Journey Into The Rhino Horn War with Bonne de Bod on the Sustainable Jungle Podcast #sustainablejungle

Podcast #23 · Bonné De Bod · Journey Into The Rhino Horn War

“I don’t want to sit here or look back in 10 years time and this could have been the turning point and either we would have saved the species from extinction or we would have failed miserably… the time to act is now.”
Bonné de Bod

“An award-winning television presenter and filmmaker, Bonné de Bod, is well-known for her in-depth reporting on wildlife and environmental issues. For nearly a decade, Bonné has presented in both Afrikaans and English on South African television. Awards include the prestigious SANParks Kudu Award for Best Journalist in 2015 and an ATKV-Mediaveertjie in 2016. Her Kudu award stated that she received the nod due to her “passionate, balanced reporting on wildlife conservation issues as well as keeping the public updated and informed about environmental issues in South Africa.” For the last 4 years, Bonné, together with her co-filmmaker Susan Scott, has been working on a film about the rhino horn war and the devastating impacts on our beloved real-world unicorns. The film is called STROOP: Journey into the Rhino Horn War and is due to be released in San Francisco on 9 September 2018.

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We met up with Bonné in the Walter Sisulu Gardens in Johannesburg where the 3 of us pretended (for fun) that we were in the wild bush of the Kruger National Park. We covered the following important topics:

Bonné’s background, growing up in Johannesburg, spending time in the bush (~01:05)
Bonné’s career path from studying Industrial Psychology to telling stories about the environment as a TV and Radio Presenter (~02:10)
Why nature is important to Bonné and why the Kruger National Park should be on the bucket list (~04:00)
How Bonné feels in nature and the importance of being connected (~6:40)
An overview of the rhino horn problem in South Africa and internationally and how it has transformed into one of the world’s largest transnational organised criminal activities (~8:25)
What’s driving the extreme increase in demand over the last ~10 years in Southern Africa (~11:55)
Solutions and initiatives being thrown at the rhino problem (~16:15)
Bonné’s uplifting project, The Rhino Blog and learning about the Black Mambas, an all female anti-poaching unit (~19:20)
Interviewing Dr Jane Goodall, her views on solving the rhino problem and the role of apartheid on involving the community historically (~21:10)
An overview of Bonné and film-maker Susan Scott’s soon-to-be-launched film S T R O O P: Journey into the Rhino Horn War (STROOP) (~22:00)
How STROOP is being funded, why they took this approach and how the audience can buy a digital copy of the film to help (~23:45)
Putting safety and health at risk and why the rhino story is so important to Bonné and Susan (~25:00)
Why this movie is important to watch, despite being difficult for animal lovers to see (~31:20)
Movie’s ambition for 1-2 years from release: global awareness and empowerment (~33:10)
How to “be the change” for the rhino (~34:50)
Winning awards and timeline for release: starting with 9th September in San Francisco! (~36:40)
More on the STROOP: What the film is actually about (~37:50)
Bonné’s advice for changing the world (~40:20)
Green living tip for listeners: how to avoid plastic! (~41:18)
Where to find and support Bonné and STROOP (~43:48)