On the rhino-horns of a dilemma

8 Jul 2013

South Africa's proposed once-off sale of its stockpile of rhino horn will create "more problems than solutions" says Pelham Jones, chairman of the SA Private Rhino Owners' Association.

"I do not believe that [a one-off sale] is the minister's intention and that it is merely just one of the options on the table, but it is the one we are most uncomfortable with," said Jones.

"We support going to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) and arguing for legalised trade," he said.

Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa announced last week that the cabinet had given the go-ahead to her department to draft a proposal to present at the next meeting of Cites in 2016.

At a street value of about $60,000 a kilogram, the sale of South Africa's stockpile would bring in about R11bn.

The Endangered Wildlife Trust said there were far too many uncertainties to be cleared up before deciding on legalised trade.

These include:

Whether legalising international trade would reduce the incentive to poach;
Whether a supply of legal horn could satisfy demand in Asia;
Whether South Africa is able to regulate the international trade in legally acquired rhino horn within its jurisdiction;
Whether South Africa's trading partners are able to implement a structured legal trade regime and adequately regulate it to keep out illegal trade;
Whether it will be possible to keep illegal horn out of the legal market.

The logistics would be costly because South Africa would need to meet several criteria to convince Cites that it is able to host sales and enforce the trading protocols to be used in both South Africa and the consuming country, for example Vietnam.

An improved central information system, linked to permitting and supported by a DNA database, would be needed to show that the horns had been legally obtained.

South Africa would have to prove that effective internal trade controls had been implemented and were sufficient to prevent the laundering of illegally obtained rhino horn.

Alona Rivord, spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund for Nature International, said the legalisation of rhino horn sales was a solution.

"Greater investments would likely be required for protection of rhinos should trade in rhino horn be legalised," she said.

Source: The Times via I-Net Bridge

Source: I-Net Bridge

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