NEWS
Figure 2: A veterinarian examines a recently-dehorned rhino on John Hume's ranch near Klerksdorp, South Africa. Hume
owns more than 1,600 rhinos, which are dehorned to dissuade poachers. Photo: Mujahid Safodien/AFP/Getty Images
has been banned under the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES) since 1977, and the
domestic trade within most Asian coun-
tries, including the major markets of
China and Vietnam, has also long been
illegal.
It’s become common
for reserves and
ranches to de-horn
rhinos to lessen the
animals’ value to
poachers.
The majority of global conservation and
animal welfare organizations are dead-
set against legalizing trade, believing
that it could drastically worsen poaching
by generating uncontrollable consumer
demand for horn. Conservationists say
that the pool of potential Chinese buy-
ers is so large that they would consume
legal stocks faster than they could ever
be replenished, incentivizing poachers
to make up the shortfall. And experts
argue that because poached horn prod-
ucts are difficult to distinguish from horn
products legally harvested and traded
within South Africa, a legal international
27
trade could create conduits for poached
horn to find its way to market.
South Africa — unusual among African
countries — has a large private wildlife
ranching sector. Ranching is a loose
term: Some ranchers operate what can
only be described as rhino feedlots,
where they confine dozens of rhinos to
a single corral and give them factory-
made feed every day. John Hume, the
world’s largest rhino owner with a herd
of more than 1,600 animals, keeps many
of his animals this way. Hume has heav-
ily backed the Rhino Coin initiative and
is the leading contributor of horn to the
system.
Other ranchers keep rhinos that are ef-
fectively wild, ranging over huge areas
and feeding themselves. Almost all rhino
ranches need security forces to ward off
poachers, who wield increasingly power-
ful guns and even improvised explosive
devices. Deadly firefights are common.
Public and private reserves deploy rang-
ers with automatic rifles and grenade
launchers, miles of deadly electric fenc-
ing, light aircraft and helicopters, as well
as military-grade radar, cameras, and
listening tools. This has reduced poach-
ing in some reserves. It’s also extremely
expensive, hence efforts to raise funds
through selling rhino horn.
South Africa placed a moratorium on the
in-country trade of rhino horn in 2009
because government agencies found
it being used as cover to sell poached
horn to international crime syndicates.
Despite opposition from conservation
groups, well-resourced South African
private rhino owners pushed for re-le-
galizing trade, and last year they won a
case in the South African Constitutional
Court and overturned the 2009 moratori-
um. The government has now construct-
ed somewhat cumbersome systems that
can support in-country trade, such as a
DNA horn registry, a national database,
and a system of permits whereby reg-
istered buyers and sellers can legally
trade horn within South Africa while the
state keeps tabs on the ownership of
each one. (Some 860 horns have been
Figure 3: The Rhino Coin logo
Grassroots
Vol 19
No 1
March 2019