We trim rhino horns to save them — then lock them away instead of utilising them
for their survival.
How would you explain that… to the rhino?
- Looking back on 3.5 years as honorary CEO — and looking forward to real
solutions for rhino survival. by Hanno Nusch -
“Don’t use your army to fight a losing battle” — let’s see who knows from which song
this line comes.
Here’s a hint: it was released the same year I was born. Yes, I’m an 80’s kid — and
so is this song.
But let’s talk about rhinos — who’ve roamed the Earth for over 50 million years.
They’ve proven their resilience time and time again.
Yet today, they’re being sent into battles they cannot win — because we keep trying
to save them with emotions instead of economics.
We’ve built a whole narrative around the so-called “rhino war.” But here’s the
uncomfortable truth: it’s a war with no winners — except those profiting from this
very narrative.
Meanwhile, rhinos are losing. And they’re losing because we’re too afraid to question
the system.
Coming into the nonprofit sector without prior experience, I’ve found it eye-opening
to navigate the dynamics of this space.
It is far more competitive than I imagined, and while collaboration is vital, I’ve learned
it only works when core values and goals truly align.
Too often, I’ve seen nonprofits trapped in a mindset of maintaining problems rather
than solving them — avoiding uncomfortable truths,
side-stepping scientific evidence, or silencing expert voices out of fear that it might
alienate donors.
Early in my tenure, I recall a board meeting where comments like “our donors
wouldn’t like that” or “this would be hard to fundraise for” made me pause.
It was a moment of clarity: followers can’t be leaders. If our beneficiaries are the
rhino and the people who live alongside them — and not the donors —
then we must act in the best interest of those beneficiaries, even when it's unpopular
or inconvenient.
The road to hell, as they say, is paved with good intentions. More rangers, more
cameras, more patrols — these are vital tools, and we continue to value and invest
in them.
But by themselves, they are not enough. A system focused almost entirely on
protectionism risks fostering a narrative that wildlife must be protected from people
rather than by people, selling an illusion of safety that, when you consider the
vastness of the landscapes involved, is simply not feasible in practice.
And speaking of selling — NGOs love their one-liners.
“No one in the world needs a rhino horn but a rhino” — I bet the hundreds of
thousands of rhinos that died because someone “needed” their horn might beg to
differ.
Another one: “When the buying stops, the killing can too.” It’s catchy. It gets printed
on tote bags. But what’s the action behind it?
There is none. Just blame. Just finger-pointing.
Meanwhile, we continue to ignore the reality:
we can’t change thousands of years of belief systems and demand-driven behavior
in time to save a species —
and we fail to take meaningful action over the few things we do have control over:
the rhinos themselves,
their current (and potential future) custodians, the land they already inhabit, and the
vast landscapes they could inhabit again.
Instead, we spend millions reacting to symptoms, rather than fixing the system.
And here's my one-liner — because attention spans are short these days:
Rhino are the biggest missed opportunity in large-scale wildlife conservation &
restoration.
They are one of the very few species that can pay not only for their own survival, but
also for the survival of so many others.
Yet we keep choosing sentiment over strategy, optics over outcomes, and short-term
applause over long-term solutions.
A landmark study across 11 southern African reserves between 2017 and 2023
showed that of the $72 million spent on anti-poaching,
only 1.2% was allocated to horn trimming. That small fraction led to the greatest
impact,
“achieving large (78%) and abrupt reductions in poaching.”
At Rhino Revolution, we’ve funded horn trimmings for over a decade — long before
long-term, large-scale data like this was available —
and we will continue to do so because we believe in evidence-based conservation.
Even when it’s controversial to some. Even when it’s hard to fundraise for.
And when you’ve funded hundreds of these operations, at one point you ask the
ultimate question:
Imagine for a second you could talk to a rhino. How would you justify taking its horn
and locking it in a vault to rot — instead of using it for its own survival?
I couldn’t. And I won’t.
Rhinos can survive. They can adapt — to a world we humans changed around them.
We must empower them to pay for their own survival in a world ruled by economics.
That means turning an illegal product into a legal, ethical revenue stream — one that
benefits, not exploits, the rhino and the people who protect them.
We’re not advocating for a future in which rhinos remain dehorned and under siege
forever.
We’re working toward a world in which they can roam freely, as they were meant to
— horns intact.
But to get there, we must adapt. Survival has always been about adaptation.
And compromise, in this case, is not weakness. It’s strategy.
This is the revolution rhinos truly need.
As the world is changed by your example, not your opinion, we are committed to
leading it —
through models like our Ubuntu Project, which links rhino protection directly to rural
community development,
ethical revenue sharing, and long-term resilience.
It’s time to move past the slogans. It’s time to get real.
This is the fight worth leading.
And the question is: Will it be a fight mainly against those who claim to “save” the
rhino by paving the road to hell with good intentions?
The good news? We all seem to want the same thing:
a future where rhinos roam wild and free as they used to.
The challenge lies in agreeing on how to get there.
In the meantime, let’s stop using our army to fight a losing battle — and let's unite in
building a strategy that actually wins.