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Hemmersbach Rhino Force
Hemmersbach Rhino Force is a direct action conservation organization saving African rhinos from extinction. Rhino Force main activities comprise an Elite Anti-Poaching unit to prevent killing of rhinos, a biobank called Hemmersbach Rhino Force Cryovault to preserve rhino genes and the Black Rhino Reintroduction to bring back rhinos to the Mid Zambezi Valley in Zimbabwe.

The privately funded organization offers its services free of charge. It is a division of the IT services provider Hemmersbach.

History
Hemmersbach Rhino Force was founded in 2016 by Ralph Koczwara, an IT entrepreneur from Nuremberg, Germany. Koczwara learned about the rhino-poaching crisis while he was on a photo safari through the South African Greater Kruger National Park as an ordinary tourist. He ramped up the first Hemmersbach Rhino Force squad within 3 months, to stop poaching syndicates from entering the reserves.

Hemmersbach Rhino Force Elite Anti-Poaching
Hemmersbach Rhino Force is operating elite units to protect rhinos from poaching. They build and operate these elite units together with experts from South Africa and Zimbabwe where 80% of rhinos are living.

In all of their actions, they cooperate with African law enforcement authorities, which have the legal powers to legitimize the conducted actions. They use surveillance technology such as seismic sensors, tracking sensors and infrared radars. Besides this, the Hemmersbach Rhino Force is specialized in reading and blurring tracks (combat tracking). In order to avoid poachers from entering reservation areas and killing animals, Hemmersbach Rhino Force applies an “8 Step Operational Plan”, a crime prevention methodology to organize and steer Anti-Poaching activities.

Since international trade of ivory has been prohibited by the CITES Convention since 1989, it is mostly criminal poacher syndicates that operate from Asia and are identified as the originators of illegal activities.

The blame for the poaching is therefore not to be found in the local population, for whom the poaching is usually the last possibility for the financial provision of the family. For this reason, Rhino Force strictly rejects armed force and uses force only in absolute exceptional cases for self-defense.

Hemmersbach Rhino Force Cryovault
Hemmersbach Rhino Force Cryovault is a biobank, which is located in South Africa and preserve deeply frozen sperm, egg cells and other genetic material of African Rhinoceros. These gametes are collected by Rhino Forces veterinarians during various situations e.g. closely after a Rhinoceros death or following on a dehorning procedure.

The purpose of this project is to enable future assisted reproduction of Rhinoceros by applying genetics collected and cryopreserved now. Using this approach enables Rhino Force to conserve the genetic diversity of rhinos for future generations.

Rhino Force’s objective is to preserve viable gametes and thus the genetics of as many African Rhinoceros as possible by sampling post-mortem and intra-vitam. Moreover, they want to establish a reference database for this species. Any material collected will be banked alongside animal biometrical, environment and location data, which provides crucial information for the studying of population dynamics.

This is headed by the renowned veterinarian and expert in wildlife assisted reproduction, Dr Imke Lüders (DVM, PhD, DiplECZM) from Hamburg, Germany, and her colleague, the veterinary reproduction specialist Dr Ilse Luther (BVetTech, MVetTech, PhD) from South Africa. The ambitious project is also supported by Zimbabwean and South African council registered veterinarian Dr Janine Meuffels (DVM, MVSc, BSc).