Legalising International Trade in Rhino Horn ???

[iNdlovu]

Relax bud

[Flutterby]

Not sure if this has been posted already.

Why legalizing the Trade of Rhino Horn is Only Good for Their Owners

http://www.nikela.org/blog/why-legalizi ... eir-owners

To legalize or not to legalize the trading of rhino horns to save the black rhino, white rhino from extinction in South Africa?

Despite the huge lobby to legalize rhino horn trade as a means to curb the poaching of endangered rhino and stop the wildlife trafficking and illegal trade, we at NIKELA remain opposed.

We are not wildlife conservationists, we do not own rhino, and we have no financial stake in whether rhino horn is traded or not. As citizens of our planet, as humans who care for wildlife and the protection of habitats and ecosystems we are fully committed to do all we can to stop the poaching and all other activities that compromise the preservation of wildlife and its environment.

So the sifting continues as organizations and individuals get off the fence and choose their side, pro or against legalizing the trade of rhino horn. Where do you stand?

No bones about it, saving the rhino from the relentless poaching (close to 300 this year to date) is no simple matter. With corruption, lack of training, apathy, limited equipment, organized crime syndicates find the rhino and other wildlife like the elephant easy targets.

Making selling rhino horn legal may seem a natural answer to some. However, they forget that wildlife traffickers have no interest in doing things legally. Why should they pay for something they can get for free? And, how can we begin to believe that a system that cannot stop the war on wildlife could possibly control and monitor the trading of rhino horn, a commodity with such a large price tag, about $30k per lb.?

Cutting off the horn of a rhino is not like sheering sheep. A sheep does not have to be tranquilized to be sheered, a rhino does. A sheep does not need its wool to assist or protect its new born, a rhino does. A sheep does not need its wool to forage for food, a rhino does. Sheep that are sheered for their wool are not wild animals, rhino are. Sheep have been farmed for eons (this is not a debate about whether this is good or bad) rhino are still classified and considered wild animals. Who or what gives us the right to farm them for their horn?

In South Africa rhino can be, and many are, privately owned. Some rhino owners are about conservation via eco-tourism or providing a safe haven for rhino. While others are about business, the farming business, betting on the future rhino horn business. Sure we can say the game ranches and game farms have contributed to the number of rhino and other wildlife species. But what about the quality of their lives? What about their natural habitat and ecosystems?

If wildlife conservation is purely about numbers then farming wildlife and trophy hunting outfits are conservationists, however, we at NIKELA join those who don’t see it this way. We are among the idealist who join the wildlife conservation biologists and others who see the big picture, who envision not only individual species, but entire ecosystems being preserved so that all (including humans) can live the way nature intended it.

In an ideal world wildlife does not come with a price tag for their horns, skin, fur or other body parts. In such a world we care enough as humans to assure them this ideal by supporting it via public funds. Privatizing wildlife, although this has quantitively saved several species, what has it done qualitatively? If we’re for the former at the expense of the latter, why not simply keep a sampling of every species in zoos?

So it appears that legalizing the rhino horn trade would only be good for the rhino owner who stands to make a big profit from cutting off and selling the horns of their rhino. Oh yes, and I forgot to mention, that it’s the stub, the part that cannot be removed when dehorning that has the most value to the poachers… so go figure!

[Richprins]

The above is a bit crude, IMO, and while reflecting a genuine concern, does not mention existing stockpiles or alternative solutions.

We are among the idealist who join the wildlife conservation biologists and others who see the big picture, who envision not only individual species, but entire ecosystems being preserved so that all (including humans) can live the way nature intended it.

It is also difficult to claim to be part of a special team who see the "big picture"? Game farms do indeed protect entire ecosystems while some apex mammals are "harvested"?

[Richprins]

Michael Eustace, an environmental economist and asset manager, said the ban in trade in rhino horn has been a dismal failure, pushing the trade underground where it has thrived.

"Southern Africa could supply the market with 676 horns a year from natural deaths alone. There are also legal stockpiles of over 5 000 horns. Southern Africa could easily supply the market with 940 horns a year and increase this by 40 horns a year from natural deaths, provided poaching was controlled.

"In addition, private farmers in South Africa could provide the equivalent of 1 000 horns or 4 000kg a year by cropping their horns. The horn re-grows at the rate of 0,8kg a year. In theory, Southern Africa could provide the market with 1 940 horns a year, or more than twice the current demand."



http://www.news24.com/Green/News/More-w ... o-20130613

[Sprocky]

In my books this would be like giving the glue sniffer on the street corner, shelter in a glue factory!

Why do we have to submit to the needs of criminals???

[H. erectus]

provided poaching was controlled.

MMhhnnn, great statement to make when we know there is no
control!!! point one said, then we go further to support another
nation based on a fallacy!! Would that be fair a practice???

May as well legalize the poppie fields in China and the cocaine
plantations in South America, may as well legalize Cannibis!!!!

OMW can very well imagine those rhino in the harvesting pen,
horns hacked off,... before being put back to pasture for God
knows how long!!

[H. erectus]

Why do we have to submit to the needs of criminals???

That would be treated as such, then

shelter in a glue factory!

That would also be treated as such, though not my
problem however we .gov are always willing to support
and help!!!!

[H. erectus]

Great bunch we are at meeting public demand
yet cleverly know how to shift responsibility!!!

[H. erectus]

Hah just heard some food for thought!!!

The price of kartofollen, aardapellen what the heck
common potatoes, sky- rocketting 'cause Chinese
have discovered chips and mayo!!!

Tough s==t Europe for the shortage!!!

[Flutterby]

Jun 12 2013 5:15PM
Michael Appel

Legalising rhino horn not the answer - Agency

Locally, the call to legalise rhino horn to combat its illicit trade on the black market has been growing over the last few years, but an international NGO is disputing the logic behind such calls.

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) said recently in a statement entitled, Greed beats logic: Why a legal rhino trade won’t work, that first and foremost, if trade in rhino horn is legalised, “…it would effectively be legitimising a huge transnational crime, rewarding the kingpins and middle men for their persistence in outlasting the forces of law and order.”

Prominent conservationist Ian Player has for a number of years now been asking the government to lobby the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to legalise sale in rhino horn. South Africa’s horn stock piles could then be sold, the proceeds of which could then go towards greater protection of the rhino specie that would now have a commoditised price.

This, believes Player, will effectively flood the black market and drive down the price, taking power out of the hands of the syndicates and creating one centrally controlled point of sale of rhino horn.

Paul Newman, communications officer for the EIA argues that, “South Africa is a long way from exhausting all its options in fighting the rhino wars – and throwing in the towel to cash-in on the desperation and ignorance of the Vietnamese should never have been on the table in the first place.”

The EIA believes that legalising rhino horn would be tantamount to telling the Vietnamese what so many of them want to hear due to a lack of medical options. “Yes, you can now legally purchase and take rhino horn for your cancer or other ailment,” said Newman.

The EIA said that similar calls were made at a time when elephant poaching was at its highest. Much the same case was advanced in favour of allowing CITES-sanctioned ivory stockpile auctions to go ahead, undermining the 1989 ivory trade ban.

“And if the evidence of rocketing levels of elephant slaughter in recent years isn’t sufficient indication of the failure of this strategy, the evidence against it mounted even further recently when the Chinese media reported the conviction of a government-accredited ivory trader in Fujian and his accomplices for their role in an international ivory trafficking scheme that smuggled nearly eight tonnes of ivory out of Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria,” said the EIA.

The fact is that a legal ivory trade has done nothing to stem poaching but has instead directly helped stimulate demand, said the EIA. It confuses consumers, and provides the perfect cover for poached ivory to be laundered onto the market.

The EIA said: “With a few notable exceptions, it’s fair to say that South Africa has a poor record of enforcing CITES recommendations and protecting its iconic wildlife. Under the guise of legitimate legal hunting, it has recently presided over the farcical and clearly criminal phenomena of ‘pseudo hunting’ in which middlemen arranged permits for Thai bar workers and other individuals to hunt rhino; the resulting ‘trophies’ could then be legally exported, most often to Vietnam.”

South Africa is home to 83% of the continent’s rhino with about 18 900 white and just over 2 000 black rhino remaining.

michaela@thenewage.co.za