The Duke of Cambridge, Prince Williams has bemoaned the extent to which African wildlife has been poached over the years leading to radical measures being taken to protect them.

Speaking at the opening of a wildlife protection summit in London on Thursday, Prince Williams, who visited Kenya, Tanzania and Namibia last month said the situation was so bad that some endangered rhinos he saw on the trip had more bodyguards than he did.

“Some of the rhinos I saw are under such threats that they have more bodyguards than I do,” Prince Williams said.

Prince William added that it was heartbreaking that his children might not see elephants, rhinos and tigers in the wild and urged stakeholders to tackle illegal wildlife trade.

He said he was not willing to look his children in the eye and tell them his generation allowed for the extinction of animals to take place.

“I am not willing to look my children in the eye and say that we were the generation that let this happen on our watch. It is time to treat the illegal wildlife trade as the serious organised crime that it is,” he added.

The fourth Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference, a two-day event hosted by the British government is a conference aimed at eradicating illegal wildlife trade by bringing together political leaders, businesses and conservation groups.

The conference was also addressed by the presidents of Botswana, Uganda and Gabon, with Botswana’s former president, Ian Khama and Kenya’s First Lady, Margaret Kenyatta present during the deliberations.

The prince is the President of United for Wildlife, a campaign group which fights illegal trade in wildlife and the patron of Tusk, an organization which promotes wildlife conservation.