walk with the rhino through their day. © Brent Stirton/Reportage by Getty Images
BAOLOC, VIETNAM - OCTOBER 6:: A wealthy Vietnamese woman sits and grinds Rhino horn for her personal consumption in a roadside cafe in Baoloc, Vietnam on October 6, 2011. The dealer who sold her the horn sits next to her. Rhino Horn is an illegal substance in Vietnam yet both the woman and her dealer have no fear of the police, grinding the horn in a cafe in full view of the street. The dealer states that he pays $1500 a month to the right people and they can carry on with impunity. The woman says that it has cured her Kidney Stones and now she takes it daily for her general health. Rhino horn is generally used as a fever reducing agent and for the removal of toxins across Vietnam, the biggest market for horn today. Rhino horn has even been held up as a cure for Cancer by a senior Minister in the Vietnamese government. Rhino horn is now worth more than gold on the international market. 100 grams of Rhino horn in Vietnam sells for $2500 to locals and over $8500 to foreign buyers, these were the prices consistently offered to our investigative team in meetings with 5 separate dealers across the country in October 2011. The demand for Rhino horn is now fueled by a newly wealthy Asian middle and upper class that can afford the substance which was previously only for the wealthy. The price is further affected by the controlling influence of organized crime. The horn is used overwhelmingly as an anti-fever, anti-toxins medication, with thousands of years of cultural belief behind the practice. This is despite the fact that Rhino horn is now an illegal substance around the world. South Africa alone has lost more than 400 Rhino to illegal poaching incidents in 2011, to say nothing of those lost to legal hunting. There are less than 16000 rhino left in the world and at this compounded rate of killing, the Rhino is racing to extinction. © Brent Stirton/Reportage by Getty Images
TUGELA PRIVATE GAME RESERVE, COLENSO, NATAL, SOUTH AFRICA - NOVEMBER 9: A female rhino (left) who 4 months ago survived a brutal dehorning by poachers who used a chainsaw to remove her horns and a large section of bone in this area of her skull in Natal, South Africa on November 9, 2010. The poachers surveyed the area by helicopter, mapped out the movements of the Rhino and the Guards and then darted the animal and hacked of the horn with a chainsaw. In an act of callous brutality they left the animal alive when they left with her horns. This Rhino was consequently found the next day wandering around in unimaginable pain. She also had a young 4 week old calf who was seperated in the incident and subsequently died of starvation and dehydration. The female adult miraculously survived the dehorning and with some supervision has gone on to join up with a male bull who accompanies her and helps her to survive. © Brent Stirton/Reportage by Getty Images
Rhino Wars - Brent Stirton / Reportage by GETTY IMAGES for National Geographic
Currently one rhinoceros is killed by poachers every 16 hours in South Africa. Over the last three years, more than a thousand of these animals have been slaughtered. In response, police gunned down 22 poachers and arrested more than 200 in 2011. At the bloody heart of this conflict is the rhino's horn, a prized ingredient in traditional Asian medicines. Though black market prices vary widely, as of last fall dealers in Vietnam quoted prices ranging from $33 to $133 a gram, which at the top end is double the price of gold and can exceed the price of cocaine.
Although the range of the two African species—the white rhino and its smaller cousin, the black rhino—has been reduced primarily to southern Africa and Kenya, their populations had shown encouraging improvement. In 2007 white rhinos numbered 17,470, while blacks had nearly doubled to 4,230 since the mid '90s. For conservationists these numbers represented a triumph. In the 1970s and '80s, poaching had devastated the two species. Conservation groups were able to convince several consuming nations to crack down on the sale of rhino horn, including China and Yemen. Now, however, much of the trade centers on Vietnam, where rhino horn has been recently rumored to be used as a traditional treatment for cancer.
Meanwhile, in South Africa, attracted by spiraling prices—and profits—crime syndicates began adding rhino poaching to their portfolios. Rhinos have been targeted on private game ranches, provincial reserves, and especially in the country’s vast Kruger National Park. South African authorities have responded by sending military units to bolster patrols and instituting a shoot-poachers-on-sight policy. Private activists have responded to the crisis, helping train and equip game rangers and boosting education campaigns in communities that live close to wildlife.
Amid all these efforts to combat poaching, some game farmers are questioning the international ban on selling rhino horn. They point out that unlike elephant ivory, rhino horn can be sustainably harvested without hurting the animals and that the horns will grow back fully in two years. Allowing the sale of responsibly harvested horn would make the animals attractive to farmers, who would be incentivized to invest in better security, and legalized trade would allow prices to stabilize and decrease speculation.
In the meantime, the killings continue, the carcasses pile up, and the world’s rhino population shrinks toward oblivion.
**Peter Gwin, who authored National Geographic’s story, is writing a book entitled Rhino Wars: A Journey into the Violent Underworld of Black Market Medicine, to be published in Fall 2012.
Brent Stirton
Brent Stirton is a 42 year old South African Photographer with an extensive history in the documentary world. Brent’s work has been published by: National Geographic Magazine, Time Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, The Discovery Channel, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, The London Sunday Times Magazine, Le Express, Le Monde 2, Figaro, Paris Match, GQ, Geo, Stern, CNN, and many other international titles.
Brent is the official photographer for the Global Business Coalition against Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He has been a long time photographer for WWF, the World Wide Fund for Nature, shooting campaigns on sustainability and the environment. He works for the Ford and Clinton Foundations, the Nike foundation and the World Economic Forum. He has photographed the Davos exhibition for the annual conference of world leaders in Switzerland for the last 6 years. He has been on the board of the Young Global leaders, a wing of the World Economic Forum for 5 years. He is also a Canon Ambassador, one of 12 photographers representing Canon photography.
Brent has received awards from the Overseas Press Club, the Frontline Club, the Deadline Club, Days Japan, The Pictures of the Year competition, China International Photo Awards, the Lead Awards Germany, Graphis USA, American Photography, American Photo and the American Society of Publication Designers as well as the London Association of Photographers. He has been regularly selected for the Communication Arts Photography annual. Brent has received 6 awards from the Lucie Foundation including International photographer of the Year. He has won 5 awards from the World Press Photo Foundation and has also received 2 awards from the United Nations for his work on the environment and in the field of HIV. He has won the Visa D’or at the Visa Pour L’ image Festival in France for Magazine photography. He also won the National Magazine Award for his work in the Congo for National Geographic Magazine.
Brent co-produced a documentary on Virunga National Park in conflict for National Geographic Television as well as appearing in the show. The documentary won the Emmy for Best Documentary Feature as well as a Bafta Award for Best Documentary.
His work has appeared in numerous print shows around the world and his images are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York as well the Johannesburg Museum of Modern Art. He has been most recently exhibited in a solo show in conjunction with Elton John Aids foundation in Kiev, Ukraine in November 2011.
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