tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/south-africa-rhino-30930/articlesSouth Africa rhino – The Conversation2017-12-14T17:54:57Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/884872017-12-14T17:54:57Z2017-12-14T17:54:57ZLegalising rhino horn trade: don’t charge in blind<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198555/original/file-20171211-27693-1f3pr9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Legalising the trade of rhino horns has long been thought of as the solution to the poaching problem.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Between 2008 and 2016, poachers killed more than <a href="https://www.africacries.com/news.html">7100 rhinos in Africa</a>. South Africa, which has nearly 80% of Africa’s rhinos, was the worst affected country, with more than 1000 rhinos killed each year over the last four years. </p>
<p>In 2015 and 2016, the total number of rhinos poached represented almost 6% of South Africa’s rhinos (if white and black rhinos are added up together), which is similar to the estimated population growth rate. This suggests that the situation is close to a tipping point where rhino deaths exceed births. </p>
<p>Statistics for 2017 haven’t been tallied, but the numbers are likely to be high again. Before 2008, South Africa was losing fewer than 25 rhinos to <a href="https://blog.rhinoafrica.com/2015/09/22/history-rhino-poaching-south-africa/">poaching per year</a>. There is no consensus about the reasons for the increase in poaching.</p>
<p>Rhinos are killed for their horns, which fetch high prices on the black market. There are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/10/high-price-of-rhino-horn-leaves-bloody-trail-across-the-globe">suggestions from 2012</a> that end user prices were as high as USD$65000/kg. Most poached rhino horns are smuggled to Asia, where their uses range from traditional or modern medicine to making ornaments. It’s also speculated that criminal syndicates store some in stockpiles in the belief that prices will <a href="http://www.trafficj.org/publication/12_The_SouthAfrica-VietNam_RhinoHorn_Trade_Nexus.pdf">increase in future</a>.</p>
<p>In an attempt to stop the poaching, South Africa has developed a <a href="https://www.environment.gov.za/mediarelease/molewa_progressonintegrated_strategicmanagement_ofrhinoceros">multi-sectoral approach</a> that includes state and private entities and combines law enforcement with interventions like translocations. The poaching rate appears to have levelled, but this strategy hasn’t reduced killings to sustainable levels – or prevented the involvement of organised crime in rhino poaching. </p>
<p>Since limiting the supply of horn to the market has not succeeded, another strategy is to consider the opposite: increasing the supply by legalising trade. </p>
<p>A group of South African conservation biologists recently <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320716307583">estimated</a> how much horn could be supplied if this happened. The paper looked at the amount of rhino horn that could be produced in South Africa in one year. The horn could come from rhinos that die of natural causes, live rhinos dehorned on private properties and stockpiles. Trophy hunted rhinos were also considered, although this would be a highly contentious source of horn for legal trade. Trophy hunting of rhinos is legal in South Africa under highly regulated conditions.</p>
<p>The paper estimated a minimum production of 5319 kg horn over one year and a maximum of 13 356 kg. In comparison, the amount of horn thought to be entering the illegal markets is around 5346 kg/year. </p>
<p>The scientists did not think there was enough information to assess whether this would be enough to satisfy the demand in Asia. Markets are complex and it’s hard to predict what would happen if more rhino horn became available. A number of factors need to be taken into account, including the unknown impact of having separate markets for legal and illegal horn, uncertainty about prices, the possibility of laundering illegal horn through legal markets, and relaxing of the stigma of buying horn. </p>
<p>As a result, caution is needed before unleashing unpredictable market forces on a threatened species.</p>
<h2>Contrasting approaches</h2>
<p>In theory, rhino poaching could be made less financially rewarding in two ways.</p>
<p>One is to reduce demand: to discourage people from buying rhino horn. So far, there is no credible evidence that this approach will work.</p>
<p>Another is to <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/339/6123/1038">make trade legal</a>. Here, the goal is to attract buyers away from the illegal market and to use the income from legal trade to protect rhinos. This approach has never been tried because a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species or <a href="https://www.cites.org/">CITES</a> ban on international trade has been in place since the 1970s. </p>
<p>There are strongly opposing views on the likely outcome of legalising trade, and no credible evidence to support the theory. </p>
<p>Traditional economic theory suggests that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095069603001426">the price of horn would drop</a> if it were readily available through legitimate channels. This would lead to lower profits for criminals and a subsequent reduction in poaching. It also suggests that prohibiting the sale of horn increases its scarcity and leads to increased prices. Confiscating horn may cause increased poaching to meet demand. </p>
<p>The theory, however, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095069603001426">assumes</a> that legal and illegal horns are interchangeable in a single market. This would not be true if there were separate legal and illegal markets with different prices. </p>
<p>It’s not clear, either, how an increased supply of horn would affect market prices. And legalising trade might reduce the stigma of buying rhino horn, stimulating demand for legal horn among law-abiding people. If demand exceeded legal supply, poaching might increase. The number of potential law abiding users of rhino horn is unknown.</p>
<p>These unknowns point to the need for policymakers to proceed with caution. The potential for unintended consequences resulting from boosting the supply of rhino horn make legalising trade a high risk strategy.</p>
<p><em>Andrew Taylor Wildlife Trade Programme Officer at the Endangered Wildlife Trust featured as a coauthor on the article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88487/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harriet Davies-Mostert does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Policymakers need to proceed with caution when it comes to legalising rhino horn as it could be a high risk strategy.Harriet Davies-Mostert, Extraordinary lecturer at the Centre for Wildlife Management, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/827732017-08-21T19:05:20Z2017-08-21T19:05:20ZWhy allowing the sale of horn stockpiles is a setback for rhinos in the wild<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182806/original/file-20170821-4952-k5p9cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Africa lost over 1000 rhinos to poaching last year.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A South African court has <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-21/rhino-horn-auction-by-world-s-biggest-breeder-to-go-ahead">ordered</a> the government to release a permit to the world’s <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/meet-the-worlds-largest-rhino-breeder-2064943">largest rhino breeder</a>, John Hume. The permit will allow him to host a 3-day auction of his stockpiled rhino horn to local buyers. </p>
<p>Hume is the world’s largest private rhino breeder. He owns 1500 rhino, just over a twentieth of the total number believed still to be <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/2017-06-24-exclusive-500kg-of-rhino-horn-up-for-grabs-as-south-african-rhino-hosts-first-ever-online-global-auction/">in the wild</a>. South Africa <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/06/south-africa-lifts-ban-on-domestic-rhino-horn-sales">lost over 1000 rhinos</a> to poaching last year, predominantly in the Kruger Park and in KwaZulu-Natal. Hume says that the proceeds of the auction will go towards protecting his herd, which he says currently costs him <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/26/rhino-breeder-auction-horns-south-africa-rhinoceros">USD$170,000 a month.</a></p>
<p>Hume had been granted a permit, but it was withdrawn by the country’s Department of Environmental Affairs. A South African <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/06/south-africa-lifts-ban-on-domestic-rhino-horn-sales">Constitutional Court ruling in April</a> lifted a moratorium on the domestic rhino horn trade, upholding a previous High Court ruling. Hume then filed another court application to have his permit reinstated, which was upheld on Sunday. Such permits allow the buying and selling of rhino horn provided that the horns remain in the country after the sale.</p>
<p>Both the High Court ruling and the more recent Constitutional Court ruling are disappointing. While the moratorium was lifted on procedural grounds, the substantive case for a moratorium is profound. There is no evidence of a domestic market for rhino horn. In addition, a domestic trade contradicts the rationale of an international ban.</p>
<p>It therefore seems specious at best to argue for a domestic trade for conservation purposes. The only rationale for purchasing rhino horn in South Africa would be to sell it on to markets in China and Vietnam. The price of horn in those countries is estimated to be in <a href="https://theconversation.com/chopping-off-the-rhinos-horn-and-the-war-on-wildlife-crime-33427">the region of USD$60,000/kg.</a> </p>
<p>Hume has been banking on being able to sell his horn, or see the huge amount he invested in breeding be sunk for nought. He has fought hard to be allowed to sell horn from anaesthetised rhinos that <a href="https://theconversation.com/dehorning-rhinos-why-there-may-be-a-case-for-doing-it-64902">have been dehorned</a>.</p>
<p>He has won the court battle. But the rhino horn auction that has been permitted by the court is a serious setback in the fight against poaching and the probability of wild rhino survival. The chances of the horns remaining in the country is next to zero.</p>
<h2>The arguments for and against</h2>
<p>The case for selling off rhino horn is based on two arguments. </p>
<p>Firstly, that without private rhino ownership, the species would be even more imperilled. Private property, according to South Africa’s constitution, should allow one to buy and sell as one pleases. This view defines rhinos as a purely private, commercial good. </p>
<p>The second argument is that an international ban has been ineffective in combating rhino poaching. Therefore, the only way to overcome the negative effects of high prices, which induce poaching, is to flood the market with horn that is cut from a cultivated herd.</p>
<p>The first argument is philosophical and has severe practical implications. Rhinos are our collective heritage – a public good in one of the purest senses of that term. The joy derived from viewing rhinos in the wild – public parks – is indivisible. To reduce rhinos to purely commercial products is to destroy the argument for public parks and the public protection of wildlife. </p>
<p>Hume and his supporters would argue that this is a false dichotomy. But they have failed to make the case that flooding the market with horn from commercially bred rhinos will help to maintain the species in the wild. This is partly because of the flaw with the second argument.</p>
<p>The idea that commercially bred rhino horn will flood the market, depress prices and prevent further poaching is <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-04-13-op-ed-trading-blows-over-trading-rhino-horn/#.WZqGg617EUE">without basis in fact</a>. The international ban on rhino horn trade appeared to be most effective until a sudden shock hit the market – the escalation of demand from Vietnam <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-illicit-rhino-horn-trade-escalating-76265">in around 2006</a>. Before that, rhino poaching in South Africa was negligible. </p>
<p>It is disingenuous, at best, to argue that the ban against horn trading is responsible for the upsurge in poaching. There is also no evidence that the market can be satiated by attempting to flood it. The risk of exploding currently dormant demand is too high. It also seems that traders like Hume want it both ways – to sell the horn for a price that earns a handsome profit but not so high that it incentivises poaching. Where this equilibrium is cannot be ascertained. So, it’s hard to understand how the argument can be sustained.</p>
<p>A government whose general bureaucratic efficacy is questionable surely cannot be trusted to regulate rhino horn in the manner supposed by the court. If one considers, for instance, that South Africa’s State Security Minister, David Mahlobo, has been <a href="http://www.news24.com/Video/SouthAfrica/News/watch-rhino-horn-smuggler-calls-david-mahlobo-his-friend-20161116">implicated</a> in rhino horn smuggling, the odds are not promising.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82773/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ross Harvey has written in his personal capacity</span></em></p>The rhino horn auction in South Africa is a serious setback in the fight against poaching and the survival of wild rhinos. The chances of the horns remaining in the country are next to zero.Ross Harvey, Senior Researcher in Natural Resource Governance (Africa), South African Institute of International AffairsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/725512017-04-27T09:18:12Z2017-04-27T09:18:12ZRhinos should be conserved in Africa, not moved to Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166793/original/file-20170426-2855-m8qcok.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A southern white rhino in South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Rhinos are one of the most iconic symbols of the African savanna: grey behemoths with armour plating and fearsome horns. And yet it is the horns that <a href="https://theconversation.com/dehorning-rhinos-why-there-may-be-a-case-for-doing-it-64902">are leading to their demise</a>. Poaching is so prolific that <a href="https://theconversation.com/even-zoos-can-no-longer-protect-rhinos-from-poachers-74295">zoos cannot even protect</a> them.</p>
<p>Some people believe rhino horns can <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/rhinoceros-rhino-horn-use-fact-vs-fiction/1178/">cure several ailments</a>; others see horns as status symbols. Given horns are <a href="https://theconversation.com/spy-cam-rhinos-to-take-on-poachers-with-devices-hidden-in-their-horns-47681">made of keratin</a>, this is really about as effective as chewing your finger nails. Nonetheless, a massive <a href="https://theconversation.com/rhino-poaching-in-south-africa-are-numbers-falling-or-focus-shifting-65358">increase in poaching</a> over the past decade has led to <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/rhino_population_figures">rapid declines</a> in some rhino species, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/chopping-off-the-rhinos-horn-and-the-war-on-wildlife-crime-33427">solutions</a> are urgently needed.</p>
<p>One proposal is to take 80 rhinos from private game farms in South Africa and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-36244910">transport them to captive facilities</a> in Australia, at a cost of over US$4m. Though it cannot be denied that this is a “novel” idea, I, and colleagues from around the world, have <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v534/n7608/full/534475b.html">serious concerns about the project</a>, and we have now <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12354/epdf">published a paper</a> looking into the problematic plan.</p>
<h2>Conservation cost</h2>
<p>The first issue is whether the cost of moving the rhinos is unjustified. The $4m cost is almost double the anti-poaching budget for South African National Parks (<a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12354/epdf">$2.2m</a>), the managers of the estate where most white rhinos currently reside in the country. </p>
<p>The money would be better spent on anti-poaching activities in South Africa to increase local capacity. Or, from an Australian perspective, given the country’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-save-australias-mammals-we-need-a-change-of-heart-27423">abysmal record of mammal extinctions</a>, it could go towards protecting indigenous species there. </p>
<p>In addition, there is the time cost of using the expertise of business leaders, marketeers and scientists. All could be working on conservation issues of much greater importance.</p>
<p>Bringing animals from the wild into captivity introduces strong selective pressure for domestication. Essentially, those animals that are too wild don’t breed and so don’t pass on their genes, while the sedate (unwild) animals do. This is exacerbated for species like rhinos where predation has shaped their evolution: they have grown big, dangerous horns to protect themselves. So captivity will likely be detrimental to the survival of any captive bred offspring should they be returned to the wild. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166857/original/file-20170426-2825-59h0pe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166857/original/file-20170426-2825-59h0pe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166857/original/file-20170426-2825-59h0pe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166857/original/file-20170426-2825-59h0pe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166857/original/file-20170426-2825-59h0pe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166857/original/file-20170426-2825-59h0pe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166857/original/file-20170426-2825-59h0pe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Poaching is still a huge problem, despite a resurgence in the southern white rhino population.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is not known yet which rhino species will be the focus of the Australian project, but it will probably be the <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/species_of_rhino/white_rhinos/factfile_white_rhino">southern white rhino subspecies</a> – which is the rhino species least likely to go extinct. The global population estimate for southern white rhinos (over 20,000) <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/rhinoceros/african_rhinos/white_rhinoceros/">is stable</a>, despite high poaching levels.</p>
<p>This number stands in stark contrast to the number of <a href="https://theconversation.com/only-a-jurassic-park-style-intervention-can-now-save-the-northern-white-rhino-51333">northern white</a> (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/14/northern-white-rhino-bid-to-save-extinction-threat">three</a>), black (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-38903692">4,880 and increasing</a>), great Indian (<a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/19496/0">2,575</a>), Sumatran (<a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/6553/0">275</a>) and Javan (<a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/19495/0">up to 66</a>) rhinos. These latter three species are clearly of much greater conservation concern than southern white rhinos. </p>
<p>There are also <a href="http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/140/1409008711.pdf">well over 800</a> southern white rhinos currently held in zoos around the world.</p>
<p>With appropriate management, the population size of the southern white is unlikely to lose genetic diversity, so adding 80 more individuals to zoos is utterly unnecessary. By contrast, across the world there are <a href="https://theconversation.com/most-large-herbivores-now-face-extinction-our-study-shows-41102">39 other large mammalian herbivore species</a> that are threatened with extinction that are far more in need of conservation funding than the five rhino species.</p>
<h2>Exploitation</h2>
<p>Rhinos inhabit places occupied by other less high profile threatened species – like African wild dogs and pangolins – which do not benefit from the same level of conservation funding. Conserving wildlife in their natural habitat has many benefits for the creatures and plants they coexist with. Rhinos are keystone species, creating grazing lawns that provide habitats for other species and ultimately affect fire regimes (fire frequency and burn patterns). They are also habitats themselves for a range of species-specific parasites. Abandoning efforts to conserve rhinos in their environment means these ecosystem services will no longer be provided.</p>
<p>Finally, taking biodiversity assets (rhinos) from Africa and transporting them to foreign countries extends the history of exploitation of Africa’s resources. Although well-meaning, the safe-keeping of rhinos by Western countries is as disempowering and patronising as the historical appropriation of cultural artefacts by colonial powers. </p>
<p>Conservation projects are ultimately <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v462/n7271/full/462280a.html">more successful when led locally</a>. With its strong social foundation, community-based conservation has had a significant impact on rhino protection and population recovery in Africa. In fact, local capacity and institutions are at the centre of one of the world’s <a href="http://www.livescience.com/2256-species-success-rhinos-recover.html">most successful conservation success</a> stories – the southern white rhino was brought back from the brink, growing from a few hundred in South Africa at the turn of the last century to over 20,000 throughout southern Africa today.</p>
<p>In our opinion, this project is neo-colonial conservation that diverts money and public attention away from the fundamental issues necessary to conserve rhinos. There is no evidence of what will happen to the rhinos transported to Australia once the poaching crisis is averted, but there seems nothing as robust as China’s “panda diplomacy” where pandas provided to foreign zoos remain the property of China, alongside a substantial annual payment, as do any offspring produced, for the duration of the arrangement. </p>
<p>With increased support, community-based rhino conservation initiatives can continue to lead the way. It is money that is missing, not the will to conserve them nor the expertise necessary to do so. Using the funding proposed for the Australian Rhino Project to support locally-led conservation or to educate people to reduce consumer demand for rhino horn in Asia seem far more acceptable options.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72551/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research that this article refers to was done in conjunction with William J. Ripple, Graham I. H. Kerley, Marietjie Landman, Roan D. Plotz and Stephen T. Garnett</span></em></p>The $4m cost is almost double the anti-poaching budget for South African National Parks.Matt Hayward, Senior Lecturer in Conservation, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/653582016-09-15T22:26:16Z2016-09-15T22:26:16ZRhino poaching in South Africa: are numbers falling or focus shifting?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137645/original/image-20160913-4980-1ul6imq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rhino poaching in South Africa's Kruger National Park has decreased this year but it has increased in other regions.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa recently triumphantly <a href="http://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/minister-releases-rhino-poaching-figures">announced</a> that rhino poaching is on the decline in the Kruger National Park. South Africa’s Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, said 702 rhinos had been killed in the country as a whole so far this year, compared with 796 in the same period last year. </p>
<p>She also announced that between January and August this year a total of <a href="http://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/minister-releases-rhino-poaching-figures">458 poached rhino</a> carcasses were found in Kruger compared to 557 in the same period last year. This represents a 17.8% decline. The park is the hardest <a href="http://www.krugerpark.co.za/krugerpark-times-6-1-shoking-rise-in-rhino-poaching-25183.html">hit by poaching</a> and the numbers look like good news for rhinos and conservation.</p>
<p>But is there really a downward trend? Or is it just a re-orientation by poachers in the face of stepped-up security in the Kruger Park and the reflection of the steady decline in South African rhino numbers <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/thorny_issues/poaching_crisis_in_south_africa">due to poaching</a>?</p>
<h2>Poaches adopt new strategies</h2>
<p>Chief Ranger Funda, who heads the protection teams at the Kruger National Park, told me that despite the falling carcass numbers, the number of incursions by poachers had increased by a worrying 27.87%. That is a staggering 2,115 for the first eight months of 2016. He told me that about half the poachers who entered the park were caught by rangers.</p>
<p>So far this year <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2016/09/11/Significant-increase-in-number-of-arrests-for-rhino-poaching-Molewa">414 suspected poachers</a> have been arrested. Around 177 of these were in Kruger and 237 in the rest of the country. The figures don’t tally, unless Funda’s estimate includes a significant number of the poachers caught and released without charge or perhaps killed in contacts with the rangers. </p>
<p>The number of incursions suggest there has been no let up in poaching. It may be that poachers are finding rhino harder to find. Kruger’s chief ranger said that the park had deployed very high security in an intensive protection zone. This zone, in the southern third of the park and along the border with Mozambique, is a regular route for poachers entering the park.</p>
<p>He added that poachers were now often entering the park posing as tourists rather than sneaking across the unfenced border with Mozambique. Poachers were also increasingly armed with high-powered Czech hunting rifles with sound moderators. These, he believed, had been brought into South Africa from Mozambique, where they had been supplied to wildlife officials but then illegally sold on to poachers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137643/original/image-20160913-4980-ipxylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137643/original/image-20160913-4980-ipxylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137643/original/image-20160913-4980-ipxylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137643/original/image-20160913-4980-ipxylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137643/original/image-20160913-4980-ipxylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137643/original/image-20160913-4980-ipxylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137643/original/image-20160913-4980-ipxylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137643/original/image-20160913-4980-ipxylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This single piece of rhino horn, from a non-lethally dehorned rhino, is worth about $40,000.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keith Somerville</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Problem shifts elsewhere</h2>
<p>Molewa did briefly note that although poaching had declined in Kruger it had increased in other areas. The number of carcasses found has increased in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Reserve in Kwa-Zulu Natal. The director of the reserve, Jabulani Ngubane, told me that 95 rhino had been poached in the reserve since the beginning of the year, a big increase on last year. The reserve has about 4,500 white rhino and 500 black rhinos. </p>
<p>Cedric Coetzee, the head of rhino protection for Hluhluwe-iMfolozi, told me that he feared that poachers could shift to his reserve. One reason for this was the success of security measures at Kruger. The other was that the high density of animals in his reserve – about three rhino to a square kilometre – meant that a killing could take only two to three hours. </p>
<h2>What does the future hold?</h2>
<p>If you add the new figures released by the minister the number of rhino killed <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/thorny_issues/poaching_crisis_in_south_africa">for their horns</a> in South Africa since 2006 stands at 5,763. The number is undoubtedly higher given that rhino would certainly have been killed but carcasses never found. </p>
<p>The Kruger park record looks better, in spite of a noticeable increase in elephant poaching. But Hluhluwe-iMfolozi is now under threat. With rhino horn fetching around $60,000 per kg in the booming markets <a href="http://www.earthtouchnews.com/environmental-crime/illegal-trade/top-10-shocking-figures-of-the-illegal-rhino-horn-trade">in Vietnam and China</a>, the temptation to poach is great. Rhino horn is a lucrative alternative for poor people struggling to feed, clothe and educate their families, as it is for greedy white professional hunters, former parks officials and even qualified veterinarians.</p>
<p>Security is being stepped up, but park officials admit the use of intelligence is disorganised. And many of the army and police units sent to supplement park rangers had no experience of working in thick bush full of potentially dangerous animals. </p>
<p>One option is some form of regulated trade from <a href="https://theconversation.com/dehorning-rhinos-why-there-may-be-a-case-for-doing-it-64902">dehorning</a> sedated rhinos, natural mortality and horn seized from poachers. But it is contentious and conservationists are divided on the [issue]( (https://africajournalismtheworld.com/2016/09/11/rhino-horn-and-conservation-to-trade-or-not-to-trade-that-is-the-question/). </p>
<p>One must hope that the downward trend in poaching continues. All one can say is that there are improvements in Kruger National Park but the war is not won. For sure, there are more battles to be fought.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Somerville received funding from the Comanis Foundation for his research trip to South Africa and Swaziland. </span></em></p>Initiatives to curb rhino poaching in the Kruger National Park has shown improvement compared to last year. But poaching in other parks has increased.Keith Somerville, Visiting Professor, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/651722016-09-13T15:46:00Z2016-09-13T15:46:00ZRhino horn and conservation: to trade or not to trade, that is the question<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137347/original/image-20160912-3796-1631cmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">White rhino on Lake Nakuru in Kenya.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Africa’s rhinos are seriously threatened by poaching, which feeds the demand for rhino horn in Vietnam and China. Rhino horn is a long-used ingredient in Chinese traditional medicine and is now even more eagerly sought after in Vietnam. It is a lucrative business. Rhino horn can fetch up to <a href="http://www.earthtouchnews.com/environmental-crime/illegal-trade/top-10-shocking-figures-of-the-illegal-rhino-horn-trade">US$60,000 per kg</a> on the illegal market and is worth more by weight than diamonds or cocaine.</p>
<p>Over the past nine years 5,940 African rhinos <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/poaching_statistics">have been killed</a> for their horns. Massive poaching over decades had <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/rhino_population_figures">reduced</a> the black rhino in Africa from 65,000 in 1970 to 2,300 in 1993. </p>
<p>Anti-poaching and conservation programmes enabled a recovery to a population between 5,042 and 5,455. White rhino rehabilitation was even more dramatic with numbers as low as 50 in the wild in the early 1900s. They are now back up to <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/rhino_population_figures">between 19,682 and 21,077</a>.</p>
<p>They nevertheless remain under serious threat. South Africa, home to the majority of Africa’s white rhino, has borne the brunt of the offensive. It lost at least 5,061 rhinos between <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/poaching_statistics">2008 and 2015</a>. </p>
<p>There have been a number of initiatives to protect both black and white rhinos from extinction. These have included:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>a <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150922-rhino-horn-south-africa-conservation-trade-poaching/">ban</a> on the international trade in rhino horn in 1977. Domestic trade is still legal in many countries;</p></li>
<li><p>attempts to reduce demand in the main east Asian markets; </p></li>
<li><p>costly and increasingly militarised anti-poaching methods; and</p></li>
<li><p>concerted conservation efforts.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>In addition to these efforts I believe that there should be space for a legal, regulated trade in rhino horn. Supplies could be harvested, without harm to the animal, from <a href="https://theconversation.com/dehorning-rhinos-why-there-may-be-a-case-for-doing-it-64902">live rhinos’</a> natural mortality ivory and the large horn stocks held around Africa. </p>
<p>The subject will be hotly debated at the upcoming <a href="https://cites.org/eng/news/pr/cites_cop17_venue_dates_south_africa_2016">CITES conference</a> in South Africa, where some countries are expected to apply to be allowed to trade legally in rhino horn. They will argue that the income will be used for conservation funding, anti-poaching measures and community schemes to improve rhino protection. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137279/original/image-20160910-13348-izwa1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137279/original/image-20160910-13348-izwa1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137279/original/image-20160910-13348-izwa1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137279/original/image-20160910-13348-izwa1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137279/original/image-20160910-13348-izwa1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137279/original/image-20160910-13348-izwa1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137279/original/image-20160910-13348-izwa1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Proponents for rhino horn trade believe the money can be used for conservation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keith Somerville</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The case for and against</h2>
<p>The countries most affected by this debate are those that are home to most of Africa’s rhinos.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/rhinoceros">vast majority</a> of white rhino – about 99% – are found in Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and South Africa. South Africa has 90% of the world’s white rhino and 1,700-1,800 <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150122-rhino-poaching-south-africa-conservation-science/">black rhino</a>. Both species are also found in Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. </p>
<p>Small black rhino populations can be found in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia. The west African black rhino was declared extinct <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/rhinoceros/african_rhinos/black_rhinoceros/">in 2011</a>.</p>
<p>The idea of lifting the ban is vehemently opposed by wildlife and animal welfare NGOs such as <a href="http://www.bornfree.org.uk/animals/rhinos/">Born Free</a>, the <a href="https://eia-international.org/our-work/environmental-crime-and-governance/illegal-wildlife-trade/rhinos">Environmental Investigation Agency</a> and the <a href="http://www.ifaw.org/united-states">International Fund for Animal Welfare</a>. It is also opposed by many Western governments, and Kenya, which <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/30/kenya-to-burn-largest-ever-ivory-stockpile-to-highlight-elephants-fate">burned</a> its rhino horn and ivory stocks at a public ceremony at the end of April. </p>
<p>Born Free argues that legal trade would expand demand, lead to increased poaching, and hasten rather than prevent the extinction of the <a href="http://www.bornfree.org.uk/get-involved/past-events/why-the-rhino-horn-trade-ban-needs-to-stay/">rhino</a>. </p>
<h2>Rhino horn stocks</h2>
<p>Swaziland has applied to CITES for permission to trade. It will request permission to sell its existing stocks to a small number of licensed retailers in the Far East. It also wants to sell harvested horn, at the rate of 20kg per annum, to these retailers. </p>
<p>Its formal proposal says income from a legal, non-lethal trade would:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… greatly ease financial pressure at a time when Swaziland’s rhino parks are struggling with the recent surge in rhino protection <a href="https://cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/cop/17/prop/SW_Rhino.pdf">costs</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Swaziland has 330kg in stock and can produce at least another <a href="https://cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/cop/17/prop/SW_Rhino.pdf">20kg a year</a>. Rhino breeder John Hume told me that South Africa has stocks of 32 tonnes of horn, 22 held by government and the rest by private owners. Namibia and Zimbabwe also have large stocks and the potential to produce horn supplies from dehorned rhino and natural mortality.</p>
<p>The proceeds from the sale of stocks will raise approximately $9.9 million at a wholesale price of $30,000 per kg. That amount will be placed in an endowment fund to yield approximately $600,000 annually. In addition, the proceeds of the annual sale of 20kg will raise a further $600,000 yearly, bringing total recurrent annual revenue from horn to $1.2 million.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137280/original/image-20160910-13367-guw9eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137280/original/image-20160910-13367-guw9eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137280/original/image-20160910-13367-guw9eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137280/original/image-20160910-13367-guw9eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137280/original/image-20160910-13367-guw9eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137280/original/image-20160910-13367-guw9eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137280/original/image-20160910-13367-guw9eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137280/original/image-20160910-13367-guw9eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Massive poaching over decades had reduced the black rhino in Africa from 65,000 in 1970 to 2,300 in 1993.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keith Somerville</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If matched by the legalisation over time of sales by other range states, it could help drive out illegal trade. Pelham Jones of the <a href="http://www.rhinoalive.com/dt_team/pelham-jones/">Private Rhino Owners’ Association</a> argues that legal sales set at $10,000 per kg would undercut the illegal market by selling legal horn below the current black market prices.</p>
<p>This would make illegal horn more expensive. It would also be less attractive in terms of potential risk of seizure and prosecution to buyers than legally available horn. </p>
<p>Other trade proponents talk of a central selling organisation for rhino horn, a version of De Beers <a href="http://www.rhinoalive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Michael-Eustace-Smart-Trade.pdf">diamond cartel</a>. </p>
<p>June Wiltshire, a business specialist in favour of the trade, told me she advocated the controversial approach of dealing directly with the current illegal rhino trade kingpins. The major drawback is that they don’t just deal in rhino horn but a range of illegal wildlife products, drugs and people trafficking. </p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>The Swaziland bid at CITES will be rejected. But the start of a discussion at CITES and the placing of the trade issue on the table internationally could lead to change in the future.</p>
<p>There is a strong possibility that, even after the rejection at CITES of the Swazi plan, the Southern African Development Community would support Swaziland’s position, with the likely abstention or possible opposition of Botswana and South Africa.</p>
<p>A much more coordinated regional plan would be the best way to work towards a regulated, secure and legal trade as part of a range of community and income-generation instruments along with fully funded security measures to protect rhinos in the future. </p>
<p>The way forward won’t be easy. </p>
<p>I strongly believe that the trade ban has not worked and will not work now. Rhino horn is a resource that can be harvested non-lethally and sustainably. It can earn income to encourage breeders, pay rangers and anti-poaching teams realistic salaries, provide sophisticated surveillance and supply benefits that will gain the support of people around parks, reserves and ranches. This will help support conservation because it is in their interests to do so rather than help poachers out of dire need.</p>
<p>But the pro-trade camp needs to get its act together and develop a sophisticated, viable trade scheme that does not appear to reward criminal syndicates and to present their case thoughtfully.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65172/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Somerville received funding for the research trip from the conservation NGO the Comamis Foundation, based in Switzerland.- <a href="http://www.comanis.ch/en/home/home2.htm">http://www.comanis.ch/en/home/home2.htm</a></span></em></p>Rhino horn trade is a hotly contested topic. Proponents believe it can aid conservation efforts. But those in opposition believe it will cause poaching to increase.Keith Somerville, Visiting Professor, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/649022016-09-05T18:04:54Z2016-09-05T18:04:54ZDehorning rhinos: why there may be a case for doing it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136603/original/image-20160905-4795-1w06dyk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dehorning is practised on many South African private reserves and is seen as a way of deterring poachers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keith Somerville</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The large bull rhino was about a hundred metres away. The jeep carrying the darting team moved closer, there was a popping sound and the bull twitched and moved off with a dart clearly visible in his upper leg. Within two minutes he was down on his knees. The dehorning team approached quickly, attached blinkers to cover his eyes as a group of ranch hands held him down and attached a rope to his back leg.</p>
<p>Things then happened quickly but with an assured and rapid routine. The vet monitored the rhino’s vital signs – it was sedated but not unconscious and not obviously alarmed or in any pain. The dehorners measured and recorded the circumference and height of the horn and calculated how much to remove.</p>
<p>Once the measurements were done, a line was carefully drawn around the large front horns and the smaller rear ones leaving about four or five centimetres below the cut line to ensure growth would continue and there would be no damage to the horn bed where it joins the skull. A battery driven saw was then used to cut through the horn, which took little more than a minute. Someone sprayed cold water on to the horn to prevent over-heating and burn injuries.</p>
<p>Then the horn was off. The team cleaned up the edges of the horn stump and gathered up any shaving or horn dust and sealed them in marked bags. The two horns were measured, weighed and marked with indelible ink. When a rhino is first dehorned DNA samples are taken for future identification.</p>
<p>The main horn from the first rhino I saw dehorned weighed 565g, the smaller horn 67g and the shavings 45g. This would be worth an estimated US$40 000 in Vietnam and China, the main markets for poached ivory horn. That’s according to rhino owner John Hume and Kruger Park Chief Ranger Nicholus Funda, who gave me the latest estimates of horn prices. The horns and shavings from dehorned rhino are kept in a bank safe or secure depository. </p>
<p>Dehorning is practised on many South African private reserves and is seen as a way of deterring poachers. It has even been used on some parks and conservancies in Zimbabwe and Namibia, according to a study on the effects of <a href="http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/index.php?s=1&act=refs&CODE=ref_detail&id=1342738800">dehorning</a>. Dehorning itself is not hugely controversial - what is, is whether the harvested horn should be sold. This will be debated, with vehement arguments on both sides, at the CITES <a href="https://cites.org/eng/news/pr/cites_cop17_venue_dates_south_africa_2016">conference in Johannesburg</a> in September 2016. </p>
<h2>A ranch full of rhinos</h2>
<p>The dehornings I witnessed took place at a huge rhino ranch at Klerksdorp in South Africa’s North West province, belonging to the world’s most successful breeder of <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/160122-Hume-South-Africa-rhino-farm/">rhinos</a>, John Hume. His 8,000 hectare property carries 1,405 rhinos, only 17 of which are black rhinos. He has successfully bred 951 rhinos over the last 25 years. South Africa has 18,796 white rhinos and 1,916 <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/thorny_issues/poaching_crisis_in_south_africa">black rhinos.</a></p>
<p>But 5,424 rhino have been poached in South Africa since 2006, and some feel this may be an underestimate as not all carcasses will have been found. According to the Kruger National Park’s Nicholus Funda, different groups are involved, from poor Mozambican peasants to local South Africans to rogue professional hunters and even former vets and senior wildlife officials from the Kruger National Park.</p>
<p>Hume’s ranch is not a national park or sanctuary but a massive breeding operation. He, and other private rhino breeders in South Africa, are dehorning their animals to deter poachers. </p>
<p>Dehorning doesn’t totally stop poaching as there is still a band of horn left which could be hacked off. But evidence from peer-reviewed studies has <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/160122-Hume-South-Africa-rhino-farm/">shown</a> that dehorning, when widely advertised, does deter poachers. They will seek to find the most <a href="https://www.environment.gov.za/sites/default/files/docs/studyon_dehorning_african_rhinoceros.pdf">lucrative targets</a> according to a study and will generally avoid farms and ranches with dehorning and good security. Even so, Hume has had attempted incursions by poachers.</p>
<p>The horn grows back on the rhinos and Hume dehorns his every 18 months to two years. The same <a href="https://www.environment.gov.za/sites/default/files/docs/studyon_dehorning_african_rhinoceros.pdf">study</a> of dehorning suggests there is no long-term impact of dehorning, as long as all rhinos in an area are dehorned. In the wild, there could be reduced ability of cows to defend calves from predators like hyenas and lions. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136606/original/image-20160905-4768-1bkhnwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136606/original/image-20160905-4768-1bkhnwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136606/original/image-20160905-4768-1bkhnwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136606/original/image-20160905-4768-1bkhnwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136606/original/image-20160905-4768-1bkhnwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136606/original/image-20160905-4768-1bkhnwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136606/original/image-20160905-4768-1bkhnwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136606/original/image-20160905-4768-1bkhnwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Hume’s 8,000 hectare property carries 1,405 rhinos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keith Somerville</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But on ranches, there is no obvious change in behaviour or <a href="https://www.environment.gov.za/sites/default/files/docs/studyon_dehorning_african_rhinoceros.pdf">health</a>. When I saw the two dehornings there seemed to be no great trauma involved and the rhino were on their feet and walking away in less than 15 minutes.</p>
<p>The horn is made of keratin, the same substance as hair and fingernails. Rhino horn has been used in <a href="https://africacheck.org/reports/medical-claims-for-rhino-horn-youre-better-on-an-aspirin-or-biting-your-nails/">Chinese traditional medicine</a> for millennia and now is believed, erroneously, in Vietnam to cure both <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/05/why-does-a-rhino-horn-cost-300-000-because-vietnam-thinks-it-cures-cancer-and-hangovers/275881/">cancer and hangovers</a>. It is chemically complex, containing large quantities of sulphur-containing amino acids, particularly cysteine, but also tyrosine, histidine, lysine, and arginine, and the salts calcium carbonate and <a href="http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/index.php?s=1&act=refs&CODE=ref_detail&id=1342738800">calcium phosphate</a>. </p>
<h2>The debate rages on</h2>
<p>There is currently a ban on the international trade in rhino horn. As a result the booming demand in China and Vietnam has created a huge and lucrative black market with horn <a href="http://www.earthtouchnews.com/environmental-crime/illegal-trade/top-10-shocking-figures-of-the-illegal-rhino-horn-trade">fetching $60,000 a kg</a>.</p>
<p>Hume believes that rhinos in the wild will only be saved through a combination of good security and dehorning, at least on private ranches. A few national parks and reserves want to dehorn and there is a lobby for a regulated and closely monitored legal trade in rhino horn. </p>
<p>This view is strongly opposed by many conservation and animal rights NGOs which means that this approach is unlikely to get sufficient support from governments to end the 39 year old CITES ban on <a href="http://www.bornfree.org.uk/get-involved/past-events/why-the-rhino-horn-trade-ban-needs-to-stay/">trade</a>.</p>
<p>The issue will be debated at the CITES Conference in Johannesburg at <a href="https://cites.org/eng/news/pr/cites_cop17_venue_dates_south_africa_2016">the end of September</a>, when Swaziland applies to be allowed to trade in rhino from legal stocks and natural mortality. But no change is remotely possible at this stage. </p>
<p>Hume and a growing number of rhino breeders and conservationists who support dehorning and controlled trade have a mountain to climb to prove it can be done. What is clear, though, is that dehorning is a useful tool that can reduce the attraction of a rhino to poachers without any ill-effects for the rhino.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64902/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Somerville received funding for the research trip from the conservation NGO the Comamis Foundation, based in Switzerland.- <a href="http://www.comanis.ch/en/home/home2.htm">http://www.comanis.ch/en/home/home2.htm</a></span></em></p>A few national parks and reserves want to dehorn rhinos and there is a lobby for a regulated and closely monitored legal trade in rhino horn. But this is met by opposition from many.Keith Somerville, Visiting Professor, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.