Diceros bicornis - numbers and poaching 1980-1992. The largest number of black rhinos in Namibia are in Etosha National Park. (There are no white rhinos in this Park). From 1980 to June 1991 its rhino population grew from an estimated 275-350 to between 400 and 450 animals (see Table 1). These are net figures, however, as some rhinos were translocated out to other parts of Namibia or exported, and poaching reduced the population by a minimum of 48 animals in that period. The first recent serious poaching of Etosha's black rhinos occurred in 1984. Herero people armed with .303 rifles shot at least 15 animals during the day time and removed only the horns. This poaching occurred in the west of the Park, where most of the rhinos are to be found and because many Hereros live just outside. Also, a road gives access to the region. Unfortunately, little patrolling was done away from the main roads, there was insufficient staff in the area to act as a poaching deterrent, and no arrests were made (Allan Cilliers, Chief Conservation Official - Management - Etosha, pers. comm.). No poaching was recorded in 1985 or 1986, but in 1987, poaching flared up once again. A Herero businessman from the Kaokoveld supplied .303 and G3 rifles to a gang of Hereros. The men stayed in the Park for about a day and killed seven rhinos, again on the western side. The middleman offered the poachers 200 rands ($98) for a pair of horns which weighed 3.5 to 4 kilos. This contact man in turn may have sold the pair of horns for up to 2,000 rands ($980) to middlemen in Kamanjab and Otjiwarongo towns just south of Etosha. From there, the horn may have gone to Windhoek and Lisbon. Two middlemen and several poachers were arrested (A. Cilliers, pers. comm.). In 1989, 23 rhinos were known to have been killed in the northwest of the Park by Ovambo and Herero poachers. Their contact men, Hereros and Ovambos, lived at Opuwa in the Kaokoveld and Oshakati in Ovamboland; they supplied food, guns, ammunition and transport. They offered 200 rands ($76) for a pair of horns. About five small gangs, usually consisting of only two people, spent between one and three days in the Park. They shot the animals during the'day; and as well as the horns, for the first time in recent years, they also took some skin (A. Cilliers, pers. comm.) The contact men hoped to sell a pair of horns to Portuguese and Angolans in Windhoek for 2,000 to 4,000 rands ($760 to $1,520). Most of the poachers and contacts were caught, however. Their sentences varied from six months ao eight years in prison. In 1990, only two animals were poached, one in the west and one in the east. In the west, a .303 rifle was used by Herero or Ovambo hunters. In the east, a businessman in Oshakati supported the hunters. In both cases, the horn was most likely sent to Portuguese traders in Windhoek (A. Cilliers, pers. comm.). This sharp decline in rhino poaching in 1990 was due to new policies implemented by Etosha Park's senior staff. Up until 1989, the worst year for rhino poaching in Namibia as a whole, Etosha had had no special anti-poaching unit nor a formal intelligence gathering network. In 1989, anti-poaching staff was recruited which by 1991 consisted of 23 well-trained men. Half of these men are armed and they travel on foot, on horses or in vehicles. This unit spends 50% of its time patrolling outside the Park, mostly in the north and west, obtaining information from informants in the villages. So far, the unit has been a success. This can be attributed to their honesty, motivation, discipline and good training. The officer in charge carefully chose these 23 men from 120 individuals to make up this elite anti-poaching corps. They are given certain bonuses including an extra allowance, and men working away from home are offered more benefits. Such a person thus earned in 1991 1,080 rands a month ($382), considerably more than the average scout. Along with the new anti-poaching unit, a more formal intelligence gathering system was set up in Etosha. Relatively large sums of money were made available to pay for information. Data leading to a conviction can earn an informer up to 6,000 rands ($2,143). In order to increase the efficiency of the Park staff who handle the illegal activities within the Park, some have been sent for further training to the Police Academy, to learn how to identify empty cartridge cases, fill out dockets, etc. Thus both in-house and external training of Etosha's staff has been greatly increased in order to combat poaching of rhinos, and also other animals such as giraffe, springbok, zebra and ostrich. The Etosha authorities, especially Allan Cilliers, greatly increased their efforts in identifying individual rhinos in the Park. Although Allan Cilliers started to monitor rhinos in 1986, he expanded this work in 1989 after the severe poaching, by attempting to photograph each rhino in the Park. He used a flash camera with black and white film to photograph each rhino as it came to the waterholes at night to drink. This is only effective a few days before and after the full moon. Although, the photographets are on foot, incredibly, the black rhinos do not attack at night. It would be impossible to get so close to them during the day. Allan Cilliers has trained six people to carry out this photographic identification system. By July 1992, he had recognized 372 individual rhinos. He estimates that the Park holds 400 to 450 black rhinos and that they have been increasing at 5.6% per annum since 1986.
Table 1. estimated number of black rhino in Namibia 1980-1991 North-west Etosha Waterberg Other Total 1980 100 275 0 c.375 1980 100 350 0 450 1982 66 0 1983 65 0 1984 66-76 >300 0 400 1985 440 0 1986 90-108 350 0 440-458 1986 90-95 340 0 430-435 1991 109 400-450 23 5 537-587 Note: Most wildlife officials who have worked with rhinos in Namibia, many of whom read this paper in draft font believe that there were approximately 275 black rhinos In Etosha National Park in 1980. However, one person, Garth Owen-Smith, who carried out extensive field work on rhinos in the 1980s and is definitely a leading authority on the subject, believes that there were at least an additional 75 black rhinos in Etosha at that time. This figure is based or a census carried out by Ian Hoffmeyr and Garth Owen-Smith between May and November 1980. The result of this census was a minimum of 350 black rhinos with about half occurring to the west of the power-lines crossing the Park (between Okaukuejo and Otiovassandu). However, senior officials of the Directorate of Nature Conservation later cast doubts on this figure. Whatever number is correct, the black rhino population in Namibia has been expanding at least from me middle 1980s until today.
Table 1. estimated number of black rhino in Namibia 1980-1991 North-west Etosha Waterberg Other Total 1980 100 275 0 c.375 1980 100 350 0 450 1982 66 0 1983 65 0 1984 66-76 >300 0 400 1985 440 0 1986 90-108 350 0 440-458 1986 90-95 340 0 430-435 1991 109 400-450 23 5 537-587 End
Waterberg Plateau Park is relatively new, having been created in 1972. It is only 40,500 hectares in size and consists mainly of a plateau. Most of the Park is covered with a nutrient-deficient Kalahari sand which supports a deciduous broadleafed woodland. The average rainfall is 450 mm a year, significantly higher than western Etosha. There were no black rhinos in the Park, however, until 1989, when 17 were brought in from Etosha and 10 from Damaraland. Unfortunately five died in the same year. One cow fell off a cliff, another female died in a boma following recapture after escaping from the Park, two young males perished from fight injuries, and one male died from stress after only a month in the Park. Further difficulties arose in February 1991 when the first black rhino was poached. A Herero, who earlier had broken into the tourist camp restaurant and had stolen various items, reentered Waterberg and shot an adult female with one bullet from a 9 mm pistol. Ten days later, he returned to the Park and took the horns, before the Park authorities had found the carcas, The police were called in and about two weks later the criminal was arrested (Peter Erb, Researcher, Waterberg Plateau Park, pers. comm.). In order to prevent more rhino poaching, the Park authorities have increased foot patrols within Waterberg. Several ex-soldiers were transferred to the Park to improve the rhino monitoring. They usually go out for five-day foot patrols. The Park also now employs six trackers who work on foot or on horseback to monitor the movements of the rhinos. They carry radios, but not firearms. Often a ranger will accompany them. Informant money is available for intelligence gathering outside the Park as well, and contacts with the surrounding farmers are being improved.
In 1991, there were 5 black rhino in Hardap GR.
During 1975 and 1976, 15 white rhinos were moved in from Umfolozi in Natal and in 1990, six more came from Kruger. Although, so far none of these has been poached, some died after translocation. The Kruger rhinos were not put into bomas after being caught, but were sent directly on a 37-hour journey to Waterberg. Four died soon afterwards, probably from stress (P. Erb, pers. comm.). The initial animals from Natal have done well. By July 1991, there were 40 in total.
Etosha was proclaimed a game reserve in 1907
The dry regions of Damaraland and Kaokoland together referred to as the Kaokoveld in northwest Namibia are home to the desert black rhinos. Because of the aridity of the area and therefore the general lack of browse, they move long distances for food and water, probably more than any other rhino population in Africa. In 1970 there were at least 250 and possibly 350 black rhinos in the Kaokoveld, but by the end of the decade, most of them had been killed by poachers (Garth Owen-Smith, presently Director of Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation, pers. comm.). From 1975 to 1981, Hereros and Himbas used mainly .303 rifles to kill these animals. The buyers, who paid from 50 to 200 rands ($63 to $250) for a pair of horns, were farmers in the Kamanjab district, garage owners in the town of Outjo, as well as civil servants and businessmen in Okahandja, Swakopmund and Windhoek (Rudi Loutit, Senior Conservation Officer for Nature Conservation, North West region, pers. comm.). From Namibia, the horns were sent mostly to South Africa, especially to Krugersdorp and Pretoria. From there, the horns were exported to eastern Asia, especiall to Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. This intensive poaching of the desert rhinos, and to a lesser extent drought, greatly reduced their numbers so that by 1982, only 66 remained. The population, in recent times, had never before been so low. In that year, Garth Owen-Smith, who had previously been working in Etosha, was appointed by the Namibia Wildlife Trust to be the Senior Field Officer for Kaokoland and Damaraland. His main duties were to encourage the Damaras and Hercros to participate in wildlife conservation and to assist the greatly understaffed Nature Conservation Department with their anti-poaching activities. At the time of his appointment, there was only one government Nature Conservator (Chris Eyre) who was based at Khorixas and his Herero assistant (with no one stationed in Kaokoland) to patrol the whole Kaokoveld, an area of nine million hectares, four times larger than Kruger National Park. It was a scandalous state of negligence by the government authorities. No wonder that so many rhinos had been killed illegally. Soon after Garth Owen-Smith joined, the Namibia Wildlife Trust employed a fulltime staff of four. The Trust spent most of its effort on setting up a community game guard system which actively involved the local community in nature conservation, and on patrolling in the western Kaokoland and Damaraland, the main locations for the rhino. From 1982 to early 1984 with assistance from the Trust, the Nature Conservation Department convicted 35 people in 16 cases of poaching or illegal possession of rhino horn and ivory (G. OwenSmith, `Namibia's Most Valuable Resource', Quagga, no. 7, Spring 1984, pp. 10- 11). In 1982 one dealer, the owner of a garage, was arrested by the police with 68 rhino horns. He was, however, only fined effectively 2,000 rands, a fraction of the value of the horns. This middleman was found in possession also of uncut diamonds and for this he was sentenced to two years imprisonment. It was -unfortunate that the judges did not also take poaching of the highly endangered desert rhino seriously. At this time, Garth Owen-Smith also developed a scheme of obtaining co-operation from the local people of the area, which has proved to be very effective and is being studied by conservationists in many parts of Africa. Specifically, his activities focused on involving the local population and thereby stopping them from poaching, as well as using their expertise such as tracking skills and local knowledge, to discourage or catch poachers corning in from the outside (G. Owen-Smith, pers. comm.). In 1983, headmen of regions with rhino poaching were asked to appoint their own,game guards who were to patrol regularly the waterholes and cheek for arfy unusual activities. This worked very well. By early 1984 six auxiliary game guards were operating in northern Damaraland and western Kaokoland. After the introduction of these anti-poaching efforts, poaching of desert rhinos decreased sharply. In 1982 only two fresh carcasses were found (a cow and a calf which had been illegally killed) (G. Owen-Smith, pers. comm.). The following year several Hereros from Sesfontein shot three rhinos with .303 rifles. They sold the horns to middlemen for about 150 to 200 rands ($140 to $188) a pair. The middlemen probably sent some of the horns to Swakopmund and then to adjoining Walvis Bay for sale to eastern Asia. In 1984 only one rhino was poached and this was by a Damara who was a farmer and a local government employee (R. Loutit, pers. comm.). In the early 1980s, two men, a farmer and a garage owner, were the main buyers of these horns. The garage Owner, as mentioned above, was caught dealing in diamonds and rhino horn, and was jailed. He reportedly ground up some of the horn inside his garage and exported the powder to Hong Kong (Tommy Hall, Principal Nature Conservation Officer, Damaraland, pers. comm.). The farmer was never caught, however, and could still be trading horn. Between 1985 and 1988 only two black rhinos were poached in the Kaokoveld. This success was due to several factors. The number of auxiliary game guards was increased (the Endangered Wildlife Trust was supporting ten of these men in 1988). These guards regularly liaised with Garth Owen-Smith, Blythe Loutit (Director of Save the Rhino Trust), and officials of the Directorate of Nature Conservation in anti-poaching work and in obtaining in- formation about poachers and traders. Senior officers of the Nature Conservation Department, especially Rudi Loutit and Tommy Hall also worked closely with everybody involved in protecting the desert black rhinos. In 1989, poaching increased once again in the northwest of Namibia when seven animals were slaughtered. One of the reasons for this was the massive unemployment in the area, exacerbated by the return to the country of thousands of political refugees, plus the partial redundancy of many men formerly employed by the South West African Territory Force. Also, many more firearms became available. In the early 1980s between 1,500 and 3,000 .303 rifles were distributed to local headmen by the South African Defence Force and many were used for illegal hunting (G. Owen-Smith, pers. comm.). In addition, in 1987 and 1988 around 1,000 G3 rifles were handed out to people in Kaokoland by the government as part of their counter-insurgency strategv. But probably most importantly, in 1989 middlemen realized the high value of rhino horn in South Africa and eastern Asia and thus offered poachers over three times more for rhino horn than in 1982 (500 to 800 rands for a pair of black rhino horns or $460 to $740) (R. Loutit, pers. comm.). One man in particular responded to this increased financial incentive and killed five of the seven poached animals in the Kaokoveld in 1989. He was a 25-year-old farmer originally from Rehoboth, over 800 kms away, but his father often took him to Damaraland so he was familiar with the area. This farmer employed several Damaras who spent a fortnight looking for rhinos. When they were found, the farmer himself shot five of them with a G3 rifle, as well as nine to 14 elephants, in the Klip River and Otjihavera areas. Some of the horn may have been sold to traders in Okhandja. Soon afterwards, this poacher was arrested, convicted and sentenced to nine years or a 1 5,000 rand fine plus five years community service (R. Loutit and T. Hall, comm.). The other two black rhinos killed in northwest Namibia were shot in separate areas, one near Etosha by Hereros and the other by two young Hereros from Sesfontein who sold the horns to an official in Sesfontein. This man in turn sold the horns to a person in Opuwa, the capital of Kaokoland. Both poachers from this latter incident were caught and convicted. Partly because of these new official policies carried out in 1989, the number of black rhinos poached the following year declined to only two. The first poachers were two young Damaras from Khorixas (one of whom was a senior employee of Save the Rhino Trust) who went by vehicle searching for rhinos. When they found a male, they shot him and attempted to blow off his horns with pellets from a 12 gauge shotgun. They took the horns to Swakopmund to sell (Sharon Montgomery of Save the Rhino Trust and R. Loutit, pers. comm.). The second in 1990 was the most pathetic poaching incident for many years. Two Damara farmers went up to a mother and calf near Twyfelfontein. They picked up some stones and threw them at the six-month-old calf, eventually killing it, while the mother stood by watching this appalling sight. The men then cut off some pieces of flesh from the neck and shoulder to eat. In Namibia, eating rhino meat is virtually unheard of. The baby rhino of course had no horns. The poachers were quickly caught and sentenced to 30 months each with half of the term suspended which meant an effective imprisonment of only 15 months. Garth Owen-Smith believes that the punishment was appropriate as no commercial motive was established (G. OwenSmith, pers. comm.). The editors of The Windhoek Advertiser, a local newspaper, were so incensed by this insignificant punishment, however, that they published a leader in the 13 April 1991 issue stating: "...when one looks at the sentences meted out this week in respect of two grown men who stoned to death a black rhino calf, one's senses are outraged. At the risk of committing contempt of court, we state today that a magistrate handing down a sentence like that should be removed from the bench!"
Nepal. I have never found large pieces of rhino horn for retail sale in Nepal (but I have seen antiques such as bowls carved from rhino horn for sale in the Kathmandu Valley).
Table 1. estimated number of black rhino in Namibia 1980-1991 North-west Etosha Waterberg Other Total 1980 100 275 0 c.375 1980 100 350 0 450 1982 66 0 1983 65 0 1984 66-76 >300 0 400 1985 440 0 1986 90-108 350 0 440-458 1986 90-95 340 0 430-435 1991 109 400-450 23 5 537-587 Hardap Game Reserve End
Up to late 1987, most of the horns taken from poached rhinos in eastern Africa, over 90% originating in Tanzania, were sent to Burundi from where they were exported to Arabia, especially Dubai. From there, these horns were sent either to Sanaa in Yemen, or to eastern Asia (which will be described in a later section of this paper). According to confidential reports from businessmen in the Arabian Gulf, in 1985 and 1986, traders in Dubai were paying on average from $500 to $700 a kilo for the horn. By the time it reached Sanaa, dealers were paying about $800 to $ 1,000 a kilo for it. At the sixth meeting of CITES in Canada in July 1987, Burundi was severely criticized by the member states for allowing this rhino horn trade to continue. Afterwards, the government of Burundi was attacked in some of the main newspapers and by other media both in the western world and in the third world. Finally, after a change in Burundi's government, in late 1987 the new government stopped effectively rhino horn exports. Once this major entrepot was closed down, most horn from eastern Africa was moved in the opposite direction to the coasts of Kenya. Somalia and Tanzania, to be loaded onto ships, or it was flown out from Addis Ababa and Khartoum. Before the Burundi entrepot had been closed down [in 1987], much of the southern African horn was transported to places in Zambia, such as Lusaka and Mpulungu on Lake Tanganyika, from where it was taken to Burundi's capital, Bujumbura.
The government of Thailand has not yet agreed to carry out a stock-take of rhino products nor has it agreed to initiate a ban on internal trade in all rhino products. The government has done very little at all to alleviate the problem. Rhino horn and skin continue to be brought into the country from both Africa and elsewhere in Asia. The government very rarely intercepts any of it. Recently, rhino horn has come onto the Thai market in a major way from neighbouring Laos. In February 1990, I saw eight horns for sale in Vientiane's jewellery and antique shops. I was told that most horns come from Laotian animals and that some pieces were quite old. The average retail price per kilo was $16,594. Almost all the buyers of rhino products in Vientiane are Thai businessmen who bring the horns and nails back home with them to sell. No government authority attempts to stop them from illegally importing these rhino products. Thailand's traditional medicine shops contain many rare and endangered wildlife products, but these shops are almost never inspected due to the general apathy of government officers. The official reason for this was explained to me by senior members of the Royal Forestry Department (which has the jurisdiction for wildlife and the trade in their products): they do not have the expertise to identify Thailand's endangered species nor do them seem willing to learn. Thus, if they brought a pharmacist to court for trading in Sumatran rhino horn, the officials claim they could not prove the authenticity of the horn. On the other hand, for wildlife products such as rhino horn from Africa, there is no law prohibiting the possession and domestic sale of these products. As Thailand is a member of CITES, it must comply with the CITES regulation prohibiting rhino imports, but once it is in the country, all this horn from the black, white and greater one-homed rhino can be legally owned and sold. For the last few years, a new wildlife law has been drafted to prohibit possession and sale of endangered exotic species, but it awaits the approval of the Thai parliament before it can be. implemented. In a survey of the Chinese medicine shops in Bangkok in 1990, Lucy Vigne and I found rhino horn (half African and half Asian) in 24% of the pharmacies we visited, and rhino hide in 46% of them. There is a greater variety of rhino products for retail sale in Bangkok than in any other city: horn ($21,354 a kilo for Asian and $10,286 for African), hide ($1,717 a kilo for Sumatran and $220 for African skin), and from the Sumatran rhino: nails (about $2,000 a kilo), penises ($700 each), dried blood ($160 a kilo) and dung ($32 a kilo).
Another strategy for lowering demand is to encourage further the use of substitutes such as saiga antelope horn. An new study, carried out by three scientists from the Department of Biology and the Chinese Medicinal Material Research Centre of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, shows that both rhino horn and saiga antelope horn equally cause 'a significant drop in fever when given in large doses to rats. The study also shows that water buffalo horn and cattle horn can lower fever as well'. This research paper was only published in the latter half of 1990 and should now be translated into the Chinese and Korean languages and widely distributed to doctors, pharmacists, and government officials involved in stopping the rhino horn trade. From the conservation point of view, the most important conclusion of this scientific study, which needs to be emphasized, is not that rhino horn has been proved to reduce fever, but that saiga antelope horn, already widely used for medicine in Asia, is just as effective as rhino horn, and, being far cheaper and far more common, it should be used instead of rhino horn. There is thus no longer any rational reason why rhino horn should be sold as an anti-pyretic.
1986, Dubai, $500-$700 a kilo of horn
1986, Yemen, $800 to $ 1,000 a kilo
1986, India, $ 2600 per kg
From the early 1970s until 1984, Yemen was the major consuming country in the world for rhino horn. Almost all this horn was used to make dagger handles and the waste was sent to China and South Korea to be made into medicines. As a result of pressure from the international conservation community, in the mid-1980s, the Yemen government began to bring in new laws and enforce old ones against this trade. Craftsmen found that in local currency, rhino horn was becoming more and more expensive so they turned to carving cheaper substitutes. Most dagger handles today are made from an amber-coloured plastic and very few are still carved from rhino horn. Small. old rhino horn-handled daggers can be bought for a minimum of $300. In 1990, less than 200 kilos of rhino horn were used to make these handles, despite the fact that more craftsmen in Sanaa are producing daggers than in 1986. Yemen is thus no longer a great problem concerning the rhino horn trade.
Another strategy for lowering demand is to encourage further the use of substitutes such as saiga antelope horn. An new study, carried out by three scientists from the Department of Biology and the Chinese Medicinal Material Research Centre of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, shows that both rhino horn and saiga antelope horn equally cause 'a significant drop in fever when given in large doses to rats. The study also shows that water buffalo horn and cattle horn can lower fever as well'. This research paper was only published in the latter half of 1990 and should now be translated into the Chinese and Korean languages and widely distributed to doctors, pharmacists, and government officials involved in stopping the rhino horn trade. From the conservation point of view, the most important conclusion of this scientific study, which needs to be emphasized, is not that rhino horn has been proved to reduce fever, but that saiga antelope horn, already widely used for medicine in Asia, is just as effective as rhino horn, and, being far cheaper and far more common, it should be used instead of rhino horn. There is thus no longer any rational reason why rhino horn should be sold as an anti-pyretic.
1989, India, $6250 per kg
1990, Yemen, $1360 per kg
From Sumatra. The other main area in Asia where rhinos are being poached extensively is Sumatra. There are approximately 600 Sumatran rhinos on the island. Raleigh Blouch, who carried out fieldwork there in the early and middle 1980s, estimated that a minimum of 10 to 20 rhinos were killed each year during this period . Other experts, such as Francesco Nardelli, believe that the true figure is substantially higher . Most of this horn was being sent to Singapore which is still the world's main market for Sumatran horn. In December 1990, of the ten medicine shops found selling rhino horn in the city, six of these sold Sumatran horn. In a previous study, in 1986, of the 13 medicine shops found selling rhino products, eight offered Sumatran horn. Singapore is also the main end market for nails and hide from the Sumatran rhino. In December 1990, at least four of the six medicine shops with hide sold that from the Sumatran species, while at least four of seven pharmacies with nails sold those from this very rare animal.
From India. Several traders in Assam, from Dhing in Nagaon district, Behali on the northern bank of the Brahmaputra River, Naozan on the border with Nagaland, and from Bokakhat, collect the rhino horns from the poachers. From Assam the horns probably go south to Calcutta and then to eastern Asia. In the early 1980s, most horn went to Singapore because this city state was not a member of CITES until early 1987. However, in the late 1980s, the Taiwanese were spending more for the horn, so it was, and still is, shipped to Taiwan instead, directly or sometimes via Hong Kong. On our recent survey in Singapore, carried out in December 1990, I could identify only one medicine shop (out of ten which had horn in 1988) still selling Indian rhino horn, compared with at least five in Taipei in the same year.
Another country which allows rhino horn to be sold internally is South Korea. In late 1988, Tom Milliken and Cecilia Song from TRAFFIC Japan carried out a survey of 59 Oriental medicine clinics in Seoul. They found that rhino horn, including derivatives, were offered for retail sale in 86% of them. The retail prices for rhino horn had gone up, compared with 1986, by more than double to $4.410 a kilo, showing that demand had significantly increased over those two years. It is not clear whether large new supplies of rhino horn are now entering the country (which would be illegal) or if the Oriental medicine clinics are using up their old stocks. Tom Milliken and Cecilia Song had meetings with various government officials in South Korea in 1990 in order to close down this trade, but so far, the government has been unwilling to commit itself either to joining CITES in the near future or to prohibiting the internal trade in rhino products.
The other main area in Asia where rhinos are being poached extensively is Sumatra. There are approximately 600 Sumatran rhinos on the island. Raleigh Blouch, who carried out fieldwork there in the early and middle 1980s, estimated that a minimum of 10 to 20 rhinos were killed each year during this period . Other experts, such as Francesco Nardelli, believe that the true figure is substantially higher . Most of this horn was being sent to Singapore which is still the world's main market for Sumatran horn.
Once this major entrepot was closed down, most horn from eastern Africa was moved in the opposite direction to the coasts of Kenya. Somalia and Tanzania, to be loaded onto ships, or it was flown out from Addis Ababa and Khartoum. From these places, the great majority of it was taken to Yemen by nationals of these various African countries whose families often had originated from Yemen. By late 1990, Sanaa traders were paying the importers about $1,360 a kilo for the horn. However. the amount of horn going into Yemen from 1984 to 1990 has decreased very sharply. In the early 1980s a minimum of 1,500 kilos were imported annually into the country, but by 1985 this figure had dropped probably to under 1,000 kilos and from 1986 to 1989 to less than 400 kilos per annum. By 1990, probably under 200 kilos were imported .
The Etosha authorities, especially Allan Cilliers, greatly increased their efforts in identifying individual rhinos in the Park. Although Allan Cilliers started to monitor rhinos in 1986, he expanded this work in 1989 after the severe poaching, by attempting to photograph each rhino in the Park. He used a flash camera with black and white film to photograph each rhino as it came to the waterholes at night to drink. This is only effective a few days before and after the full moon. Although, the photographets are on foot, incredibly, the black rhinos do not attack at night. It would be impossible to get so close to them during the day. Allan Cilliers has trained six people to carry out this photographic identification system. By July 1992, he had recognized 372 individual rhinos. He estimates that the Park holds 400 to 450 black rhinos and that they have been increasing at 5.6% per annum since 1986.
From 1985 to 1989, more rhinos were poached in India's north eastern state of Assam than anywhere else in Asia: a minimum of 243 animals (see Table II). The main reason for this was that the price the poachers obtained for the horn from these greater one-homed rhinos rose steadily from about $2,600 per kilo in 1986 to $6,250 in 1989 as there was a sharp increase in demand for Indian rhino horn in Taiwan. In Taipei in early 1990, the import price for it was over $20,000 a kilo while the wholesale price was a phenomenal $45,000 a kilo. The Taiwanese pay the highest prices in the world for Indian horn which they believe is of the best quality medicinally of all the five rhino species. Some people in Taiwan are even buying Indian horn purely as an investment. Several traders in Assam, from Dhing in Nagaon district, Behali on the northern bank of the Brahmaputra River, Naozan on the border with Nagaland, and from Bokakhat, collect the rhino horns from the poachers. From Assam the horns probably go south to Calcutta and then to eastern Asia. In the early 1980s, most horn went to Singapore because this city state was not a member of CITES until early 1987. However, in the late 1980s, the Taiwanese were spending more for the horn, so it was, and still is, shipped to Taiwan instead, directly or sometimes via Hong Kong. On our recent survey in Singapore, carried out in December 1990, I could identify only one medicine shop (out of ten which had horn in 1988) still selling Indian rhino horn, compared with at least five in Taipei in the same year.
Beginning in October 1988, government officials from Botswana, Namibia and especially South Africa started to produce revealing results. In October, the Botswana Customs and Excise examined a false compartment in a lorry at the Kazungula Ferry at Botswana's border with Zambia. This lorry was destined for South Africa and contained 94 rhino horns, most likely supplied by traders in Lusaka.
Although traders attempted to export most of these horns from southern Africa to Taiwan, a few were smuggled into Hong Kong. It was, however, becoming increasingly difficult to smuggle rhino horn from South Africa into Asian countries. Therefore, in 1990, traders In Taiwan started to organize shipments directly from Zambia. In July 1990, Taiwanese customs officials confiscated nine rhino horns which probably came from Zambia. Later, in December 1990, 28 kilos of rhino horn were found by Taiwanese customs in a crate which had been also shipped from Zambia.
Up to late 1987, most of the horns taken from poached rhinos in eastern Africa, over 90% originating in Tanzania, were sent to Burundi from where they were exported to Arabia, especially Dubai. From there, these horns were sent either to Sanaa in Yemen, or to eastern Asia (which will be described in a later section of this paper). According to confidential reports from businessmen in the Arabian Gulf, in 1985 and 1986, traders in Dubai were paying on average from $500 to $700 a kilo for the horn. By the time it reached Sanaa, dealers were paying about $800 to $ 1,000 a kilo for it.
But from late 1987, with the closure of Burundi for wildlife trade, this horn went in the reverse direction: from Lusaka to destinations in South Africa. Throughout 1988, considerable quantities of rhino horn were exported by Taiwanese, South Africans and some other nationals to Taiwan by ship and aeroplane. From mid- 1988, the world's press began to expose this Zambian/South African/Taiwan connection, and the South Africans initiated strict plans to stop it. Most importantly, the government set up the Endangered Species Protection Unit staffed by police officers who specifically investigated the illegal trade in rhino products. Beginning in October 1988, government officials from Botswana, Namibia and especially South Africa started to produce revealing results. In October, the Botswana Customs and Excise examined a false compartment in a lorry at the Kazungula Ferry at Botswana's border with Zambia. This lorry was destined for South Africa and contained 94 rhino horns, most likely supplied by traders in Lusaka. Although traders attempted to export most of these horns from southern Africa to Taiwan, a few were smuggled into Hong Kong. It was, however, becoming increasingly difficult to smuggle rhino horn from South Africa into Asian countries. Therefore, in 1990, traders In Taiwan started to organize shipments directly from Zambia. In July 1990, Taiwanese customs officials confiscated nine rhino horns which probably came from Zambia. Later, in December 1990, 28 kilos of rhino horn were found by Taiwanese customs in a crate which had been also shipped from Zambia.
Unfortunately, one cannot state the same for China where pharmaceutical factories are manufacturing more medicines containing rhino horn than in any other country. At the end of 1989, the first official stock-take of rhino horn in China was carried out. Not all factories and import/export corporations took part, and individual medicine shops were not even asked, but nevertheless, a staggering 9,875 kilos were counted . The factories admitted using on average about 650 kilos of rhino horn a year, including some from pulverizing valuable and rare rhino horn antiques, to incorporate in medicines. These medicines are for sale legally in China, but not allowed to be officially exported by the factories or corporations. Although some is sold to those local Chinese who can afford it, the great majority is bought by overseas Chinese visiting the country who simply take the medicines out with them. Luggage is rarely inspected for medicines at China's exit points. Many of these medicines, such as 'Niu Huang Ching Hsin Wan' made by the Beijing Tongren Tang Factory and 'Laryingitis Pills' manufactured by the Chengdu Traditional Chinese Pharmaceutical Factory, have their labels written in English so that Chinese people from Singapore, Malaysia and elsewhere can read the instructions. In January 1991, I visited Shenzhen on the border of Hong Kong. It is the first Special Economic Zone in China to have been set up by the government. Many tens of thousands of people from Hong Kong come each year to Shenzhen for business, shopping and entertainment. Some only spend a day while others stay in the many hotels and resorts. Scores of traditional Chinese medicine shops are located all over Shenzhen, especially in tourist areas such as the station, shopping complexes and hotels. The Hong Kong Chinese, and other overseas Chinese who visit, buy large quantities of medicines to bring home. Some of them contain products from endangered species such as rhino horn which are not available for retail sale in places such as Hong Kong and Macao, as they are banned. I carried out a survey of 25 retail pharmacies in Shenzhen and at least nine sold medicines containing rhino horn. The most common were the previously mentioned 'Niu Huang Ching Hsin Wan' which were $9 a box, 'Laryngitis Pills' and 'An Gong Niu Huang Wan' made in Beijing which cost $25 for a large box. Many medicines are newly manufactured. For example, most of the boxes of 'Niu Huang Ching Hsin wan' were dated 1990. By allowing this trade to continue, the Chinese authorities are going against CITES Resolution 6.10 which urges all party states to ban internal trade in rhino products and derivatives. As these rhino horn-based medicines are easily available to buy in places such as Shenzhen, their continued sales are encouraging rhino poaching to provide more horn for this market.
In February 1990, I saw eight horns for sale in Vientiane's jewellery and antique shops. I was told that most horns come from Laotian animals and that some pieces were quite old. The average retail price per kilo was $16,594. Almost all the buyers of rhino products in Vientiane are Thai businessmen who bring the horns and nails back home with them to sell. No government authority attempts to stop them from illegally importing these rhino products.
But from late 1987, with the closure of Burundi for wildlife trade, this horn went in the reverse direction: from Lusaka to destinations in South Africa. Throughout 1988, considerable quantities of rhino horn were exported by Taiwanese, South Africans and some other nationals to Taiwan by ship and aeroplane. From mid- 1988, the world's press began to expose this Zambian/South African/Taiwan connection, and the South Africans initiated strict plans to stop it. Most importantly, the government set up the Endangered Species Protection Unit staffed by police officers who specifically investigated the illegal trade in rhino products. Beginning in October 1988, government officials from Botswana, Namibia and especially South Africa started to produce revealing results. In another incident, in August 1989, a Taiwanese resident of Cape Town was arrested for illegal possession of one rhino horn. Probably the largest collection of rhino horn seized at one time in South Africa occurred in September 1990 when several Taiwanese were arrested with 114 rhino horns. According to Clive Walker and Peter Hitchins who examined the horns, 109 were from the black rhino and originated in Zimbabwe, there were also five white rhino horns which probably came from Swaziland. Although traders attempted to export most of these horns from southern Africa to Taiwan, a few were smuggled into Hong Kong. It was, however, becoming increasingly difficult to smuggle rhino horn from South Africa into Asian countries. Therefore, in 1990, traders In Taiwan started to organize shipments directly from Zambia. In July 1990, Taiwanese customs officials confiscated nine rhino horns which probably came from Zambia. Later, in December 1990, 28 kilos of rhino horn were found by Taiwanese customs in a crate which had been also shipped from Zambia.
On the other hand, Taiwan, which was the largest importer of rhino horn in the late 1980s, is now moving ahead with a government plan to shut down the internal sales of rhino products. In June 1989, new legislation was introduced which made it compulsory to register all protected species and their parts. The registration period was extended to the end of November 1990 for rhino horn, but it is not yet complete. Nevertheless, preliminary information shows that a minimum of 1,415 kilos of horn and powdered horn have been registered on the island. As expected, over half of Taiwan's rhino horn stocks were registered in three places: Taipei (99 individuals or companies who registered 439 kilos), Taipei County (83 registrants with 126 kilos) and Kaohsiung (16 registrants possessing 195 kilos of horn). The government plan is to allow those companies or individuals who officially recorded their rhino horn stocks to continue to sell them for about three years following registration
Although traders attempted to export most of these horns from southern Africa to Taiwan, a few were smuggled into Hong Kong.
[Poaching in Nepal] started on 27 January when the Central Zoo authorities near Kathmandu discovered that their 15-yearold female and six-year old male, held in separate cages, had both been administered a poison containing zinc phosphide. Only the tiny horn of the young male had been cut off, in a gruesome manner, and taken.
