Africa Wild

Legal Horn Trade: a Reckless Gamble?

15/01/2016

Legalising trade of rhino horn would be a reckless path to take to try to end the rhino poaching crisis. The estimated level of demand for rhino horn is based on illegal trade – ignoring millions of potential consumers from countries that have implemented the CITES international trade ban – who would be eager to buy rhino horn products if it was legal to do so, as demand would be encouraged. Sales via the internet and TCM outlets worldwide would increase demand vastly too.

Rhino horn products would be marketed as a cure for cancer as well as many other ailments such as impotence, hangovers, fevers, etc. There are many new uses invented – as a fashionable ingredient in designer cocktails, beers, creams, made into jewelry – and many old uses that would be revived – rhino horn libation cups, chalices, janbiya, khanjar, (now made from other materials like bone), ornamental carvings or whole rhino horns mounted as status symbols to own or give away as prestigious gifts. If the international ban was lifted and trade was legalised, demand would skyrocket!

The demand for such rhino horn products reduced the number of rhinos across Africa and Asia from around 500,000 at the beginning of last century to 70,000 in the 1970’s when CITES enacted an international ban on all trade in rhino horn to try to save wild rhino from extinction. By the early 1990’s all consumer states had enforced the ban, demand was drastically reduced and poaching had become negligible. Around 2002 the ban was broken and demand for rhino horn was re stimulated – mainly in Vietnam and China – but that trade is limited by the international ban. If trade in rhino horn was to be legalised demand for rhino horn would grow rapidly.

Wealth

There are millions more potential consumers in China, Japan, Vietnam, North and South Korea, Taiwan, Oman – and many other Asian and Middle Eastern Countries now – who would return if it was legal to use and own rhino horn products and display status symbols openly. For example:

In China there are around 1.4 billion people, 400 billionaires and 4 million millionaires.

In Japan there are around 128 million people, 24 billionaires and 1.1 million millionaires.

In Vietnam there are around 93 million people, 2 billionaires and well over 208 millionaires

In North and South Korea there are around 75 million people – 35 billionaires and 500 millionaires in South Korea (North Korea not available)

In Taiwan there are around 25 million people and 280,000 millionaires

In Oman there are around 2.8 million people and 12,000 millionaires

“While the khanjar is most prevalent in Oman given its symbolic status there, it is also worn by men in Yemen and the United Arab Emirates, forming an integral
component of “traditional dress” in those countries. It can also be found and is sold in other Gulf Arab states, such as the Souq Waqif in Doha, Qatar. The khanjar is a popular keepsake among tourists, and is the Sultanate’s best-selling memento.”

There are many other Asian and Middle Eastern countries where demand for rhino horn products and artefacts will grow if legally marketed as a powerful cure for ailments, a status symbol which bestows good fortune and good health on the owner, for use as dagger handles, for use in religious ceremonies and for detecting poison.

There will also be a high level of demand from Internet Sales (already widely used for illegal sales), TCM outlets on High Streets and wealthy individuals, worldwide. This level of demand would not be sustainable from farmed rhinos once stockpiles are depleted – and stockpiles will not last as long as expected if a lot disappears via the back door and ‘theft’ – as always.

The demand for wild rhino horn will not go away either as it is believed to contain the powerful, natural life force of the wild animal and is more highly valued than farmed rhino horn. All intact rhino horns from farmed rhino will be a lot shorter in length than the horns of wild rhino, which could be delivered by traffickers with the base intact to prove that it was obtained from the wild. Wealthy clients who demand only the best quality would order wild rhino horn, permits are easily forged and few follow-up checks will be made. So legalising trade will not stop poaching – it will simply increase demand for rhino horn to unsustainable levels, worldwide, and wild rhinos, across their range, will be wiped out by the powerful trafficking syndicates in the long run.

The best long term solution to saving wild rhinos from extinction would be to eliminate all demand for rhino horn and close down the markets. Anyone who sells or buys rhino horn is adding to the poaching crisis because there is too much corruption, too many powerful syndicates, too many potential consumers, and too few rhinos left to ever control regulated trade in such a vast market. Farmed rhino would not breed or grow horns fast enough to keep up with demand growth. Rhinos are not herd animals and should not be farmed in hundreds!

Encouraging demand for rhino horn is immoral and senseless since that demand is based on a myth about its medicinal and spiritual powers. It is also reckless and proposed economic models suggested that further research is needed to understand the markets involved. Once stockpiles are depleted, demand would have grown to unsustainable levels and wild rhinos could be wiped out within a decade.

Scary prospective, but could easily be a reality

further research is needed to understand the markets involved

Dunno who wrote this article, but I don't see many studies to support the theories?

The quote sums it up...

Certainly! but you cannot exclude the possibility that the demand could grow exponentially.

Minister Edna Molewa responds to renewed call for an immediate rhino hunting moratorium
18 February 2016



The Minister of Environmental Affairs, Mrs Edna Molewa has received a letter from Allison Thomson, Director of the Outraged SA Citizens Against Poaching (OSCAP), expressing concern about “the continued hunting of both white and black rhinoceros.”

While the Minister appreciates concerns from organisations such as OSCAP and their partners about the status of rhino populations in South Africa, it should be understood / noted that the implementation of interventions to address the illegal killing of rhino and the illegal trade in rhino horn does not preclude the legal, sustainable utilisation of the species.

The public can be assured that the conservation of the species remains a priority for government and this is evident from the implementation, since August 2014, of the Integrated Strategic Management approach for rhino, following its adoption by the Cabinet. This approach addresses not only the illegal killing of rhino and the illegal trade of rhino horn, but also the management of rhino populations, long-term sustainability measures, game-changing interventions to bring about an end to rhino poaching and national, regional and international cooperation to end the cross-border crime of rhino poaching.

Government, through the Department of Environmental Affairs and other relevant government departments, has introduced numerous legislative and policy measures to address the increase in rhino poaching in South Africa.

With regard to the call for a moratorium on the hunting of white and black rhino in South Africa, it should be noted that the Scientific Authority, which is responsible for the monitoring of trade in specimens of listed threatened or protected species, published a draft Non-Detriment Finding (NDF) for white rhino for public comment in 2013. The final NDF, which is expected to be published in the government gazette soon, finds that the legal international trade in live rhino and the export of hunting trophies poses a low risk to the survival of the species in South Africa and should be allowed to continue. The Scientific Authority will continue to monitor the situation and will advise should interventions, such as a restriction on hunting be required.

In addition, the public was called on in January 2016 to comment on the gazetted Draft Amendment of the norms and standards for the marking of rhinoceros and rhinoceros horn, and the hunting of rhinoceros for trophy hunting purposes. The amendment clarifies and strengthens certain clauses contained in the 2012 Norms and Standards, especially in respect of the movement and safekeeping of rhino horns and the management of the hunting of both white and black rhino. The public comments received are presently being reviewed and the Amendments are expected to be finalised in the coming months.

Minister Molewa has assured OSCAP and South Africans, that the Rights in terms of Section 24 of the Constitution of South Africa to have the environment protected, for the benefit of present and future generations, through reasonable legislative and other measures that prevent pollution and ecological degradation; promote conservation; and secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources while promoting justifiable economic and social development, will be upheld.

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https://www.environment.gov.za/mediarel ... moratorium

While the Minister appreciates concerns from organisations such as OSCAP and their partners about the status of rhino populations in South Africa, it should be understood / noted that the implementation of interventions to address the illegal killing of rhino and the illegal trade in rhino horn does not preclude the legal, sustainable utilisation of the species.

Legally, i think the minister is right.

The hunters take off miniscule numbers of rhino, very sustainably, providing large amounts of foreign income, tax and employment. Obviously there are some bad apples, but it's like closing down a gold mine because there are illegal gold miners next door?

The big problem is poaching, and the second biggest "producer" is horn farmers, a different thing altogether.

What do you call "minuscule numbers of rhino"?

A tiny percentage compared to the poaching thousands!

That's not an answer 1-4-7-10% or more?