The Black Rhino of Liwonde and the Breeding Sanctuary

The background

In the late 1980’s the last remaining Black Rhinoceros disappeared from the Mwabvi Wildlife Reserve in the lower Shire River Valley of Malawi.
Poaching, together with a human population explosion has caused Malawi’s environmental degradation and allowed for land encroachment into its Parks and Reserves. This together with a very willing but under funded Department of National Parks and Wildlife led to the demise of this magnificent animal’s existence in Malawi.
Other species threatened with extinction at this time were eland, burchell’s zebra, roan antelope, Lichtenstein’s hartebeest and cape buffalo.
In the early 1990’s the Department of National Parks and Wildlife of Malawi and the South African National Parks Board got together to remedy this bad and worsening situation by initiating the Malawi /South Africa Wildlife Development Project in Liwonde.
They initiated this project to reintroduce black rhino and the five other species mentioned earlier into a breeding sanctuary in the Liwonde National Park and then re-distribute them to other National Parks and Wildlife Reserves in Malawi at a later date.
This project would then be managed and funded by the J&B Circle of Malawi on behalf of the DNPW Malawi. The J&B Circle has now been re named ESOM (The Endangered Species of Malawi)

Project Objectives

1. Reintroduce black rhinoceros from the Kruger National Park in South Africa and bring them to Liwonde for release into a 14 square kilometer electrified and fenced enclosure within Liwonde National Park.
2. Reintroduce the other five endangered species mentioned earlier from National Parks and Wildlife Reserves with Malawi
3. Return excess animals back to other Parks and Wildlife Reserves in Malawi once the breeding stock in the sanctuary has reached acceptable numbers
4. Keep the Liwonde Black Rhino Breeding Project and sanctuary going until these animals are no longer endangered.

The Story

The stakeholders
The Department of National Parks and Wildlife in Malawi took the initiative to negotiate and implement this wildlife conservation project with their friends the South African National Parks Board. Without their foresight and initiative there would have been no story to tell today.
Central African Wilderness Safaris provide much appreciated assistance and we also enjoy generous sponsorship from Paignton Zoo UK and Total Malawi Limited as well as receive welcome donations from well wishers like Leeds Girls High School UK and our ever enthusiastic London Marathon runners. The staff uniforms are sponsored from Australia by Cellabs.
The black rhino projects success must also be attributed in a big way to the J&B Circle of Malawi, because aftercare and funding was to be the all important ingredient to ensure that the long term goals required for this project would be fulfilled.  J&B Circle, now known as ESOM or the Endangered Species of Malawi Circle still funds and manages the Black Rhino Project in Liwonde today.
A very well known and well respected conservationist a few years ago had this to say about the J&B Circle of Malawi.
“The J&B Circle, with a name that was a puzzle to outsiders but not to anyone who lived in Malawi in the past few years became an institution in conservation circles. The Circle earned its place as a respected NGO through the funds it raised, for the selfless volunteer service that its members provided for the development and management of the Liwonde sanctuary, and for the undoubted pivotal role that they played in securing the return to Malawi of the black rhinoceros, one of Africa’s most charismatic big game species.”
A compliment we have come to appreciate and intend to honour as long as the project lasts.
The J&B Circle/ESOM employ 24 staff workers selected from the local community and provide them with meals, rations, uniforms and for some, bicycles to carry out their day to day duties. They comprise of a supervisor, tractor drivers, fence attendants and labourers. The DNPW Malawi provides three trained rhino scouts and two fence attendants to assist the project to monitor and carry out law enforcement duties in the sanctuary.  Thanks to them there is little evidence of poaching in the sanctuary and the main problem we encounter is the damage inflicted on the sanctuary fence by large aging bull elephants that come and go at will.

The Rhinos

In the latter part of 1993, our first breeding pair of Black Rhino arrived into the Liwonde National Park breeding sanctuary and signaled the start to the most successful wildlife project ever undertaken in Malawi. These two Rhinos were affectionately known as “Justerini & Brooks” after their sponsor and were to produce three calves by the year 2000.
A second breeding pair arrived in Liwonde in 1998 and then a third in 2000 which necessitated increasing the sanctuary holding area to 40 square kilometers.
Their breeding has continued at a rate as good as, if not better than expected and a further four calves have been born in Liwonde since then. Unfortunately we lost one of our breeding females “Chimwemwe” shortly after her arrival in 2000 from stress related issues and sadly to say, she was 8 months pregnant at the time of her demise.
A surplus of male calves have been born in the sanctuary which has necessitated the removal of four young male rhinos to Majete and South Africa which has effectively reduced Liwonde rhino population but will benefit the bigger program taking place in Malawi at the moment.    
The net result is four males have been moved out and Brooks and Chimwemwe died of natural causes leaving us with eight rhino in the sanctuary and a ninth due before this article goes to print. The replacement females for our males, will initially come to the Majete as the Liwonde sanctuary on current size is holding its maximum rhino capacity.
Hopefully, with help of the DNPW and in the not too distant future the surplus rhinos from Liwonde and Majete will start up new populations in National Parks like Lengwe, and Kasungu and like Mwabvi and Vwaza Marsh Wildlife Reserves all of which have suitable habitat for black rhino populations

The Five other Endangered Species

In September of 1999 the DNPW launched stage two of the project, which was completed successfully and the five other earmarked species were captured and moved from Kasungu National Park to the Liwonde National Park breeding sanctuary. The species included were roan antelope, cape buffalo, eland, burchell’s zebra and lichtenstein’s hartebeest and the numbers moved are as per the table below in column 1999.
The buffalo were released into the main park as well as into the breeding sanctuary with a 70% - 30% in favour of the main park. The zebra, eland, roan, and hartebeest were all released into the sanctuary and all five species have now prospered and multiplied.
Roan antelope took a while longer to adapt to the change but are now well settled. The hartebeest are the Lichtenstein’s species and sable antelope has now been added to our list of protected species. You will notice from the table that their reproduction rate is simply outstanding. The cape buffalo from Kasungu and are endangered in the respect that they are free from the foot and mouth disease which is infecting the cape buffalo populations of the lower Shire region.

The ESOM guide to animal populations in the Rhino Breeding Sanctuary

The Future

The success of the Liwonde Black Rhino Project has given confidence to other investors to follow suit and some exciting conservation programs are happening now or will in the not too distant future.
African Parks Ltd for example have re established the potential of Majete Wildlife Reserve, restocked it with over 1000 animals (several from the Liwonde sanctuary) and recreated a reserve to be proud of, most important of all is they have reintroduced six black rhinos into their sanctuary. In future the Liwonde and Majete male rhinos can be rotated to ensure a good and healthy gene pool in Malawi’s new rhino population.
The project and sanctuary will continue for the foreseeable future with its surplus animals re stocking other parks and reserves on an annual basis – the show must go on!
The same well known conservationist mentioned earlier, had this to say of the black rhino and endangered species breeding project in Liwonde.
“Many excellent conservation initiatives in Africa over the past few decades have come and gone with no record of their passing, their achievements, or failures. We are all the poorer for that. However, the story of the Breeding Sanctuary for rare species of animals in the Liwonde National Park, the black rhinoceros of Malawi and ESOM will not be lost.”
So far so good and long may this much needed enthusiasm for the well being of Malawi’s wildlife continue.