Together, we have the knowledge, expertise, and strategy to secure the resources needed to save the Sumatran Rhino. No single organisation could successfully tackle this enormous challenge on its own. At the IUCN Species Survival Commission, we are proud to convene this strong and uncommon alliance, and are confident we’ll see the Sumatran rhino thrive once more.
Jon Paul Rodríguez, Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission.
By working hand-in-hand with Indonesia’s top environment officials, the alliance strives to ensure the long-term viability and success of the efforts. Through this innovative partnership, SSC is convening scientists, conservationists, and government to facilitate both rapid progress to relocate rhinos in the near-term and sustained stewardship of future generations of rhinos over the long term. Specifically, Sumatran Rhino Rescue focuses its activities on three key areas of species conservation and care:
- Capacity building: Establishing two new Sumatran Rhino Sanctuaries in Indonesia, one in Indonesian Borneo and the other in northern Sumatra, and expanding the existing facility in Way Kambas National Park;
- Search and rescue: Find as many rhinos as possible living in small, isolated populations across Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo and relocate them to managed conservation breeding facilities;
- Protect and breed: Incorporate the rhinos into a single conservation breeding program that uses the state-of-the-art veterinary and husbandry care to maximize the population growth rate.
In November 2018, the alliance successfully rescued and relocated a healthy female rhino to a secure facility in Kalimantan with the support of local partners. This rescue was the first major activity of the conservation-breeding program led by the Sumatran Rhino Rescue.
In May 2019, the Sumatran Rhino Rescue welcomed the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, Save the Rhino International and the Wilhelma Zoological and Botanical Garden Stuttgart, to the ground-breaking effort to save the Sumatran rhino.
For more information, and to get involved, visit SumatranRhinoRescue.org.