Born Free welcomes decision to not legalise rhino horn trade

The Born Free Foundation welcomed the decision last week by South Africa’s Cabinet not to proceed with a proposal to legalise international trade in rhino horn at the forthcoming Conference of the Parties to CITES, which will take place in Johannesburg later this year.

In a statement released on April 21 reflecting the decisions taken at its meeting on April 13, South Africa’s Cabinet announced that it endorsed the recommendation from the Inter-Ministerial Committee that “the current mode of keeping the country’s stock levels be kept as opposed to the trading in rhino horns”.

In response to the announcement, Mr Adam Roberts, the chief executive officer of the Born Free Foundation and Born Free USA said, “Born Free has argued strongly, alongside many partner organisations, scientists, economists and other experts, that legalising the trade in rhino horn would increase demand, provide a mechanism for laundering illegal horn and undermines law enforcement and demand reduction efforts – in other words, it would be bad for rhinos.

“We commend the South African authorities for reaching what we consider to be the right decision. There is certainly much work to do in South Africa to protect rhinos against the scourge of poaching, and a legal trade mechanism could so easily have unravelled all this important work.

“We look forward to continuing to work with South Africa, other rhino range States, and countries with markets for rhino horn, to bring this scourge to a permanent end, and we call on the international community to do the same so these magnificent animals can survive and thrive long into the future.”