Operation Wild and Free is Save the Rhino's 2013 appeal. We are urgently raising funds for Save the Rhino Trust in Namibia, which works to protect the world's largest truly free-ranging population of black rhino.

For over 30 years, Save the Rhino Trust has been working incredibly hard to protect this critically endangered desert-adapted rhino population in the Kunene and Erongo regions in a remote corner of Namibia.

Back in the 1980s poaching and drought decimated the area's wildlife and reduced the rhino population to dangerously low levels. Over the past three decades Save the Rhino Trust has played a crucial role in monitoring the rhinos and deterring poaching in the region. Save the Rhino Trust has helped the area’s rhino population increase by five fold.

Save the Rhino Trust works closely with the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism and local communities. The Trust has dedicated teams of trackers who out on daily foot, camel, donkey and vehicle patrols to monitor this unique rhino population. With scorching temperatures, rocky terrain and vast distances to cover, protecting Namibia’s desert rhinos is an incredibly tough challenge.

With poaching rapidly increasing in neighbouring South Africa, there is little doubt that poaching would return to the region if the teams were unable to carry out their patrols.

However, a current lack of funds puts the trackers’ work at risk. You can help protect Namibia’s rhinos by donating to our Operation Wild and Free appeal to raise urgent funds for Save the Rhino Trust Namibia.

Please visit our website www.savetherhino.org/operationwildandfree for more information and updates on the appeal

Friend a rhino!

From July - November 2013, we will be sharing the incredible stories of these unique desert rhino. By donating £50 or more you can become a 'Friend' of one of these rhinos and we will provide you with a personalised certificate acknowledging your kind donation. 

For more information on these individual rhinos, please click here