The son of US business magnate Warren Buffett has pledged nearly $US24 million ($A26.67 million) for protecting rhinos in South Africa.
Howard Buffett announced on Friday a three-year security program covering one-third of the vast Kruger National Park, which struggles to contain poachers crossing from neighbouring Mozambique.
The scheme will employ some of the same security methods used by the US to monitor its border with Mexico including aerostats and tethered balloons with infra-red cameras that can scan the landscape around the clock.
"We're going to do it at a scale that hasn't been done," Buffett said in an interview with The Associated Press.
He described the initiative, which will also focus on cross-border criminal investigations and intelligence networks, as way of learning "what works and what doesn't work" in a southern area of the park that is home to 4000 rhinos.
Buffett acknowledged the $US23.7 million initiative doesn't directly address soaring demand for rhino horn in Vietnam and other parts of Asia where it is viewed as a status symbol and a healing agent.
"I have no illusions about this," said Buffett, who announced the initiative with the South African national parks service at Standard Bank headquarters in Johannesburg.
"This is an overwhelming issue."
Parts of a fence once separating Kruger park from a national park on the Mozambican side were removed a decade ago to encourage wildlife migration, but the surge in rhino poaching has prompted some calls to restore the barrier.
The South African government said on Friday poachers had killed 172 rhinos so far this year, two-thirds of them in Kruger park. Last year, 1004 rhinos were poached in South Africa, three times as many as in 2010.
Buffett's Illinois-based foundation aims to assist poor communities around the world, including in areas torn by conflict.
It views poaching in Africa, particularly of elephant ivory, as part of a broader problem in which armed groups such as the Lord's Resistance Army, which originated in Uganda, get funding from the illegal trade.
