Known as the Platinum Rhino breeding project, John Hume made the announcement on Monday. 

“South Africa’s privately owned Platinum Rhino breeding and conservation project, the largest of its kind in the world, is set to go on auction in mid-April 2023. The project has been in operation since 2009 and currently protects close to 2,000 Southern white rhinos on an 8,500 hectare savannah landscape in South Africa,” the notice said. 

“Project founder John Hume says the ideal buyer is a person or foundation with a passion for conserving rhinos and the means to keep the breeding project going.” 

Finding such a buyer will be no easy task, though it might appeal to someone with lots of cash – say, in the billionaire bracket – who wants to make their mark in conservation. But there are not too many ads out there on the buy side that say: “Wanted: 2,000 white rhinos. Will pay premium price.” 

Hume’s previous attempts to woo investors or auction assets to pay for the project have not met with success. In 2019, an attempt to auction his 6,600ha Mauricedale Nature Estate in Mpumalanga received no bids.  

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Top rhino rancher running out of options after property auction flop”

“Our appeal for alternative funding and/or investment from the world at large has to date proven entirely fruitless,” Hume said at that time. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Quo vadis South Africa’s rhino rancher supreme?”

More recently, Hume has attempted to plug into the “rewilding” movement, which broadly seeks to reintroduce wild fauna to its historic ranges and landscapes. Last year, he made 100 of his rhinos available for such purposes, but this initiative has also failed to gain traction. 

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The Platinum Rhino breeding project has found organisations with rewilding expertise to partner with, such as African Parks, but has not been able to secure a funder or a buyer to pay for the rhinos. Many NGOs will raise funds for translocation, but rely on animals that are donated. 

“The project was set up to ensure the survival of a genetically diverse population of rhinos, which is now similar in number to the white rhino population of the Kruger National Park. Due to its breeding success, it has the greatest ability to save the species from extinction. 

“With 200 rhinos born a year, the project has the power to make a significant difference and bolster declining rhino populations on the African continent,” the auction notice says. 

Hume’s critics – and there are more than a few in conservation circles – have accused him of “stockpiling” rhinos and their horns for speculative purposes in the event that the global ban on trade in rhino horn is ever lifted. 

The rhinos on Hume’s property are regularly dehorned – an anti-poaching measure – and he has indeed amassed several tonnes of horn, and has long been an advocate of legal trade. 

A former businessman, Hume doesn’t conceal his pro-trade views and could conceivably make hundreds of millions of dollars for his horn, which remains coveted in Asian markets. Recent research has suggested that the main driver is now Chinese demand for carvings, not Vietnamese yearnings for a hangover cure. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Rhino horn illicit trade driven by demand for luxury carvings, not medicine – new report”

Hume has often said that he simply has a passion for rhinos. And it is also simply a fact that Hume has over 16% of Africa’s white rhino population and has not lost one to poachers since March 2017. 

He is the alpha of private rhino owners, and they have done a far better job of protecting their herds and growing numbers than the South African state has in the face of the poaching onslaught. And in the conservation of endangered species, numbers matter. 

Some critics also take issue with Hume’s breeding methods, but his animals are hardly “domesticated” – this correspondent has been there a few times over the years and was never tempted to walk up and try to pat one – and could presumably be used for rewilding purposes.  

As for the April auction, opening bid information will be made available just beforehand. The auction will be timed and online.

Hume said that if the auction fails, the project will be wrapped up. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Wildlife baron John Hume’s 2,000 white rhinos up for grabs in global online auction“

“The white rhino breeding and protection project will be closed down/disbanded, the rhinos will be sold piecemeal, the land will be sold for cattle grazing or maize cultivation and the 100 employees will be let go – this unique conservation project that is actively saving the Southern White Rhino from extinction will be lost,” he told Business Maverick. 

Selling the animals “piecemeal” might mean a series of fire sales – rhinos don’t fetch the prices they once did, not least because of the rising costs to secure the animals. And if the critters can’t be sold that way, there could be an animal welfare crisis brewing of mammoth proportions. 

Hume’s project is on land that was once used for cattle and maize. Reverting it to those purposes is clearly at odds with the concept of rewilding. But the wider movement could be on the cusp of losing a population of rhinos that could help seed rewilding initiatives. DM/BM