For this reason, rhino owners increasingly support the potential re-establishment of a legal rhino horn market, supplied from existing stockpiles and future routine horn harvesting from selected animals. National lockdowns, border closures, emergency visa restrictions, quarantines and other measures put in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus have severely constricted Africa’s $39 billion tourism industry. A black rhino in Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. The recent article in Time Magazine highlights the recent rise in rhino poaching and the increasing Asian demand and illegal trade which is driving the current crisis. A third option would combine the two strategies. In 2014, the Humane Society similarly claimed that its efforts in Vietnam were starting to have an effect (enthusiastically endorsed by Vietnam’s law enforcement authorities), but this was quickly refuted by other NGOs, who are using different methods. There is only one known case of rhino horn going from Vietnam into China, when a Chinese man was caught bringing two horns from Vietnam. “We don’t want to decouple conservation from tourism, but I think we need to expand the range of sectors that support it,” she said. Rhino horn is in high demand in booming underground Asian markets, where it is sold for medicinal and ornamental purposes. Skeptics of this approach argue that it would be better to displace existing demand for illegally sourced horn either with genuine horn from sustainable sources or with a synthetic substitute.

In 2003, South African hunting outfitters started engaging with clients from Vietnam to participate in legal rhino trophy hunts.5 Vietnam is not a country traditionally associated with sport hunting, and it soon became obvious that these clients were simply interested in obtaining the rhinos’ horns. Chalk art in Cape Town, South Africa, reads “201 MURDERED THIS YEAR,” in a message spreading awareness to mark International Rhino Day on September 22, 2010. International Fund for Animal Welfare Animal Rescue. Wild populations of the world’s five rhino species have been in steady retreat for centuries in the face of expanding human populations that encroach upon their habitat and hunt them for their meat and body parts. The scientists published their peer-reviewed study describing the technology's effectiveness for monitoring the endangered rhinos on Aug. 14 in the open-access journal PeerJ. agencies in charge of investigating and prosecuting rhino poaching and rhino horn traffic in South Africa, (vi) statistics of arrests related to rhino poachi ng, and (vii) a conclusion.

Rhino horns are in very high demand and are paid for at rates higher than gold. Since South Africa announced a national lockdown on March 23 to limit the spread of the new coronavirus, Mr. Jacobs has had to respond to a rhino poaching incident nearly every day. Proponents of legal trade point to the past success of the sustainable use approach and the extent to which managed commercial trophy hunting has boosted the economic incentives to breed and protect rhinos. The intentions of the Chinese needs to be clarified, especially as there is an international ban on the use of rhino body parts, so any “rhino farming” would be illegal. The unresolved question is whether perpetuating interest in generic ‘rhino horn’ products would lead to greater demand for genuine horn (harvested from rhinos) in the future.

If things don’t improve, she may be forced to make difficult decisions. Nearly all of Mr. Ntalamo’s clients have canceled their upcoming trips.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- South Africa's anti-COVID-19 lockdown is credited with helping to achieve a dramatic drop in rhino killings, but as the country opens up experts warn of a possible resurgence of poaching of one of Earth's most endangered mammals. I’ll fly as long as the finances can hold it,” he said.
However, various rhino conservation NGOs and supporters of demand reduction—including some with an animal welfare orientation—have issued statements strongly opposing the marketing of legal synthetic rhino horn products, arguing that this would undermine efforts to completely stigmatize the use of all horn and unnecessarily confuse Asian law enforcement officials, reducing their incentives to crack down on illegal product.

Many of these dependents are from Malawi and Zimbabwe and other countries facing starvation,” Ms. MacTavish said. Rhinoceros poaching in southern Africa is the illegal act of slaughtering rhinoceros in the southern African countries of Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa, where most of Africa's rhinos occur. The large seizure of wildlife products originated in Nigeria, and was disguised as timber inside two containers.

“We’ve had a few incursions recently, but I’m expecting an onslaught if this lockdown carries on for months on end.”. "Two sections of fence have been upgraded to date and we have already seen a shift in rhino poaching activity away from both areas," said Dube-Ncube, thanking the private organization Wildlife ACT for supporting the fence. ‘cultured horn’), or it could be covertly introduced into the illegal supply chain to disrupt the existing market. Stop buying rhino horn products." Interactive software that “reads” and analyzes footprints left by black rhinoceroses can be used to monitor the movements of the animals in the wild, giving conservationists a new way to keep watch on the endangered species and help keep it safe from poachers, according to a …
The country has gradually reopened and will allow a return of international tourists on Oct. 1. WildAid is very confident of the celebrity-driven approach, claiming that it has already achieved substantial success with a campaign against the consumption of shark-fin soup, and that it is having a positive impact on rhinos, too. Without that revenue, many parks, private reserves and community conservancies may not be able to pay employees. Whereas both black and white rhinos were on the verge of extinction at the start of that century, by the year 2000 they were thriving in South Africa, which also played a key role in supplying other African countries with animals to replenish their lost populations. Rhino poaching is a serious contemporary global concern. Please view the main text area of the page by skipping the main menu. The second approach involves the reintroduction of a regulated legal trade in harvested rhino horn supplied from sustainable sources, and the third involves introducing a synthetic or ‘cultured’ rhino horn product into the market. With rhino horn fetching black market retail prices at stratospheric levels, law enforcement efforts are too easily undermined by corruption, as with other high-value black markets such as the drug trade. “If I get called out 10 times a day, I’m going to fly 10 times a day. Of the three potential solutions, demand reduction is the only one currently implemented and congruent with existing laws. The initial market response to the trade ban was a more than ten-fold increase in the price of rhino horn in the following two years.2 Poaching continued unabated—if anything, it became more aggressive. Once the South African government became aware of what was happening, it responded with a series of measures aimed at thwarting rhino horn exports to Asia. Two decades later, the extant niche consumer market for rhino horn is certainly aware of both the product’s scarcity and illegality–in fact this appears to be a significant part of its appeal, as possession of rhino horn now signals a certain kind of status (by being above the reach of laws applied to common people). Africa’s rhino face the worst rhino poaching in decades.

Since the 1970s, the greatest threat to rhinos has been the trade in rhino horn, which is sought for both ornamental purposes and as an ingredient in traditional Asian medicines used to treat a range of human ailments linked to toxicity and inflammation. “Without the tour guides, the rangers are like somebody moving without one leg,” Mr. Ntalamo said. However, this does not completely preclude future legal trade or the sale of synthetic substitutes—consider the example of cigarettes, which remain legal while accompanied by strong demand reduction campaigns and more recent competition from personal vaporizers. Vietnam has rapidly emerged as the leading destination for illicit trade in rhino horn from 2003 onwards, as well as concerns over suspected rhino farming in China. The War on Drugs has been a spectacular failure, and the war on rhino horn trade may fare no better.