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ND People's Choice Award - Honorable Mention

Richard Humphries (Malaysia)
South Africa's Rhino War South Africa's Rhino War South Africa's Rhino War South Africa's Rhino War South Africa's Rhino War

TitleSouth Africa's Rhino War

Entry descriptionRhino poaching is fast becoming an epidemic, and one of the most pressing conservation issues in the world today. A record 1,004 rhinos were killed in South Africa in 2013, up from 668 in 2012, a 50 per cent increase in just one year. If this trend continues in 2014 we will reach the tipping point for Rhinos by the end of the year. By the end of 2014 we will start to be in the negative in terms of deaths and poaching outstripping birth, and the population will start to decline very quickly.

According to the 2013 IUCN Red List the Southern White Rhino is near threatened and the Black Rhino is critically endangered. A seemingly insatiable demand for Rhino horn from the medicine markets of Vietnam and China is feeding this madness. Driven by a common belief in Asia that ground-up rhino horns can cure cancer and other ills, the trade has been embraced by ruthless criminal syndicates that normally traffic drugs and guns, but have now branched into the underground animal parts business because it is seen as a low risk, high profit enterprise. Rhino horn is now worth more than gold and cocaine on the black market.

Limpopo and Mpumalanga province's represent the front line in South Africa's War on Rhino Poaching and the Forward Operating Base in that war is the small town of Hoedspruit. With it's proximity to the Kruger National Park Hoedspruit is an ideal location for Anti-Poaching teams to base their operations. Anti-Poaching teams provide security for the game parks within the Kruger area by using highly trained units to patrol large game areas. Despite being well trained, heavily armed, and connected to a deep intelligence network the Anti-Poaching units often find themselves one step being the criminal gangs.

About the photographerI am a British professional photographer with more than 15 years international experience. I specialise in photojournalism and documentary photography. My work is focused on exploring stories that are so often passed by in today's monotonous mainstream media and I am especially interested in social and environmental related stories with a particular interest in identity and borders. I have completed assignments for the following publications and organisations: The New York Times, The Times (UK), Time Magazine, Newsweek, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, Discovery Channel, The Associated Press and UNICEF, to name a few. In 2016 I authored and published my first book “Kingdom’s Edge”. Kingdom’s Edge offers a unique and timely documentation of daily life in the conflict zone of Thailand’s deep south region.

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