ZIMPAKS WEBINAR TO TACKLE RHINO POPULATION VIABILITY WITH CONSERVATION LEGEND RAOUL DU TOIT
The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority is continuing its popular Wild Insights webinar series with a session that goes straight to the heart of one of African conservation’s most pressing questions: what does it actually take to build and sustain a viable rhino population? Scheduled for June 25, 2026 from 3pm to 4pm on Microsoft Teams, the webinar will feature one of Zimbabwe’s most decorated conservationists, Raoul du Toit, whose four decades of work in rhino conservation have made him one of the foremost authorities on the subject anywhere in the world.
Du Toit’s credentials for the conversation are extraordinary. <cite index=”5-1″>Since 1986, he has been instrumental in coordinating rhino conservation initiatives in Zimbabwe, serving as Director of the Lowveld Rhino Trust and Africa Rhino Program Coordinator for the International Rhino Foundation. His work began with a WWF project to survey the status of black rhinos in the Zambezi Valley, and in 1990 he initiated the Rhino Conservancy Project in Zimbabwe — a landmark effort that entailed establishing viable rhino breeding groups in the semi-arid Lowveld, amalgamating game ranches into large conservancies to provide adequate habitat, and setting up the protection and monitoring systems that would define rhino management in the region for decades to come.
The results of that long commitment have been remarkable. The programme built up the black rhino population in the Lowveld from just four percent of the national total in 1990 to 89 percent by the end of 2017. The Lowveld Rhino Trust now works with four separate populations of over 100 rhinos each in southern Zimbabwe — three black rhino populations and one white rhino population — with tracker teams monitoring over 460 individual animals on a name-recognition basis. The Trust and its conservation partners now work together on the conservation of around 80 percent of Zimbabwe’s entire rhino population.
Du Toit’s recognition within the global conservation community reflects the scale of those achievements. He was awarded the Sir Peter Scott Award for Conservation Merit in 2009 in recognition of his exceptional efforts and successes in African rhino conservation, and received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2011 — widely regarded as the Nobel Prize for the environment — for his sustained impact in protecting the species across one of the most challenging conservation landscapes on the continent.
The Wild Insights webinar series has built a loyal following among wildlife professionals, conservationists, students, and members of the public since ZimParks launched it as a platform for knowledge sharing and engagement on Zimbabwe’s wildlife issues. Each session brings together credible voices on specific conservation topics, combining scientific depth with accessibility for a broad audience. The June 25 session, titled “What Makes A Rhino Population Viable?”, is expected to draw significant interest given both the profile of the speaker and the timeliness of the subject — Zimbabwe has recently celebrated the historic return of black rhinos to Matusadona National Park after more than 30 years of local extinction, making the question of population viability particularly relevant.
ZimParks has expressed gratitude to the growing community of participants who have engaged with the series, noting that each session is made more valuable by the depth of discussion that informed, committed audiences bring to these conversations. For anyone with a serious interest in what Zimbabwe’s rhino recovery has required — and what it will continue to demand — this is a session not to be missed.
