17 MAY 2013

Prince William and Kate Middleton will make “fantastic parents”, according to their university friend Jules Knight.

The 31-year-old Holby City actor, who was firm friends with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the University of St. Andrews, said that the couple are “lovely people”.

“They are lovely people and I’m very happy for them that Kate’s pregnant,” he told new! magazine.

 

CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

“I think they’ll be fantastic parents. They are very good for the country, for the monarchy and they are fantastic as a couple.”

Jules did admit, however, that he has lost contact with the couple since leaving university.

“We’ve all grown apart over the years,” he said. “I haven’t had that much contact with them since we left, but we were good friends at university.”

Jules was part of classic vocal quartet Blake before leaving after winning a role in BBC One hospital drama Holby City.

 

Meanwhile, Kate’s due date has reportedly been revealed by her friends. According to the Daily Mail, friends close to Kate and her husband say their royal baby is due on Saturday 13 July.

“Some of Kate and William’s closest pals were at a barbecue hosted by a family friend of the Royals recently,” a friend told the Daily Mail. “They were all discussing the fact that Kate’s baby is due to be born on July 13. Everyone was very excited.”

Due to Kate’s unexpected acute morning sickness, Clarence House was forced to prematurely announce the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s happy news before Kate had had her 12-week-scan, leaving royal watchers unsure as to how pregnant the Duchess was.

Kate’s due date falls during the Coronation Festival , a celebration that comes 60 years after the Queen was crowned in June 1953.

The festival takes place across four days, 11 July to 14 July, meaning the birth of William and Kate’s baby could coincide with the celebrations at Buckingham Palace.

It is unknown whether Kate and William will be in London during the time their baby is due as reports had suggested the Duchess planned to return to her family home in Berkshire for several weeks after the baby is born .

William and Kate’s baby news came just as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year drew to an end, the icing on the cake for a year of royal celebration.

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The Duchess’s gnome depicts her seven-month pregnancy bump, whilst the Duke
has the beaming smile of a proud father-to-be.

The caricatures are to feature at the world famous gardening event, before
being auctioned online to raise money for more kids to learn about gardening
and horticulture in schools.

Mr Domoney said: “Gnomes are often associated with bringing good luck, I could
not think of a more popular couple that the nation is wishing good luck to.

“The auction of these gnomes will support children in British schools up and
down the country to learn more about gardening through the RHS Campaign for
School Gardening and I hope my gnomes raise quite a few quid for this great
cause.”

“I hope Kate and Wills like their gnomes and can see that they’ve been made
with great affection.”

He came up with the idea and commissioned sculptor Jethro Crabb to make the
gnomes because he had worked on countless famous faces previously as a
portrait sculptor for Madame Tussauds.

Gnomes were banned from all previous RHS Shows as they fall into the category
of being “brightly coloured mythical creatures”.

The “celebrity gnomes” will be on display at the show before being sold on
auction site eBay for the RHS Campaign for School Gardening. The auction
will run from May 19 until May 26.

The money raised will go to improving school gardens in over 16,500 schools
who have signed up to the RHS Campaign for School Gardening, which teaches
over 3.5 million children with gardening and growing plants.

Last year, an initiative called Pot Art at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, in which
pots were painted by a dozens of celebrities, including Dame Judi Dench,
Jerry Hall, Joan Collins, Julian Fellowes and Alan Titchmarsh, raised
£14,000 for the RHS Campaign for School Gardening.

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Tiny Prince William and pregnant wife Kate are the first gnomes ever to go on show at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Chelsea lifted a ban on the figures to mark the show’s centenary, which starts on Tuesday, so Sunday People’s gardening guru David Domoney, right, commissioned the statues.

They will be auctioned on eBay, from today for a week, to raise money for kids to learn about gardening in schools.

David said: “Gnomes are often associated with good luck, I could not think of a more popular couple that the nation is wishing good luck to.”

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26th April 2013: Prince Harry with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge laugh as they hold wands on the set used to depict Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter Films

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26th April 2013: Kate Middleton watches as Prince William on the ‘Batpod’ during their visit to Warner Bros studios in Leavesden

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5th April 2013: Prince William and Kate Middleton visit the Astute-class Submarine Building at BAE Systems

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5th April 2013: Prince William and Kate Middleton are greeted by Rear-Admiral Simon Robert Lister and Commander Steve Garrett as they visit the Astute-class Submarine Building at BAE Systems

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5th April 2013: Kate Middleton, Prince William and Prince Charles during a visit to Dumfries House in Ayrshire

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4th April 2013: Kate Middleton and Prince William in Glasgow

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4th April 2013: Prince William during a visit to the Quarriers Stopover Project in Glasgow

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19 Mar 2013: Kate Middleton and Prince William leave The Clare Foundation after a visit

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17 Mar 2013: Kate Middleton and Prince William are guests of Honour at the St Patrick’s Day Parade in Aldershot

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15th March 2013: Prince William and Kate Middleton look at racecards at Cheltenham

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15th March 2013: Kate Middleton smiles during a race at Cheltenham

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1st March 2013: Kate Middleton and Prince William at the wedding of Mark Tomlinson and Laura Bechtolsheimer

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11th January 2013: Kate Middleton and Prince William leave the National Portrait Gallery with her husband after viewing a newly-commissioned official painting

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19th Dec 2012: Kate Middleton arrives at Buckingham Palace for the royal household Christmas party

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6th December 2013: Kate leaves hospital

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5th December 2012: Prince William arrives at the King Edward VII hospital to visit Kate Middleton

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What will her maternity wear be like?

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Covering up the bump? Kate hiding her little secret

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Future dad Wills, speaking with crowds in Cambridge

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Kate Middleton plays hockey at her old school, St. Andrews during the early stages of pregnancy, we salute you!

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Kate Middleton visits her old preparatory school, St Andrew’s School in Pangbourne

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Britain’s Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, William and Kate, make their first joint visit to the city of Cambridge and visit Jimmy’s, a night shelter that they opened, and try cookies made in the shelter’s kitchen

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We hope her morning sickness gets better soon- Kate Middleton, the palace confirms pregnancy

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Kate Middleton greets fans outside Newcastle Civic Centre

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Kate Middleton well wishers outside Newcastle Civic Centre

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The Duchess of Cambridge attends a reception and dinner in aid of the University of St Andrews 600th Anniversary Appeal at Middle Temple Treasury, London

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Prince William and Kate Middleton at University of St Andrews 600th Anniversary Fundraising Auction

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Hope Powell, Steven Gerrard, Prince William and Kate Middleton at the opening of St.George’s Park

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Kate Middleton speaks to Frank Lampard

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Prince William and Kate Middleton visit the new gym during the official launch of The Football Association’s National Football Centre at St George’s Park

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That awkward moment when the future queen walks in on the naked footballers

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Kate Middleton and Prince William pose with (L-R) Lasts Year’s Diana Scholarship winner Harry Azoh, this year’s Princess Diana Scholarship winner Priya Sidharh and Nathan Scott who won the Queen Mother Scholarship in 2010 as they visit Middle Temple

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Kate Middleton laugh as they sign the visitors book as during a visit to Middle Temple

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Prince William and Kate Middleton

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Kate Middleton

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Prince William and Kate Middleton

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Kate Middleton and Prince William

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Prince William and Kate Middleton wave on a truck decorated as a canoe, as they depart Honiara International Airport, Solomon Islands

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Prince William and Kate Middleton attend a cultural event

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Prince William and Kate Middleton smile to the public during a walk through a central city park in Kuala Lumpur

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Kate Middleton and Prince William attend a lunch with Kuala Lumpur’s Prime Minister at his official residence, the Seri Perdana

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Prince William and Kate Middleton visiting the Kranji war memorial in Singapore

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Prince William and Kate Middleton visiting the Kranji war memorial in Singapore

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Prince William and Kate Middleton visiting the Kranji war memorial in Singapore

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Prince William and his wife Kate, watch a performance by children from Rainbow Centre, a school for disabled children, in Singapore

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Prince William and Kate Middleton pose with four year old Maeve Low

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Kate Middleton meets members of public as she attends a cultural event in Queenstown

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Kate Middleton tours the Gardens by the Bay in Singapore whilst stopping to greet well wishers

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Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge visit Singapore Botanical Gardens

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Britain’s Prince William and his wife Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, view a hybrid orchid named in their honor at the Orchid Garden

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Prince William and Kate Middleton on during the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympics at the Olympic Stadium

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Kate Middleton speaks with Prime Minister David Cameron, his wife Samantha and Lord Coe at the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games

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Kate Middleton visits Weymouth to watch Olympic Sailing with Sir Steve Redgrave

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Kate Middleton visits Weymouth to watch Olympic Sailing with Sir Steve Redgrave

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Kate Middleton, Prince William and Prince Harry watch the men’s 100m final at the Olympic Stadium

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Prince William and Kate Middleton attends the swimming

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Kate Middleton watches Heptathlete Jessica Ennis competes in the High jump

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Kate Middleton and Prince William during Day 6 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Velodrome

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Royal celebration: Prince William and Kate Middleton celebrate Team GB’s win in the Team Sprint final

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Kate Middleton leaving Greenwich after watching the Equestrian

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Kate Middleton and Prince William use umbrellas as the rain falls during the Individual Eventing Jumping Final on day four of the London Olympic Games at Greenwich Park

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Kate Middleton kicks a football on a visit to Beacon’s College

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Kate Middleton kicks a football on a visit to Bacon’s College

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Kate Middleton wearing a Each Bracelet for Children’s Hospice

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Kate Middleton and Prince William in St Giles Cathedral for a ceremony to install Prince William as a Knight of the Thistle in Edinburgh

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Kate Middleton in Edinburgh

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Kate Middleton looks on from the Royal Box

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Kate Middleton and Prince William applaud from their seats in the Royal Box on Centre Court during day nine of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships

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Kate Middleton at Trooping the Colour parade in 2011

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Kate Middleton and her dog Lupo at the Beaufort Polo Club in Gloucestershire

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Kate Middleton plays with nd Savanah Phillips at the Beaufort Polo Club

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Prince William and Kate Middleton during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

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Kate Middleton and Queen Elizabeth II talk as they visit Vernon Park during a Diamond Jubilee visit to Nottingham

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Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge helps scouts to pitch a tent during a visit to Vernon Park in Nottingham

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Kate Middleton reacts as she plants a tree during a visit to The Treehouse in Ipswich on March 19, 2012

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Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge arrives at Summerfield Community Centre on 19, 2011 in Birmingham

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Kate Middleton and Prince William attend Harry Meade Rosie Bradford’s wedding at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Northleach

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Kate Middleton and Prince Harry on the Buckingham Palace balcony

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Prince William and Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge arrive for a service of thanksgiving to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth at St Paul’s Cathedral

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Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton

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Prince William and Kate Middleton

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Prince William and his fiancé Kate Middleton pose for photographers during a photocall to mark their engagement, in the State Rooms of St James’s Palace, central London on November 16, 2010

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Getting married! The official engagement portrait

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Prince William and Kate Middleton visit the University of St Andrews on February 25, 2011 in St Andrews

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Kate Middleton and Prince William smile as they visit Trearddur Bay Lifeboat Station at Anglesey on February 24, 2011 in Trearddur, Wales

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Prince William and fiancée Catherine Middleton arrive for a Christmas reception in aid of the Teenager Cancer Trust at theThursford Collection on December 18, 2010

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Kate Middleton and Prince William attend Harry Meade Rosie Bradford’s wedding at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul on October 23, 2010

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Prince William stands beside girlfriend Kate Middleton in the paddock enclosure on the first day of the annual Cheltenham Race Festival at Cheltenham Race course, west of England, 13 March 2007

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Prince William and Kate Middleton watch the action during the RBS Six Nations Championship match between England and Italy at Twickenham on February 10, 2007 in London

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Prince William is pictured with his girlfriend Kate Middleton after his graduation ceremony at RAF Cranwell air base in Lincolnshire, on April 11, 2008

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Kate Middleton sits in the stands as her boyfriend Britain’s Prince William takes part in the Sovereign’s Parade at The Royal Military Academy in Camberley, 35 miles west of London, 15 December 2006

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Prince William greets Kate Middleton and her sister Pippa Middleton after playing the Field Game in an old boys match at Eton College on March 18, 2006 in Eton

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Kate Middleton and Prince William on the day of their graduation ceremony at St Andrew’s University in St Andrew’s

 

 

• Prince William described the months he spent at Lewa, Kenya during his gap year in 2001 as one of the ‘happiest times of my life
• Duchess of Cambridge described her trip to the country as ‘so romantic’
• Prince William is said to be ‘sickened and saddened by the rhinos being killed’

By
Martin Fletcher In Lewa, Northern Kenya

PUBLISHED:

16:28 EST, 18 May 2013

|

UPDATED:

17:18 EST, 18 May 2013

The informer called at noon. He said five poachers would shortly be entering a forested corner of the Lewa wildlife conservancy in northern Kenya, close to where a rhino and her calf were shot in February.

Silea Legei, deputy commander of Lewa’s security force, hurried to the spot with 11 rangers. They hid in the long grass beside an animal track leading from the trees, and waited.

The poachers arrived shortly after 3pm. One carried a semi-automatic, another a bow with poisoned arrows. That was justification enough for the rangers.

Lewa rhinos were well protected around the time of Prince William’s visit to Kenya and in the years after. Recently, Lewa has been infiltrated by poachers. Here, elephants have a peaceful drink from a pond in Lewa Conservancy, Kenya

Prince William was said to be ‘absolutely one of the workers’ during his time on a cattle ranch in Lewa. The area is now on the front line of a brutal war on Rhino poaching

They opened fire. The armed poacher shot back. During the gun battle, a terrified rhinoceros raced past the men who had come to slaughter it.

When the shooting stopped, four poachers lay dead, their blood trickling into the dirt. The fifth had fled.

The jubilant rangers showed no pity for the poachers, though one was a teenager and another just 20.

They had struck back after losing 14 rhino to poaching gangs over the previous two years, 12 of them black rhino which are listed as critically endangered because there are fewer than 5,000 left on Earth. ‘They got what they deserved,’ Legei said.

Lewa is 60,000 acres of storybook Africa spread out beneath a vast blue sky.

Its savannahs, lush and green after recent rains, are fringed by distant hills and the craggy, snow-flecked peaks of Mount Kenya.

It teems with elephants, zebras, giraffes, lions, warthogs, buffalo, impala and 127 rhino, its flagship species – 69 of them black rhinos, distinguished by their prehensile upper lips, the rest whites.

Monkeys cavort in flat-topped acacia trees. Guinea fowl scatter before the jeeps that bump along its rutted tracks.

Prince William described the months he spent at Lewa during his gap year in 2001 as one of the ‘happiest times of my life’, and it is easy to see why. It was a sanctuary for him, just as it used to be for rhinos.

He enjoyed a freedom he can never have in Britain, counting game, creating fire breaks and building hides.

‘He was absolutely one of the
workers,’ says Ian Craig who started the conservancy out of his parents’
cattle ranch in the 1980s.

Legei
knew first-hand how much William loved working there. He took the
Prince on night patrols, and they would eat by the campfire and sleep
beneath the stars. 

‘He said where he came from he didn’t have opportunities like that, but here he was free,’ Legei said.

John
Tanui, 34, another Lewa employee, played football with William and
enjoyed banter about the relative merits of Arsenal and Manchester
United.

‘He played in the centre. He was very good and very fast,’ Tanui recalled.

A warden guards rhinos from the threat of poachers in the Lewa conservancy. Four poachers have been killed in recent gun battles

The Duke of Cambridge described the months he spent at Lewa during the gap year in 2001 as one of the ‘happiest times of my life’

William has returned to Lewa several times since, most famously with Kate in October 2010. Towards the end of their stay, he drove her up to a remote lakeside cabin on Mount Kenya and proposed.

‘Thank you for such a wonderful 24 hours,’ his future bride wrote in the guest book. ‘I love the warm fires and candle lights – so romantic! Hope to be back again soon.’

But if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge did return today, it is doubtful they could spend a night alone in that cabin at Rutundu.

And it is unlikely that William would be allowed out on patrol, for Lewa is now on the front line of a brutal war on poaching. It is a paradise lost.

Since December, intruders have killed nine of Lewa’s cherished rhino. All were blacks. They are more vulnerable than whites because they eat branches, not grass, and are therefore easier to hear at night. Two were calves. 

The poachers fired at least 24 rounds into one of the rhinos. In most cases, they hacked off the horns, leaving behind bloody and mutilated carcasses.

Tragically, four rhinos managed to escape with horns intact – only to die of their injuries later.

It’s
a shocking reversal of fortunes for the Lewa rhinos. Craig explained:
‘When William was here as a gap student, no one had cracked Lewa.

‘It was absolutely Fort Knox and we had not lost a rhino in 23 years, but suddenly the game changed.’

The
61-year-old – a professional hunter in his youth who has since devoted
his life to saving rhinos – is a close friend of the prince.

He said William was ‘saddened and sickened by the rhinos being killed’.

William
is also angry. In London on Tuesday, the Prince – who is patron of the
wildlife charity Tusk Trust – will express his increasing concern about
the poaching onslaught that is afflicting not just Lewa but all of
Africa.

He will team up
with his father Prince Charles to call for political and diplomatic
action on a global scale to counter a scourge that has, they will say,
reached ‘epidemic’ proportions.

In
an almost unprecedented joint appearance, the two future Kings will
host a conference at St James’s Palace for delegates from those
countries where horn and ivory are being plundered, and from those that
receive or traffic that contraband.

The Princes want the poaching of rhino, elephants and other wildlife put at the top of the international agenda.

Rangers use bloodhounds to track poachers in an effort to protect Rhinos. Kenya takes very seriously this threat to its wildlife and responds accordingly

The Duke of Cambridge (pic left) is said to be ‘saddened and sickened by the rhinos being killed’. The Duchess of Cambridge described her stay in Kenya as ‘so romantic’ and said she would love to return

They say the slaughter is being driven by sophisticated international criminal networks and terrorist groups, and will urge the key nations to sign a solemn commitment this autumn to end illegal trade in wildlife.

The case for action is overwhelming, because the war is manifestly being lost. Africa has barely 25,000 rhino left. In South Africa, home to four-fifths of the continent’s rhinos, 448 were poached in 2011, 668 in 2012, and this year’s toll is heading for 800.

Mozambique has just lost its last rhinos to poachers who were aided by corrupt rangers. 

Tanzania has fewer than 150 left – and even Africa’s wildlife sanctuaries have become graveyards.
Mike Watson, a former British Army officer who is Lewa’s chief executive, said: ‘Wherever there are rhino, they are being slaughtered.’

Elephants are faring no better. Scarcely 400,000 survive in Africa, down from 1.3 million in 1979. Nearly 33,000 have been killed since January last year, according to the website bloodyivory.org. 

In Tanzania more than 10,000 are being slaughtered annually, while the elephant populations of countries such as Cameroon, Chad, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Mali and the Central African Republic have been almost entirely wiped out.

For thousands of years, the horns of a rhino and tusks of an elephant were a means of survival. Today they can be the animal’s death warrant.

The increasingly affluent Chinese and
Vietnamese believe the horns and tusks have magical properties that
cure anything from cancer to fevers, impotence and hangovers. 

Powdered
rhino horn has become the cool thing to serve after fancy dinners in
Shanghai or Saigon. That quack medicine has sent the black-market price
for horns soaring past £18,000 a pound, far outstripping gold.

It
means a grazing rhino – a generally placid, short-sighted herbivore
that had no predators until humans came along – is carrying two
protuberances on its forehead worth nearly £330,000.

It has become an irresistible target for criminal syndicates who more commonly trade in guns and drugs. 

‘It’s the equivalent of putting an unprotected donkey in Piccadilly with two gold bars on it,’ said Craig.
Watson described Lewa as a ‘62,000-acre cashpoint’.

Lewa’s
guardians have responded with a full-scale security operation, led by
30 elite armed rangers, that costs about £500,000 a year and is overtly
military in nature. 

The
poachers usually strike after dark, so each evening – when the tourists
have returned to their lodges – ten two-man teams take up positions on
hillsides overlooking the 140-mile long electrified fence that rings the
conservancy.

Rutundu – the exclusive get away in Kenya where Duke of Cambridge brought the Duchess of Cambridge for a romantic night and where they got engaged

The Royals have fond memories and a strong sense of attachment to the hut in Kenya where William proposed

They carry Heckler and Koch G3 semi-automatic rifles, night-vision goggles, thermal imaging equipment and flares.

They have police reservist status, allowing them to shoot armed poachers on sight, and they receive a bonus for doing so. 

‘If
someone comes into the conservancy with a gun, you just put him down.
If you challenge him, that’s like giving him a chance to kill you
first,’ said ranger Philip Lelelit, 33, as he and a camouflaged
colleague melted into the darkness one night last week.

They
stayed there until dawn, working alternate two-hour shifts, sustained
by tea and listening intently for the trademark footfall of humans amid
the cacophony of animal noises. 

The
rangers are merely the front line of Lewa’s defences. They are linked
by radio to a 24-hour operations room and a rapid-response team.

The
conservancy has a helicopter to rush reinforcements to the scene of an
attack, two surveillance planes and a team of tracker dogs.
Not
long ago two bloodhounds, Toffee and Tash, tracked three Somali
poachers through the bush for three hours after the gang left the
conservancy.

Rangers then
killed them in a shoot-out. Lewa also employs 44 khaki-clad monitors who
tramp the reserve on foot each day and raise the alarm if a rhino
disappears.

Park staff have
developed a sophisticated intelligence operation and a network of
informers that includes members of poaching gangs. ‘Whatever it takes,’
Watson replied when asked how much the turncoats are paid. 

To
enlist the support of local communities, Lewa also ploughs a million
dollars into schools, clinics and other development projects each year.

That
policy paid off this month when a black rhino named Omni was killed
with a poisoned spear on an adjacent conservancy called Il Ngwesi.

Omni
attracted tourists, and the local elders were so outraged that they
threatened to put curses on the poachers unless they gave themselves up.
Three men surrendered immediately.

But the poaching syndicates are
formidable too, and quick to exploit corrupt officials, porous borders
and the presence of large numbers of Chinese construction workers who
can smuggle rhino horn home.

The
gangs send men into Lewa armed with AK-47s from neighbouring Somalia,
and with ammunition and night-vision goggles stolen from a British Army
base at Archers Post, 20 miles away.

The
guns are often fitted with home-made silencers. They pay bribes of
£3,000 or more to Lewa’s employees for information on the whereabouts of
its rhinos and rangers.

That’s
a huge temptation when a ranger’s wage is barely £165 a month. One
monitor gave a poacher a uniform and a tour of the conservancy.

Watson has fired eight corrupt employees in two years. 

The
syndicates and their henchmen operate with virtual impunity because the
law is full of loopholes, officials are easily bought and fines are a
fraction of the value of the contraband.

Everyone
knows who the local traders are. Their base is Isiolo – a dusty,
impoverished town that straddles a highway ten miles north of Lewa and
is renowned for banditry and cheap firearms. 

Lewa has a database called Mozaic that lists their names and transgressions, even their telephone numbers.

‘We
arrest them as many times as we can but they come out scot-free,’ said a
frustrated police officer who – tellingly – requested anonymity for
fear of retribution.

Poaching syndicates are quick to exploit corrupt officials, porous borders and the presence of large numbers of Chinese construction workers who can smuggle rhino horn home

Conservationists are waiting anxiously to see if Uhuru Kenyatta, the new president, fulfils his promise to crack down on the poaching industry

We tried to visit a couple of the alleged traders, despite our taxi driver’s trepidation. ‘These are very dangerous people,’ he warned. 

One was Buko, who somehow escaped prosecution after elephant tusks were found in his Land Cruiser in 2009. He runs a backstreet warehouse selling bags of flour and milk powder.

‘Pliz customers!!! Check your belongings B4 you leave. Anything lost no compensation,’ proclaimed a handwritten cardboard sign above the counter.

Buko’s son professed not to know where his father was, when he would return or what his mobile number was. 

The other was Robert ‘Rasta’ Njiru, 36, who has twice been caught with large amounts of ivory. He was not at his timber yard so we called his mobile.

He refused to meet, claiming he was flying to the Democratic Republic of Congo for two weeks. 

But these are mere middlemen. The real kingpins sit in Nairobi and are known to the Kenyan government but protected by wealth and connections.

Conservationists are waiting anxiously to see if Uhuru Kenyatta, the new president, fulfils a promise made when he took office in April to crack down on the poaching industry. 

Ian Craig admits that even the toughest security is a stop-gap measure at best, not a solution.

He acknowledges that few conservancies can afford to emulate Lewa, which has wealthy supporters in the UK and America – though a sister conservancy called Ol Pejeta has bought itself a drone. 

‘We have every single tool in the bag to protect our rhino but still we’re struggling. Elsewhere in Africa it’s a losing battle,’ he says.

Tuesday’s conference will therefore focus on much broader, long-term strategies such as reducing Asia’s demand for horn and ivory, and global law enforcement.

But some conservationists contend that attempting to reduce that demand is like trying to end the West’s appetite for drugs.

They argue for a legalised and regulated trade in horns, or farming rhinos to meet the demand.

Others favour de-horning rhinos so they are no longer worth killing, or even poisoning their horns.

Mr Craig, who describes his battle to save rhinos as a ‘personal religion’, wants a global ‘war on poaching’ with governments deploying all their military, diplomatic and technological resources against a common enemy. 

His greatest fear is not that rhinos will become extinct. It is that they will never again range free across Africa’s great plains, as they have since prehistoric times.

He fears the only way of protecting them will be to imprison them behind people-proof fences in militarised zones, sad shadows of their magnificent ancestors.

He fears that ‘Lewa will become a giant zoo’. Some would argue it has already become one, and that ours is the age in which the days of truly wild rhino came to a shameful end.

To help combat poaching, go to www.tusk.org.

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These poachers are vile. Boycott the country don’t understand why they don’t tranquilise the rhinos and saw their horns off then tneir value would be nil same for elephants. Shame we have to do this – but these people are in the dark ages believing these animals can treat illnesses. Maybe education would help too?

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Me
,

The world,
19/5/2013 04:10

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“Prince William is said to be ‘sickened and saddened by the rhinos being killed’” ——- I’m sorry, my information on the royal family may be outdated … but don’t they go hunting in the UK? Is this a case of ‘do as I say, not as I do’?

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Somewhere over here
,

Mississauga,
19/5/2013 03:35

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Our Royal Family has, in the past., been at the forefront of shooting thousands of birds, tigers, elephants, etc., and I am very happy that they have finally come to their senses about endangered species. Someday, I hope they will stop the fox hunting “sport” where hunting dogs chase down and tear apart the poor terrified foxes. Beyond cruel!

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J. Ross
,

Coombs,
19/5/2013 03:21

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William and Charles are trying to call attention to this sad situation, good for them. Kate and her ‘romantic’ holiday has nothing to do with the issue. She shouldn’t be brought into story, the focus should be on William and Charles’ efforts to remedy the problem.

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harriet
,

toronto, Canada,
19/5/2013 02:25

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