NAIROBI, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President William Ruto has launched the expanded Tsavo West Rhino Sanctuary, which is the world's largest rhino conservation reserve.

Ruto said the site, which began with just three rhinos 40 years ago, now hosts more than 200 rhinos and is expected to boost tourism and strengthen species protection.

"This will directly advance our national targets of 1,450 rhinos by 2030 and 2,000 rhinos by 2037," he said during the launch on Tuesday in Taita Taveta, southeastern Kenya.

According to Ruto, with more space, stronger security, improved genetic diversity, and lower density, Kenya is now ready to raise the annual growth rate of the black rhino population from 5 percent to 8 percent.

Now covering 3,200 square kilometers, Tsavo West Rhino Sanctuary is the largest rhino sanctuary in the world and a major step forward for wildlife conservation, climate resilience, and nature-based economic growth, he said.

Ruto described the expansion as a strategic national investment that brings together wildlife protection, national security, climate action, and sustainable development.

According to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Kenya is home to about 2,000 rhinos, including over 1,000 black rhinos and 1,000 southern white rhinos. About 78 percent of the global eastern black rhino population live in Kenya.

The expanded sanctuary brings together 150 black rhinos from the former Ngulia Sanctuary and 50 others from the Tsavo West Intensive Protection Zone, creating a founder population of 200 animals, the largest intact black rhino population in Kenya, the KWS said.

It said the enlarged sanctuary restores ecological balance, supports long-term population growth, and strengthens Tsavo's position as a leading conservation and tourism destination.

Ruto noted that the Tsavo landscape once supported over 8,000 black rhinos before poaching reduced the population to fewer than 20 by 1989, a crisis era that led to the creation of the KWS.

KWS Director General Erustus Kanga said the transition from a compact sanctuary to a fully connected landscape was made possible through extensive ecological planning, an advanced long-range wide area network and very-high-frequency tracking systems, artificial-intelligence-supported surveillance, and upgraded ranger infrastructure.

This transformation has been made possible through the strong technical and financial support of the Kenya Rhino Range Expansion Program, the lead partner behind Kenya's landscape-scale rhino recovery efforts, he said.

Success will be measured both in rhino population recovery and in improved livelihoods created through tourism, youth employment, and community partnerships, Kanga said. ■