サイ好き大富豪求む、牧場を競売に　南ア

【ヨハネスブルク（南アフリカ）ＡＦＰ＝時事】南アフリカの自然保護活動家ジョン・ヒュームさんは、３０年にわたってサイの保護に多大な財産をつぎ込んできた。（写真は南アフリカ北西州で保護されているシロサイの目。）
　ヒュームさんは８１歳になった今、資金が底を突いたため世界最大のサイ牧場をオークションに掛け、売却しようとしている。ＡＦＰのＺｏｏｍインタビューに対し「サイ２０００頭と８０００ヘクタールの土地以外、何も残っていない」と語った。
　サイの角はアジアで伝統薬として珍重されており、世界のサイの８０％近くが生息する南アフリカは密猟の多発地帯となっている。サイの角は闇市場で金やコカインに匹敵する、１キロ当たり６万ドル（約８００万円）の高値で取引されている。
　南ア政府によると、有名なクルーガー国立公園をはじめ保護が強化されているにもかかわらず、昨年も４４８頭のサイが殺された。
　■「始めたときよりも多くのサイ」
　観光リゾート開発で財を成した元実業家のヒュームさんは、農場経営を夢見て引退した後、たまたま１頭のサイを購入してとりこになった。これまでに費やした資金は総額約１億５０００万ドル（約２００億円）。「この３０年間、貯金をはたいてサイのために使ってきたが、ついに資金が尽きてしまった」
　それでも「間違いなく価値のあることだった」という。「今ではこのプロジェクトを始めたときよりもたくさんのサイが地球上にいる」
　１９世紀後半には絶滅寸前まで追い込まれたミナミシロサイは、数十年にわたる保護・繁殖活動によって徐々に個体数が回復した。国際自然保護連合の「レッドリスト」では「準絶滅危惧種」に指定されており、現在の生息数は約１万８０００頭とされる。
　うち２０００頭が暮らすヒュームさんの牧場は、北西州にあること以外は非公開。延々と続くフェンス、監視カメラ、熱感知器、レンジャー部隊によるパトロールと警備は極めて厳重だ。
　それでも警備責任者のブランドン・ジョーンズさんは「この保護区から密猟者を遠ざけているにすぎない。彼らはもっと侵入しやすく、ローリスク・ハイリターンな場所を標的にするだけだ」と嘆く。
　■ヨットよりもサイ
　警備体制の全容や武装レンジャーの人数は秘密だ。サイ牧場最大のコストがこの警備費で、購入希望者には大きな資金力が必要だとヒュームさんは言う。「スーパーヨットを所有するよりも、サイを絶滅から救いたいという大富豪が現れてほしい」
　サイ、土地、農機なども含めた入札額は１０００万ドル（約１３億円）からに設定されている。交渉次第では、密猟者に狙われないよう切り落とした角１０トン分、闇市場で５億ドル（約６７０億円）以上相当を追加することも考えている。
　ヒュームさんは合法的な市場を作り、角を売却して保護プロジェクトの資金源にすべきだと訴えている。「私は解決策を持っている。しかし他の国々やＮＧＯは賛成してくれない」
　「残念ながら闇市場では、死んだサイの角の方が、生きたサイよりも価値があるのが現状だ」 【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/04/25-16:59）

He spent his vast fortune on a 30-year quest to save the rhinoceros.
Today, at 81, his money is all but gone, and South African conservationist John Hume is throwing in the towel.
Later this week, Hume will auction off his rhino farm -- the world's largest -- to the highest bidder.
I'm left with nothing except 2,000 rhinos and 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) of land, Hume quipped in an interview with AFP ahead of the sale.
South Africa is home to nearly 80 percent of the world's rhinos, making it a hotspot for poaching driven by demand from Asia, where horns are used in traditional medicine for their supposed therapeutic effect.
The government said 448 of the rare animals were killed across the country last year, only three fewer than in 2021 despite increased protection at national parks such as the renowned Kruger.
Poachers have increasingly targeted privately-owned reserves in their hunt for horns, which consist mainly of hard keratin, the same substance found in human nails.
They are highly sought after on black markets, where the price per weight rivals that of gold and cocaine at an estimated $60,000 per kilogramme.
- 'Worth it' -
Hume said that, through the years, he had lavished around $150 million on his massive philanthropic project to save the world's second largest land mammal.
From a rhino point of view, it was definitely worth it, the bespectacled octogenarian, wearing a chequered shirt, said in a Zoom interview.
There are many more rhinos on Earth than when I started the project.
A former businessman who made his fortune developing tourist resorts, Hume said he fell in love with the animals somewhat by accident having bought the first specimen after retiring with dreams of running a farm.
I've used all my life savings spending on that population of rhinos for 30 years. And I finally ran out of money, he said.
His heavily guarded farm, at an undisclosed location in North West province, has around 2,000 southern white rhinos -- a species that was hunted to near extinction in the late 19th century but gradually recovered thanks to decades of protection and breeding efforts.
Today, the Red List compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) categorises white rhinos as near threatened, with around 18,000 left following a decline in the last decade.
Miles of fences, cameras, heat detectors and an army of rangers patrol the site, which employs about 100 people.
The tight security is meant to dissuade would-be poachers sending the message that they don't stand a chance, said the farm's head of security, Brandon Jones.
Speaking from the control room however Jones said the exercise is only partially successful, as poachers will merely go and kill rhinos somewhere else.
We are simply diverting them from our reserve. We know that they will target areas where it is easier to penetrate and where the risk-reward ratio is to their advantage, he said.
- Rhino or yacht? -
The full extent of the security measures taken and the number of armed rangers on guard are kept secret.
Yet Hume said surveillance is the farm's biggest cost -- and potential buyers will need deep pockets.
I'm hoping that there is a billionaire that would rather save the population of rhinos from extinction than own a superyacht, Hume, a gruff outspoken man, said.
Maybe somebody for whom five million dollars a year is small change.
Bids start at $10 million.
The online auction opens on Wednesday and on offer is the farm with its animals, land and machinery.
Adding its 10-tonne stock of rhino horns to the lot is negotiable, said Hume.
The horns were preventively cut off as a way to dissuade poachers from killing the animals -- and would be worth more than $500 million on the black market.
Hume believes they should be sold to fund conservation projects, creating a legal market for them.
I have the solution. But the rest of the world and the NGOs don't agree. And we are losing the war, laments Hume angrily.
Unfortunately, on the black market, a rhino horn from a dead rhino is still worth more than a live rhino.