Conserving Rhino to Extinction: Success in Rhino Conservation in Kenya

Abstract

Charismatic megafauna such as elephants and rhinos are critical to the funding of the state in countries where a large part of the national economy is dependent upon wildlife viewing experiences. Across East Africa, largely western tourists spend billions of dollars every year on exclusive safaris. Yet maintaining the flow of surplus value is intimately tied to the safety, security, and reproduction of these wildlife species. To protect this value, securitization through militarization can occur through state and private partnerships on colonized lands. Specific biosecurity projects are increasingly taking place through rhino and elephant breeding facilities, where western scientific and veterinary officials orchestrate and deploy the darting, capturing, and artificial insemination of these rare animals. In other instances, orphaned animals are airlifted and translocated to secure facilities, before the animals are reintroduced to the “wild”. Often contextualized against narratives of “saving species from extinction” such activities blur the boundaries between state, private, and philanthropic organizations and encircle an ever-growing number of actors and institutions into this common cause. Based on a case study from Central Kenya, this paper will examine how the biosecurity of a rare wildlife species is created and enforced through these entanglements to create surplus value from rare species. The paper argues that biosecurity is deployed as a way by which the state can exonerate itself from the expensive work of wildlife protection, while private organizations are increasingly doing the work of the state and increasing their power to dictate the terms of human-wildlife interactions.