Conference will focus on legalising rhino horn trade

[okie]

Yeahhh , but you have to pay for your own drinks , and I can tell you now , THAT's expensive

But , my point is , that , South Africa is not a cheap place to be - at least not for locals And in general , as such , R1800 is relatively cheap for attending a conference nowadays . Certainly , the man in the street kicks against paying such money for a two-day affair , but then , if you want to attract the masses , you choose a cheaper venue than Onderstepoort Lapa , which is where this conference is being held . Its the owner of the venue who makes money with conferences , not really the organisers of the event - in this case OSCAP

[Lisbeth]

18 MAR 2014 09:42
The Outraged SA Citizens Against Poaching (OSCAP), organisers of a key conference about rhino conservation and the merits or otherwise of introducing a legal trade in rhino horn, claim that advocates of trade are threatening to boycott the conference because their point of view will not be represented. The conference is scheduled for 8-9 April 2014.



However, OSCAP believes that their potential absence is of their own making as they have been invited to present their case.

"We have never disguised the fact that the principal objective of this conference is to allow the South African public to hear, in detail, the reasons why so many conservationists oppose the legalisation of rhino horn trade. Typically, their voices get drowned out in this country," said OSCAP director Allison Thomson. "There is no question that it is also a great opportunity for those who favour a legal trade to make their case. We don't want to avoid debate, which is what has happened in the past, and this is why the pro-trade lobby have been invited to attend," she added.
Detrimental impact

Commercial trade in high-value wildlife products is one of the most controversial subjects in wildlife conservation. South Africa has long implemented a policy of 'sustainable utilisation', which promotes the principle of using wildlife to fulfil current needs, but without jeopardising the benefits for future generations.

However, OSCAP warns of the danger of using the sustainable utilisation principle as a 'one-size-fits-all' concept, as this may well have detrimental long term impacts on the environment.

For example, there is a strong probability that the one-off sales of ivory sanctioned in 1999 and 2008 have significantly contributed to the devastating surge in elephant poaching across Africa, and the organisation wants to ensure the same mistakes are not made with rhino.

Viewpoint is questioned

It is public knowledge that the South African government and numerous private sector conservationists and economists, as well as many rhino owners believe that legalising trade is the solution to the rhino poaching crisis. However, this is a viewpoint that is not widely shared and is being questioned both domestically and internationally. Rhino horn trade economics is increasingly being criticised for being based on useless and discredited economic modelling methods.

"Given this level of opposition, we are offering people a perfect opportunity, on an open platform and with media exposure, to argue their case for trade," says Thomson. "And it's somewhat contradictory to complain that you are not being represented, but then choosing to boycott when invited," she added.

International speakers

The conference entitled 'Assessing the risks of rhino horn trade' will have a cast of well-known international and local speakers. They will address the challenges involved in rhino conservation, the risks associated with the pro-trade policy option, and actions that could help stem the current wave of poaching which has already reached the 150 mark for 2014.

Thomson confirms that her offer to those in favour of trade remains on the table. "I hope they will take this unique opportunity to challenge those who oppose trade and make their case," she concluded.

For more, go to http://www.oscap.co.za or http://www.oscapconference.co.za

http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/622/110990.html

[Lisbeth]

1 APR 2014 11:
A list of high-profile speakers from across the world will attend a rhino conference to debate the risks of rhino horn trade.


© naturedata – Fotolia.com

Organised by South African NGO Outraged SA Citizens Against Poaching (OSCAP), the conference takes place at Onderstepoort near Pretoria on 8 and 9 April and will be attended by NGOs and conservation associations, diplomats and concerned local and international stakeholders and private individuals.

"The aim of the conference is to openly debate the risks associated with the government's proposal to legalise trade in rhino horn, which it will be tabling before the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) at its 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to be held in Durban in 2016," says Allison Thomson, director of OSCAP.

"In this respect we have lined up a good cross-section of internationally acclaimed experts and conservation specialists to address and interact with delegates in an effort to incite lively debate," she adds.

Flawed assumptions

Key speakers include Mary Rice, executive director of the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). Rice will be addressing the conference on the lessons the EIA has learned from the ivory trade and its in-depth undercover work in China and how these can be adapted to assist in the rhino poaching situation.

Rice is joined by international conservationist and wildlife trade investigator Suzy Watts, a consultant for the US's Humane Society International who will explore what she calls the flawed assumptions underlying the call for a legalised trade in rhino horn.

Will Travers OBE is no stranger to anyone with an interest in saving wildlife. Son of celebrated actors Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, he fell in love with Africa while living in Kenya as a child when his parents were making the movie "Born Free". In 1984 he co-founded the Born Free Foundation and has been working tirelessly ever since to raise awareness of conservation issues the world over. Travers' speech at the OSCAP conference will take a look at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and examine South Africa's proposal to legalise rhino horn trade.

Open panel debate

International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) regional director for southern Africa, Jason Bell, is also well known in conservation circles and will be examining the "horn of contention" that legal trade proposals are impaled upon.

Rice, Watts, Travers and Bell will also be participating in an open panel debate following their talks on the opening day of the conference. "South Africa also has valuable lessons to learn from other African nations and their experiences in protecting their wildlife," says Thomson. "Kenya, for example, has been battling an ongoing war against the ravages of poaching and the illegal wildlife trade for decades and will be well represented at the conference as a result."

Pitfalls and politics

Dr. Paula Kahumbu of the Nairobi-based NGO Wildlife Direct and Dr. Ben Okita-Ouma, rhino co-ordinator for the Kenyan Wildlife Service, are each well-versed in the pitfalls and politics involved in conservation efforts. Both will be sharing their views on how to protect wildlife without trade and the unintended consequences a legal trade in rhino horn would have on range states. Marcia Fargnoli of Namibia's Earth Org will also be looking at the knock-on effect a legalised trade would have on Namibia.
Meanwhile, renowned environmental journalist and safari guide Ian Michler asks the leading question of whether there is a third option available to help solve the rhino poaching problem in his presentation, and Professor Melville Saayman of North West University is going to unpack the myth of "if it pays, it stays" and shed some light on the issue of sustainability.

http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/622/111574.html

Wouldn't a representative from Sanparks and other reserves where the poaching is happening or from the Ministery be natural ?

[Richprins]

It would be nice, Lis, if there were a member of .gov or SP there! There was a shock when they didn't appear for the Hotel meeting at Groenkloof in 2012, after having promised.

[H. erectus]

.gov or SP there! There was a shock when they didn't appear for the Hotel meeting at Groenkloof in 2012, after having promised.

Yah,.... let's see,....Oi,..not done and dusted yet,
still brewing till this weekend!!!??

From one storm to the next,...

[Richprins]

Strongs, H.

[Richprins]

"No matter what side of the trade debate we're on, what we all want is for the poaching to stop," said Outraged SA Citizens Against Poaching (Oscap) director Allison Thomson.

A rhino trade conference has resolved to act against any proposals to legalise rhino horn trade.

"We'll have to agree to disagree on the trade issue, but make no mistake, we're serious about working hard, both domestically and internationally, to put a stop to any proposals to legalise rhino horn trade."

The Oscap conference was held on Wednesday and Thursday in Pretoria.

Thomson said the conference ended on a positive note with participants resolving to ensure that all South Africans were made aware of the risks associated with legalising rhino horn trade.

Representatives from the Environmental Investigation Agency were also present.

"We need to learn lessons from the ivory trade debacle," said the agency's Mary Rice.

"You don't legalise a high-value product like ivory and put it in the hands of hundreds of millions of people and then wonder why elephant poaching has gone off the charts. The same is true for rhino horn."



http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2014 ... horn-trade

[Richprins]

https://www.safarious.com/en/posts/10797





Lessons the rhino trade lobby cannot ignore

By: Sharon van Wyk



Ignoring the hard lessons learned by the global conservation community in its battle against ivory poaching will effectively sign a death warrant for Africa's rhinos, which could become extinct by 2020 if South Africa succeeds in its plans to legalise trade in rhino horn.

This was the shocking message which emerged from an international conference in Pretoria organised by OSCAP to debate government proposals to lobby the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to lift its global ban on trade in horn at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) which takes place in South Africa in 2016.

Speaker after speaker drew attention to the fact that in the past four decades of their battle against ivory poaching, attempts by African nations, including South Africa, to legally trade in ivory through CITES-approved "once-off" sales of stockpiles have only fuelled demand, causing drastic increases in poaching in every single elephant range state. The result? Africa is currently losing four elephants an hour to poachers and Asia's appetite for ivory is at an all-time high.

This "elephant in the room" has largely been ignored by the South African government which maintains that a legal trade in rhino horn will reduce demand and eliminate the illegal trade through stringent regulation and control mechanisms, even though these same mechanisms have failed dismally in the past where ivory is concerned.

Mary Rice, director of the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency, which has undertaken in-depth undercover investigations into the markets in Asian demand states like China, maintained that supply of rhino horn will never meet demand. A video clip in Rice's presentation to the conference audience of more than 120 non-government organisations, diplomats, stakeholders, concerned citizens and international media illustrated the depth of the problem in China. In it an illegal ivory trader, his face pixelated, was filmed by a concealed camera holding a pair of ivory chopsticks while explaining to an undercover EIA investigator that "All the elephants in Africa aren't enough to supply the Chinese market with ivory chopsticks alone..."

This inconvenient truth is supported by the statistics coming out of China, where an economic boom of stellar proportions has created an enormous population of wealthy consumers in a market driven by consumption of luxury goods and services. China's growth is echoed in Vietnam, which has the highest number of high net-worth individuals in the world.

Will Travers, OBE, founder of the Born Free Foundation, said that conservation is nothing more than risk analysis and that history is littered with examples of where that analysis has been wrong. "We are supposed to learn from past mistakes so that we do not repeat them," said Travers in his address to the conference. "It was Einstein who defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results," added Travers. "The plan to legalise trade in rhino horn is therefore complete insanity."

But it was left to Dr Ben Okita-Ouma, Rhino Co-Ordinator of the Kenyan Wildlife Service, to drive home the message in his presentation highlighting the unintended consequences South Africa's plans would have on remaining rhino populations.

"Exponential expansion of demand will see rhino extinct in the wild by 2020," Okita-Ouma told a stunned audience. This makes a "Big Four" scenario a very real possibility. Moreover, with 100 elephants a day being decimated for their ivory and fewer than 20,000 lion left in the wild across the continent, could it be that Africa is facing a future where all there is left to entice tourists is the Tragic Two?

[H. erectus]

Yap, that's about it,....

[H. erectus]

But there is hope!!!, as another speaker said!!!!,...