Pro-trade lobby for rhino horn a waste of time

BOKSBURG – Lifting the existing ban on trade in rhino horn is not only a very hot topic in South Africa at the moment, but also in the world. Many say that it is an exercise in futility, because even if the ban is lifted, it will take at least 10 years to finalise administrative arrangements and by then it might be too late to save the rhino.

Lobbyists for or against trade made presentations before the Rhino Horn Trade Committee of Inquiry (RHTC) on March 25 and 26. The current regulations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) forbids trade.

This means that the onus is on the pro-trade lobby to show beyond reasonable doubt that its case requesting the lifting of the ban against trade, will be to the benefit of rhino.

Anti-trade activist and conservationist, Mr Ian Michler told Lowvelder, “A change in the regulations must be motivated by showing that poaching will be significantly reduced and the long-term survival chances of rhino will be increased.

This should be done in the same way that a judge cannot convict on circumstantial evidence, CITES cannot change the regulations on flimsy reasoning.”

The two areas of particular concern in many presentations by anti-trade activists, involve the demand side of the equation and parallel illegal markets.

Parallel markets exist in most high-value products today. Just consider Apple, Rolex or Nike and how much they spend on trying to protect trademarks. Or ask De Beers about blood diamonds or Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC), about the illegal trade in ivory. Lifting the ban on trade does not mean that poaching will stop.

In his presentation to RHTC, the biggest farmer of rhino in the world, Mr John Hume, also a member of the Private Rhino Owners Association (PROA) and pro-trading, said it was in the first place wrong to stop the legal supply of horn, and that it was a hysterical step taken by CITES in 1977 and 2008. “The demand is not going to go away, but what we have done was to give poachers a foot in the door in the first place.”

According to Hume, CITES took away the only legal and ethical source of supplying rhino horn, that did not result in killing the animal.

“Rhino horn can be harvested every three to five years. All you have to do is to tranquillise the rhino and cut the horn just above the quick.It is painless and takes about 15 to 18 minutes. The horn grows back again.”

Hume added that most of the communities adjacent to the Kruger National Park (KNP), or the Limpopo or Mozambican Transfrontier Park, had always successfully farmed with cattle.

It would be easy to convince them to farm with rhino as the money they could make would make a big difference to their financial status, bigger than the income from poaching, he added. “The weight of a horn is between three and five kilograms. Farmers can harvest between 35 and 45 kilograms from female rhino and up to 80 kilograms from male rhino in their lifetimes. This will act as an incentive to protect the rhino in those communities and on other privately owned farms.”

Hume told Lowvelder that, at the rate at which the country was losing rhino to poaching, poachers were going to run out of horn.

“I believe that our only solution to keep our rhino alive is to legalise the trade. Not knowing how big the market is, is not the problem because making it legal will not change the demand. The problem is that we are running out of rhino.”

Other pro-traders suggested treating poachers and poaching as a level 5 crime with a minimum sentence of 15 years, and to label legal rhino horn as such, so that users can differentiate between poached and legally harvested horns.
Anti-traders suggested that legalising trade in horns would possibly increase the market for the product.

The chairman of Youth for African Wildlife, Mr Dex Kotze, said in his presentation before RHTC that legal trading would increase the market for rhino horn. He told Lowvelder that looking at the economic growth in China should be a warning of how big this market might become.

“The explosive growth of Asian economies, coupled with an obsessive compulsive need for luxury goods in these nations, do not bode well for any legalised trade in rhino horn. Priced in excess of $75 000/kg and up to $100 000/kg on the black market, it is a fait accompli that legal trade in rhino horn will facilitate a surge in demand for the most sought-after product in the ubiquitous obsession for status symbols among Asian people.”

On their side, the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa), said in their presentation:

“Supporting trade sends a completely mixed message to the Asian markets. On the one hand we are asking for the world to assist when talking about a crisis with the future survival of species at risk, but on the other we are telling them that we also think its OK to hunt these animals and trade in their body parts.”

Last year, more than 1 200 rhino were poached in South Africa alone.
In Africa an estimated 28 500 rhino are left, of which 21 000 are found in South Africa.