Rhino poaching ~ the solution at last!
RHINO HORN TRADE - "Make it legal" by David Cook - "Solution" by Ian Player
Let's ALL (Earth Custodians) join renowned South African conservationist, Dr Ian Player as he pleads for ‘factory sales’ to China.
South Africa should go into business with China by setting up a factory to supply it with the more than 20 tons of rhino horn gathered through natural deaths of the animals.
That’s the proposition of Dr Ian Player, who spearheaded Operation Rhino and is renowned for bringing the world’s rhino back from the brink several decades ago.
“In the 1960’s, the Natal Parks Board sold rhino horn on the open market in Dar es Salaam,” the 85-year-year-old conservationist told delegates at the Diamond Route research conference this week.
Banning the sales of rhino horn and ivory had not stopped poaching, he said.
“Arguments against the sale of rhino horn is that it could fuel the demand… but my belief is that we should go into business with the Chinese, set up a factory and supply them with horns gathered through natural mortality.”
It was now too late to put forward the “excellent and formal” proposal on the strict, controlled trade of rhino horn by Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife at the upcoming conference on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species meeting in March because of delays by the Department of Environmental Affairs.
Already, 501 rhinos have been slain this year – against last year’s total of 448. But Player is optimistic that “we shall save the rhino again”.
To stop the unprecedented slaughter, “our first priority must be to give all the possible support to the conservation agencies and private landowners in the protection of the rhino”.
Player, the founder of the Wilderness Leadership School, said KwaZulu-Natal “can look with pride” upon its achievements. “We brought them (rhino) back from the verge of extinction and there are now an estimated 20 000 white rhino in the world and this from an original 50 in the 1920s – surely a phenomenal achievement.
“My great fear is that whereas the white rhino might be able to withstand the poaching, the black rhino would not be able to do so. In 1953, when we first counted the white rhino, there were over 60 000 black rhino in East Africa. They have now been reduced to a handful.”
Some Far East countries were farming the rhino for its horn. “The belief by millions of people in China, Thailand and Vietnam that the horn has medical properties… will not be changed by rational arguments.”
Dehorning the rhino has not acted as an deterrent. “The poachers will kill a rhino just for the remaining stump because the price is so high. Game ranches have become the biggest buyers of surplus rhino but they are going to pay huge sums only to have the rhino poached.”
The rhino carnage was an “indicator of the environmental crisis” facing SA. “Water shortages, sewage disposal, pollution of rivers and dams, leaking acid water from abandoned mines and pollution of the sea are but a few… These problems supersede all political problems because all of us are dependent upon the environment for our survival.” By SHEREE BEGA ~ Star ~ 03/11/2012
