Industry Collaboration Raises Nearly R3 Million For SANParks Rhino Conservation

Bavaria Breweries and South Africa’s Big 5 retailers have stepped up to the plate and delivered on their commitment to support SANParks’ rhino conservation strategy through the Adopt So Our Rhino Don’t Die fundraising campaign. A cheque for almost R3 million was handed over to South African National Parks (SANParks) a...nd will be held in a ring-fenced account for strict utilization by SANParks rhino anti-poaching programmes and interventions.

As the enabler of the Adopt So Our Rhino Don’t Die campaign, Bavaria Brewery initiated the historic fundraising collaboration between Woolworths, Spar, Massmart, Pick ‘n Pay and divisions of the Shoprite Checkers Group. As front-runners to the consumer, each retailer created the adoption ‘route’ for the public. From every purchase of any six-pack of Bavaria 0.0% regular or fruit flavoured malt drinks, both the retailers and Bavaria Brewery matched a massive margin sacrifice to fund the consumer’s adoption certificate cost and raise funds for the campaign.

SANParks Acting CEO Abe Sibiya, said, “I would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Bavaria Brewery and to each of the participating retailers for their commitment to SANParks, which marks a formidable partnership in the fight against rhino poaching. The donation received will go towards vital ground and air detection and tracking equipment, elite canine capability and specially trained ranger teams, and improved intelligence gathering and observation and surveillance systems”.

Roger ter Horst, Market Development Manager of Bavaria Brewery Netherlands, concluded, “As a historic first-time retail collaboration, we are thrilled that the campaign has been a huge success with almost R3 million raised over a short period of 4 months. The risk we took to enter a new market, deploy our product’s reach and sacrifice margin profit to raise awareness about saving the rhino has paid off. We are proud to align ourselves with industry partners who share our belief that conservation and preserving the rhino heritage is not only a global priority, but our responsibility as industry leaders”.

Issued by:
South African National Parks