Africa Wild

It is a very spiny subject with so many pros and contras, that it is impossible to decide which is the right decision

Legalisation of horn trade is the only option to protect and grow our population of southern white rhino

Opinionista • Jane Wiltshire • 18 February 2021

Latest statistics from the Kruger National Park show a disastrous drop in the southern white rhino population. If international trade were legalised, the KNP would be able to sell its existing and future reserves of rhino horn. This would be a massive financial boost to fighting poaching — and extinction.

In January 2021, the ministry of forestry, fisheries and environmental affairs confirmed that the population of southern white rhinos in the Kruger National Park (KNP) has declined by 67% — from 10,621 in 2011 to an estimated 3,529.

Despite spending millions of rands and establishing a dedicated, highly trained private army, efforts to protect and grow the southern white rhino population continue to prove unsuccessful.

Sadly, it seems that in the KNP, we have reached the tipping point where there are more rhino dying and being killed than are being born.

It is now or never for the government to take decisive action to ensure that a species so fundamental to many ecosystems — a “keystone species” — is conserved and sustainably financed so that it can thrive and grow in numbers.

The time for deliberation and indecision is over.

Project 1743’s Buffalo Dream Ranch is home to a population of rhinos that grew from an initial 368 in 2011 to 1,865 animals at the time of writing.

In comparison to the KNP, whose southern white rhino population has decreased by 14.8% per year, our population has increased by 15.7% per year. Our approach has centred on sustaining the comprehensive physical protection of rhinos, providing them with suitable habitat and so giving them the space to thrive and breed unhindered.

One of our solutions to poaching has been the trimming of rhino horn — a pain-free practice that has been resoundingly endorsed by organisations such as the World Wildlife Fund and the Wildlands Conservation Trust. This, with tight surveillance and state-of-the-art security measures, has contributed to a remarkable record of no poaching incidents since March 2017.

While effective at growing the rhino population, our approach is not yet financially self-sustaining. It costs millions of rands to protect this crucial population and maintain an environment conducive to mating, rearing and flourishing.

Operations will be self-sustaining only when trade in rhino horn is legally permissible internationally.

Critical to our approach to secure the population is a painless practice similar to trimming your nails, where we trim the top portions of rhino horn whenever the horns start being attractive to poachers.

If international trade was legal, this horn alone could provide more than sufficient income to sustain and expand this project. If trade is made easy and legal, all private and state-owned rhino-populated protected areas would better be able to fund themselves and breed enough rhino to restock the whole of Africa.

We have to embrace the power of capital to protect and grow the rhino population.

If international trade were legalised, the KNP would be able to sell its existing reserves of rhino horn and the annual increment from natural mortalities.

Provided the revenue from such sales was ploughed back into the KNP, it would then be able to sustain a greater rhino protection effort and work towards not only conserving its existing southern white rhino population, but grow it. Such a template could be followed for other state-owned parks which are facing similar threats to KNP.

Critically, the legalisation of trade would spur on private sector efforts to protect and grow the southern white rhino population.

At present, protecting rhino populations against poaching is a loss-making activity.

Against considerable odds, we at Project 1743 have shown how poaching can be resisted and how it is possible to create the enabling environment for a rhino population to grow.

With other like-minded private sector initiatives, we have the ability to work towards restocking rangelands where the southern white rhino no longer exists. However, if there is no path to making this financially sustainable, options will be considerably limited.

While it is legally possible to trade rhino horn domestically, the process required to obtain the relevant permits to be able to trade is cumbersome and inefficient and, overall, a disincentive to trade.

Regardless, the market for rhino horn is not in South Africa, but in the Far East. Demand from that region drives (and finances) the syndicates that run poaching operations.

Legalisation can reduce poaching by making the procurement of rhino horn from legal sources easier, more reliable and regulated. Not only will this protect the rhino — because horn can be obtained without killing or hurting the rhino — but the financial resources generated will better protect our endangered populations.

The capital injection will enable the private and public sectors to grow the population, staving off an inexorable decline towards extinction.

Research suggests that the syndicates in the Far East will switch at least part of their purchases of rhino horn from unreliable and costly poachers, to a reliable supply of quality-assured legal rhino horn.

There are several routes to legal international trade in rhino horn. The first is for any registered captive breeding organisation, such as Project 1743, to acquire specific trading partners and together with those partners obtain the relevant import and export permits.

This would naturally require the buy-in of the South African government, which would need to work with its counterparts in the Far East. Such routes, if supported actively by the government, could take less than two years to establish.

The second route is to work to amend the schedule of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which prohibits international trade in rhino horn.

This would be a much longer process — likely to take up to five years — and of course would require the active involvement and support of the South African government.

The process would involve setting up a range of states meeting and passing a resolution recommending a change to the present schedule. Two thirds of CITES members would need to vote “Yes” for the relevant amendment to be effected.

A third route is for the government to act on the 2019 SADC declaration to ignore the CITES restriction on international trade in rhino horn.

Our view is that all routes should be pursued simultaneously, with other sector leaders, and we will make representations to the government about the urgency required.

It is unfortunate that the president’s State of the Nation Address last week did not contain any reference to the crisis facing the southern white rhino. The consequences of continued inaction on the part of the government will be disastrous, both for the species and for our country’s economy.

It has often been recognised that the rhino is the most marketable of the “Big 5” and is certainly the most visible. It is difficult to compute what the effect would be on our tourism industry were a foundational species removed.

International trade in rhino horn, though, is about far more than protecting the tourism industry. The benefits to South Africa’s economy would be vast. Not only would there be significant inflows of funds, but significant jobs would be created as industries in support of the trade — such as precious cargo handling and anti-poaching infrastructure — would be significantly boosted.

The time has now arrived for the government to take its head out of the sand and urgently address the declining southern white rhino population by driving the legalisation of international trade in rhino horn.

Not only will this grow the rhino population — it will also grow South Africa. DM

Jane Wiltshire is the founder and CEO of Project 1743. (https://project1743.co.za/)

Jane Wiltshire has recently completed a doctoral thesis titled The International Trade in Rhino Horn: Can Scenario Planning Increase Consensus Amongst Highly-Polarised South African Stakeholders. Prior to this, she founded and headed a boutique corporate finance house after careers in strategic planning and turnaround management.

I am still not sure. There are good arguments on both sides

I'm starting to agree with the legal trade idea...

It’s time for a meaningful discussion on the future of rhinos and the trade in rhino horn

Opinionista • Jane Wiltshire • 7 June 2021

Discussing the future of rhinos without talking about trade in horn is akin to convening a discussion on the conflict between Israel and Palestine while taking the issue of religion off the table: Wonderful solutions will arise, but they will be unworkable in the real world.

It is encouraging when relevant sectors come together to hold constructive discussions on the future of rhinos. In this respect, it was uplifting to read Don Pinnock and Helena Kriel’s recent Daily Maverick article “The future of rhinos: What it will take to save an endangered ancient species” reporting on a meeting of rhino owners, wildlife vets, conservation NGOs, eco-economists, security experts and SANParks, facilitated by the Wilderness Foundation Africa.

Such discussions are long overdue, but we cannot, as Pinnock and Kriel suggest, be selective on the issues that we discuss, and the issues that are left at the door.

It is regrettably counter-productive to pursue these conversations and initiatives without dealing with the foundational issue of trade in rhino horn. The discussion held by DM168 and the Wilderness Foundation proceeded on the basis that trade in rhino horn would not be discussed. Any solution or initiative flowing from such a discussion will not be grounded in the realities of the situation and risks being undermined. If we are serious about saving the rhino, we need to once and for all collaborate in discussing the issue of trade in horn.

Discussing the future of rhinos without discussing trade in horn is akin to convening a discussion on the conflict between Israel and Palestine while taking the issue of religion off the table: Wonderful solutions will arise, but they will be unworkable in the real world.

Pinnock and Kriel’s article recognises that “compassion fatigue” has set in and that a tourism-driven approach to saving rhinos is not sustainable given its vulnerability to external shocks such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Any collaboration convened to discuss protecting and growing the rhino species cannot confine itself to recycling old arguments and presenting wish lists that will be ignored. It’s time for innovation that recognises the times we live in and accepts that we should consider embracing capital as a means to protect and grow the rhino population.

What is notable is the growing recognition that the private sector is best placed to protect and grow the rhino population. It is incontrovertible that private rhino owners have better anti-poaching records than public owners. They run efficient operations that are more resistant to co-option by organised crime and are passionate about their rhinos, their safety and wellbeing.

Yet, private owners are carrying a heavy burden. It is expensive to run consistent anti-poaching operations and more and more private owners are recognising that it is not sustainable to keep up their operations without any reasonable capital inflow. We know that a conservation and tourism approach to rhino protection and growth is not sustainable.

Mention is made in Pinnock and Kriel’s article of a levy on the trade in endangered species and carbon credits: These are creative ideas worth pursuing. Yet, how realistic will it be for these ideas to be realised in the next five to 10 years?

The truth is that donations would be needed to underwrite the cost of security and operations incurred by rhino custodians if no other option is on the table in the short term. Yet “compassion fatigue” will make such donations unlikely and the needed resources will not be forthcoming.

There is only one viable solution on the table in the short term and that is leveraging the power of capital within South Africa. This means selling and unlocking the value of rhino horn, a significant amount of which is held in stockpiles by both public and private owners. We need to put this solution on the table urgently and, in a collaborative way with all stakeholders, address how to make it happen while taking into account the valid concerns of those who fear it may be counter-productive.

Trade in rhino horn within South Africa is legal and can be used to protect and grow rhino numbers. The value of rhino horn can underwrite tradeable instruments that build liquidity for both private and public rhino owners. Funding from such tradeable instruments can be channelled to private and public owners to sustain their anti-poaching efforts and operations in cultivating the species.

Local communities living adjacent to public and private landowners can become stakeholders in the broader project, generating value and jobs from the effort to grow the species’ numbers.

The key to protecting and growing starts by unlocking the incentives for rhino owners to better protect and grow their populations. Thereafter, other initiatives such as carbon credits can and must be pursued.

It is high time that we stop avoiding the issue and have the real conversation about how to save the rhino species and, more importantly, grow the species to cultivate its impact on biodiversity. I will be liaising with Daily Maverick, Don Pinnock and other stakeholders to set up an initial conversation where we do put the issue of trade in rhino horn on the table. Yes, it will be a difficult conversation, but this country has a proud track record in difficult conversations that result in positive paths forward. Our rhinos deserve a real conversation that puts all the issues on the table.

Only then can we start dreaming about pulling the rhino back from the brink of extinction and watching them combat climate change as the “eco-warriors” we know they can be. DM

Jane Wiltshire is a Post-Doctoral Fellow of the African Wildlife Economics Institute at the University of Stellenbosch. She has recently completed a doctoral thesis titled ‘The International Trade in Rhino Horn: Can Scenario Planning Increase Consensus Amongst Highly-Polarised South African Stakeholders’. Prior to this, she founded and headed a boutique corporate finance house after careers in strategic planning and turnaround management.

I am afraid that she is right

100% correct!

One could add the ultimate opinions, from rangers on the ground, who mostly agree with legalising trade!

Poaching will not stop until the cost of poaching (including risk of being caught and sanction) exceeds the reward ie the price of the horn. Put another way, the price of rhino horn needs to fall below the cost to the poachers.

Legalising trade in rhino horn will not drop the price of rhino horn far enough, even if all wild rhino are de-horned. If it did, then the rewards for commercial farmers would be too small to justify continuing with rhino farming.

Look at illegal gold mining. The price of gold is high. Trade is allowed, admittedly with some restrictions. The risk of being caught and sanction is low. Illegal mining is rampant because the rewards outweigh the cost.

The current situation where there are large stocks of rhino horn and many rhino in private hands is a separate issue, but equally important.

I don't believe that legalising the trade in rhino horn will stop rhino poaching. The long term solution has to be about causing a massive drop in demand and a consequent fall in the price. (Obviously, other measures which increase the cost of poaching are important too but on their own they will have insufficient impact).

I cannot see how a drop in demand is possible. The Chinese and Vietnamese don't seem to care a damn about the rhinos. I have always been against the legal trade, but as this does not seem to change anything, maybe try something else, with determent limits, and see what happens even if it does not seem logical? If it does not work, back to prohibition!