Word: rhino
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...Lois Gibbs, the U.S. honoree, will not be docked since she is obliged to declare her winnings as income (prizes to Americans, including the Nobels, used to be exempt, but no longer are). The notion of taxing people like Kenyan Michael Werikhe, who is fighting to save the black rhino, has foundation officials fuming. Says one: "Just the amount withheld for the Federal Government is equal in some cases to five times their annual earnings...
...long-distance walk for a worthy cause is hardly a new idea, but Kenyan Michael Werikhe has taken the concept to new lengths. Over the past eight years, Werikhe, 33, has trekked thousands of miles across Africa and Europe to raise money to save the black rhino, one of the world's most endangered species...
Elephant tusks, rhino horns and leopard skins confiscated from poachers were a common sight in the "ivory room" of the Kenyan Game Department's Mombasa office, where Werikhe used to work. But a pair of 50-kg (110-lb.) tusks brought in one day by a game warden induced him to start his one-man crusade. "Being an African, I see wildlife as part of my heritage," Werikhe says. "If wildlife goes, then part of me is dead. I wanted to campaign for wildlife in my own private...
...Tanzania, and back to Mombasa, with only a pet python named Survival for company. Lecturing to villagers and schoolchildren, he raised about $30,000 for conservation groups. In 1988 Werikhe went to Europe, covering 2,900 km (1,800 miles) in 135 days, and collected almost $1 million for rhino sanctuaries. Partly as a result of Werikhe's efforts, Kenya's black rhino population -- once as low as 400 animals -- has been slowly increasing since 1988. When Werikhe is not on one of his journeys, he works as superintendent of security at an auto plant. He plans to walk across...
...tusks go to collection points, and from there are carried across the continent, hidden in gas tankers and cargo trucks, personal luggage and shipping crates. The rewards far outweigh the risks. The owner of a truck carrying $2 million worth of illicit tusks and rhino horns was fined a mere $2,613 by Botswa officials last year. His cargo was said to be bound for a South African firm with Hong Kong connections. Despite crackdowns, the poachers are undaunted. Just two weeks ago, in a predawn raid on a farm, Namibian officials seized 980 tusks...