SPIRIT OF CONSERVATION

SORAL is a conservation group most famous for the activities related to its name: Save Our Rhinos Africa and India. Hublot has partnered with SORAI for four special editions now, with part of the sales benefitting the group's activities. We chat with SORAI founder, former England cricketeer Kevin Pietersen, about the challenges behind working to save animal species

- ASHOK SOMAN

Even though there will be a fourth Hublot for SORAI watch, this is the first time we are covering the partnership off the cuff, so to speak. Could you give our readers a little bit of background on how the initiative started, your role in conservation and the example of rhinos in particular?

The motivation around SORAI was very simple: we were losing three animals (rhinos) a day to poaching. You've got a situation where Africa is losing one of its keystone species, and you don't want to lose the heritage and the history of a wonderful continent. Being South African and having a profile (thanks to being a retired professional cricketeer), I thought that the only way to get the message out was to continue raising awareness and to do as much as I could personally to make a difference. So, it was 2013 when all my conservation work started but the launch of SORAI was in 2018 when we just decided that we needed to take the awareness to a new level.

In the last update we've read about the rhino conservation situation, the story seems centred on the revival of the rhino population and similar positive news about the black rhinos in Africa. The southwestern black rhino, in particular appears to be doing better. Is there really more good news than bad and how has SORAI contributed into making this difference?