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| Location: |
World |
| Subject: |
Trade |
| Species: |
All Rhino Species |
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Rhino Management' chaired by Mike t'Sas Rolfes, an economist with wide experience in issues relating to trade in ivory and rhino horn. All the principal state organisations with rhino populations attended the meeting, as did a number of prominent non-governmental conservation organisations, and a general consensus was reached with regards to sustainable use options for future rhino management.
While this discussion is a sensitive one, certain questions have to be asked. To conserve Africa's remaining rhino populations will cost a considerable amount of money. Where will it come from? In South Africa, the bulk of government funding is understandably going towards social upliftment, which leaves very little for rhino conservation.
It has been impossible to enforce the ban on trade in rhino horn, and one has to ask whether a trade in legal rhino horn could not provide much-needed funds for rhino conservation.
Will it ever be possible to sweep aside a two-thousand year old eastern belief that rhino horn is an essential medicine? Could a regular supply of rhino horn to south-east Asia halt or at least slow down the killing of rhinos? Rhinos are killed in fights or die of old age, and vast stocks of rhino horn presently lie gathering dust. Farming rhino horn is also a possibility - the animal does not have to be killed for its horn which grows back at between seven and eight centimetres per year.
May we not be permitted to think that releasing rhino horn stocks onto a controlled market could have the effect of:
- providing much-needed funds for the effective protection of rhino populations
- eliminating or seriously reducing the activities of the middle-man
- discouraging poachers
- reducing the cost and process of law enforcement
- placing an increased value of the sustainable use of rhinos
- slowing down the killing of rhinos
The alternatives are less funding for conservation and an escalation of organised crime.
If AROA can set high standards for rhino management and security in the private sector and maintain accountability amongst its members then it is safe to argue that it will become she single most important player in any future potential legal trade in rhinoceros parts. AROA must strive to consolidate its leadership role over the vast majority of private rhino owners; at the same time, government stakehoiders should buttress AROA's efforts and work towards the development of a rhino ownership policy which limits future public rhino sales exclusively to AROA members. If such an aim could be achieved, it would serve to demonstrate national resolve towards ensuring credibility and accountability in the affairs of South African rhino conservation.
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[Various notes]
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