The Chargé d'Affaires of Chinese embassy Yang Yirui delivers a speech at the donation ceremony held at the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa (BY LI JIANGUO)

The Chinese Embassy in South Africa made a donation of R100,000 ($8,900) to the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa (NZG) on December 3, to adopt five rhinos and two red bears in the gardens.

" The Chinese Embassy is proud to enter into cooperation with the NZG in order to help our South African friends protect wildlife," said Yang Yirui, the embassy's Chargé d'Affaires, at a ceremony held at NZG Tshwane. "We hope our humble efforts will encourage others to join in this cause."

He said that the embassy had chosen an ancient Chinese proverb stating that nature and man should be in harmony as part of the protection efforts and he hoped that this donation would go a small way in achieving this.

NZG managing director Dr. Clifford Nxomani said that the NZG receives 600,000 visitors annually and it has a mandate of educating the general public on biodiversity matters. "We hope that the general public who visit our zoo will realize that China is not the major market for rhino horn."

Yang Yirui and NZG managing director Clifford Nxomani unveil the adoption board(BY LI JIANGUO)

He further mentioned that the NZG, with the support of the embassy, would be developing educational resources that could be used by the various Chinese zoos on African biodiversity.

The event was attended by more than 100 people, including government officials, scientists, and members of the wildlife protection community. Fifty Chinese and South African students were invited to join in the event in order to help enhance the awareness of wildlife protection for the younger generation. 

To date, almost 1,000 rhinos have been slaughtered for the rhino horn trade. There is not only one solution to end the pandemic and education and awareness are just another resource to address this problem. Having correctly informed citizenry is also crucial to this effort.

Yang Yirui presents the donation to the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa on behalf of Chinese embassy(BY LI JIANGUO)

Yang Yirui and Clifford Nxomani visit the rhino garden (BY LI JIANGUO)

Yang Yirui feeds an apple to a rhino named "Mbani"(BY LI JIANGUO)