“Remembering Sudan” in Brazil’s ECOA UOL

“Remembering Sudan” in Brazil’s ECOA UOL

Remembering Sudan is sparking conversation worldwide, most recently being featured by the largest and most highly consumed Brazilian content company, UOL in their environmental vertical ECOA. 

Writer Giacomo Vicenzo headlines the article with an unsettling image of the last male northern white rhino surrounded by armed men, who are there not to hurt the animal, but to protect it from other humans. As Vicenzo explains, the northern white rhino species has no natural predators yet is facing extinction due to poachers hoping to score in the high-value market for the animal’s horns. Like our fingernails, the horns of rhinos naturally regrow, and are trimmed down with chainsaws to safeguard the animals from harm.

Despite efforts made to protect the animals, only two northern white rhinos remain on the planet. The last male northern white rhino Sudan passed five years ago of natural causes, his final moments documented in Remembering Sudan. 

“Saying goodbye to Sudan while he was dying was one of the most difficult moments of my life,” said Ami Vitale, director of the film and founder of Vital Impacts to ECOA. “We were witnessing not only the death of this majestic creature and the end of a subspecies, but we were also watching our own ruin.”

Vicenzo concludes the article with a note of hope for the species and all future conservation efforts, a sentiment Vitale shares and emphasizes in the film. Using genetic material from previously deceased northern white rhinos and IVF, scientists from the BioRescue project may be able to bring back this species. The technology being developed to save this subspecies may in the future be used to save the 1 million species the UN is predicting will disappear if we do not change our ways.

Vitale hopes that Remembering Sudan and articles like Vicenzo’s will lead humanity to “recognize how interconnected we all are,” sparking a wave of change for the planet.