Mpumalanga's rhino-farming tycoon, John Hume, says the best financial investment he could make would be to keep stockpiling rhino horn because the price of this prestige commodity just keeps rising.
In battling the scourge of rhino poaching in South Africa, private reserves are having to increase their security measures, look to alternatives like dehorning, and where possible, work together. He would be happy to sell off his other endangered species, which include disease-free buffalos and roan and sable antelope, even his 6500ha wildlife ranch called Mauricedale, near Malalane, worth more than R4-million. "But my financial advisers tell me not to sell my rhino horn because its value is increasing more than any other investment," he said. With 764 rhinos at Mauricedale and another breeding farm in North West province, Hume is the biggest rhino farmer in the world. He has de-horned all his rhinos and shaves off about 1kg of regrowth every year.
Loath to disclose the size of his present stockpile, kept in safety vaults off his properties, by the end of 2010 it included more than 500kg of rhino horn with a retail value of an estimated R200-million. That was when horn was worth an estimated R400 000/kg; today it could fetch at least R520 000/kg. In theory, anyway, because he has not been able to sell it since a moratorium was imposed on the local horn trade in 2009. Even though his stash keeps growing and the price keeps rising, Hume has joined other private owners to demand that the trade in the horns of white rhinos be reopened. "I personally don't need the trade to be legalised," he said, "but it is the only chance we've got to stop the slaughter of rhinos."
Private ranchers own about 25% of the estimated 18 600 white rhinos in South Africa. They also own a large part of the almost 20 tonnes of horn stockpiled in the country, although no one knows exactly how much. With debate raging about how best to protect rhinos in the build-up to a seminal congress on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) early next year, private owners want local and international bans on trade in white-rhino horn to be lifted. This week, the department of environmental affairs closed its register of draft proposals from stakeholders that will inform the government's position at Cites.
Limpopo-based wildlife researcher Rael Loon said private owners had helped to grow rhino populations in the past two decades but were being burdened with spiralling security costs. Poaching was responsible for the death of close to 140 rhinos this year alone and many ranchers no longer wanted to keep them. The average price of live rhinos has dropped from R200 000 to R150 000 for a young female, and from R160 000 to R120 000 for a young male. Because poachers were being offered up to R300 000 for a single horn, the rhinos were more valuable dead than alive. "Private owners have huge assets lying in safes that they can't use, but that could potentially be used to pay to protect the rhinos," he said. "A controlled legal trade in the private sector would bring the market out into the open so that it could be monitored and managed."
Private owners need to protect their rhinos with round-the-clock guards, hi-tech security systems and up to 90% now opt to cut off the animals' horns to reduce the risk of poaching. Running a small anti-poaching unit for a handful of rhinos can cost at least R1-million a year. "People don't realise how much work goes into patrolling fences day after day. A lot of farmers end up putting more money into security than the rhinos are worth," said Chris Sussens, the owner of a small crush of rhinos on a reserve west of the Kruger Park. Protecting his rhinos had become so expensive, he had no option but to dehorn them. He also joined Rhino Revolution, an owners' collective responsible for the dehorning of 90% of the rhinos in private hands around Hoedspruit.
Sussens said the dehorning had drastically reduced the number of infiltrations by suspected poachers on his farm, but he regarded it as an interim measure until trade re-opened and black-market prices for horn come down. "Farming rhinos and dehorning them gives control to the trade. The minute you legalise it, you will take the pressure off the natural population in the wild," Sussens said.
According to conservation economist Michael Sas-Rolfes, demand for horn in Asian markets is "price inelastic", meaning that consumers are insensitive to price increases. There was nothing especially new or remarkable about the recent rise in demand for horn, he said. "All that has happened is a realignment of market supply and demand factors."
Sas-Rolfes and Hume argue that the surge in poaching since 2008 can be directly linked to a clampdown on hunting permits that had been used to launder horn. Then in 2009, when the environment department imposed a moratorium on local trade that had been used to leak horn to the East, it closed a loophole and forced traders to look for illegal alternatives. "Once the South African government imposed measures to restrict supply, the market responded aggressively. Prices had now risen sufficiently -- and demand was sufficiently inelastic -- to justify spending on more intensified illegal efforts to obtain horn; efforts that increasingly included organised crime syndicates and necessitated lethal methods," said Sas-Rolfes.
Speculators could be stockpiling horn in anticipation of further price increases and opportunities for profit, he said. But he disagreed with the view that South Africans in the hunting and game-ranching industry were "fuelling demand" for horn by playing a role in the illegal supply chain. "I believe this view to be a confusion of cause and effect. In fact, it is more likely that the South African game-ranching industry played a role in delaying an inevitable resurgence of poaching activity, driven by Asian consumer demand."
Hume, who has had nine rhinos poached despite their being dehorned, suggested the demand could be legitimately supplied by selling off two to three tonnes of horn a year from South Africa's R10-billion stockpile. Rather than selling the horns to one buyer who could manipulate the price and the market, the stocks should be put on public auction. "We would initiate a publicity campaign around the auction to alert the poachers. It won't stop the poaching immediately, but it would relieve the current pressure," he said.
South Africa, Namibia and Botswana are the last stronghold of about 95% of the world's rhinos. The 15 000-odd southern white rhinos in South Africa hold the flag for their species: black rhino numbers have dropped from about 60 000 across Africa in 1960 to less than 5 000 today, most of them in South Africa. Only a few northern white rhinos are left in Tanzania; the Javan rhino population in Vietnam was wiped out last year, leaving no more than 50 in Java; a handful of Indian rhinos are left in protected areas in the Himalayas; and there are less than 300 Sumatran rhinos left.
It would make sense for South Africa to be in control of future trade in horn, said Loon. But getting Cites to agree to open the trade could take years because it involved complicated administrative procedures and all rhino-range states -- including some in Asia and Africa that no longer have any rhinos -- would have to agree to the proposal. "The prohibitive 'stick' approach applied by Cites is clearly not working," Loon said. "The economic-incentive 'carrot' approach appears to be a much better strategy. Current poaching statistics show that the South African conservation community is fighting a losing battle and the rhinos are paying the price."
Legalising market 'like pulling the tail off a snake' "It is virtually impossible to get a legal permit to destroy a rhino horn, so how are they going to control a trade in thousands of horns?" asked Louise Joubert, the owner of a wildlife sanctuary raising several orphaned rhinos. Lack of capacity to enforce the complicated permit system that applies to dehorning rhinos and dealing with the horns is one of the main objections raised by opponents of opening the trade. At least four permits are needed for dehorning, moving and storing a horn and conservation officials must be present during the process. The horns must be micro-chipped and DNA samples must be taken.
Joubert and other ranchers who wanted to destroy horns after a rhino died said provincial officials had no idea how to deal with the request. One owner also mentioned instances of microchips being removed from horns and implanted into others. "The legislation we have is fine; the problem is enforcement," said Joubert. "The provincial authorities who are responsible are mostly dysfunctional." She believed the recent upsurge in rhino poaching can be attributed to game farmers and international traders manipulating the market in an attempt to force the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species [Cites] to legalise the trade. "The same kind of people who deal in lion bones and other endangered species have been thwarted in their attempts to trade in rhino horn in recent years. Now they are pushing Cites to open the trade, but it is not going to solve the poaching problem," she said.
It is a view shared by Worldwide Fund for Nature South Africa's rhino programme manager, Dr Joseph Okori. He told parliamentary hearings on the rhino crisis in January that legalising trade would not be the "silver bullet" that solves the poaching crisis. "This notion has been based on many economic assumptions, postulations and correlations to other nonsustainable forms of resource utilisation such as the diamond industry. At this point, we see it lending itself to greater unforeseen risks and few, if any, guarantees towards survival of the rhino across Africa," he said.
In the recent past, South Africa had sustained and grown its rhino industry quite successfully with local internal trade and limited hunting. "Recapitalisation, providing new or additional incentives to the sector in which subsidies are considered and policy adjustments would serve a more sustainable way forward," Okori said.
Steven Topham, a Limpopo rancher who sold all his rhinos last year after four were poached in the space of three weeks, said the government needed to intervene at the highest level in Asian consumer countries. "We can't keep pulling at the tail of the snake; we need to cut off its head," he said. "Dehorning and trading could be interpreted as saying to consumers that it is okay to use rhino horn, so long as they have a piece of paper. We should rather stop the trade in its tracks."
Source: Mail & Guardian
Showing posts with label Rhino Poaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rhino Poaching. Show all posts
Friday, March 30, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
More arrests as poachers target SA’s rhinos
DESPITE a loss of 135 rhinos in South Africa to poachers this year, the Department of Environmental Affairs said on Monday it was "encouraged" by the increasing number of arrests and convictions in connection with the black-market trade in rhino horn.
The growth rate of South Africa’s rhino population is still positive, in spite of a 34% increase in poaching from the 333 animals lost in 2010 to 448 killed last year. But there is concern among some that the country — home to about 90% of the world’s rhino population — could suffer a species decline by mid-year. So far this year, 89 people had been arrested in connection with the illegal trade in rhino horn, while 232 were arrested last year and 165 in 2010, said Albi Modise, spokesman for the department. The Kruger National Park continued to bear the brunt of rhino poaching and had lost 75 rhino this year, Mr Modise said. Last week, a fifth park official stationed at the Pretoriuskop section of the park was arrested in connection with the crime, he said. Last month, 4 park officials stationed at the rest camp appeared before a White River magistrate in connection with rhino poaching in that area of the park, where at least 11 rhinos have been killed since the beginning of the year.
South African National Parks (SANParks) and the police were "working flat-out to determine if links exist between the fifth park official arrested and other internal suspects in relation to the two rhino killed in Pretoriuskop last month", Mr Modise said. Last week, a suspected poacher was shot dead in the park and two other suspects were arrested, he said. SANParks has lost 78 rhino this year, while 17 have been killed outside its properties in Limpopo. 3 have been killed in Mpumalanga, 3 in the Eastern Cape, 18 in KwaZulu-Natal and 1 in the Western Cape. 20 people have been arrested in connection with rhino poaching in the Kruger National Park this year (82 last year), 10 in Gauteng, 29 in Mpumalanga, 3 in Limpopo, 15 in North West, 6 in the Free State, 5 in KwaZulu-Natal and 1 in the Northern Cape.
Karen Trendler, a veterinary nurse and rhino rehabilitation expert, told Reuters, the news agency, on Monday there were predictions that the species could be extinct by 2015. "The problem has been exacerbated by the fact some people working in wildlife conservation and animal welfare have been implicated in the lucrative poaching industry," Ms Trendler said. "There are some incredibly good guys in the business who are doing amazing things and who would give their lives for those rhino ... But unfortunately we do have an element of corruption," she said. "There have already been prosecutions and arrests where government officials are complicit."
The booming market for rhino horn and increasingly sophisticated poaching methods helped explain the devastating death rate, Ms Trendler said. In February, the Phalaborwa Regional Court sentenced 3 rhino poachers to 25 years’ imprisonment on various counts. Several non-governmental organisations said these were some of the toughest, if not the toughest, sentences handed down thus far for rhino poaching in South Africa.
Source: Business Day
The growth rate of South Africa’s rhino population is still positive, in spite of a 34% increase in poaching from the 333 animals lost in 2010 to 448 killed last year. But there is concern among some that the country — home to about 90% of the world’s rhino population — could suffer a species decline by mid-year. So far this year, 89 people had been arrested in connection with the illegal trade in rhino horn, while 232 were arrested last year and 165 in 2010, said Albi Modise, spokesman for the department. The Kruger National Park continued to bear the brunt of rhino poaching and had lost 75 rhino this year, Mr Modise said. Last week, a fifth park official stationed at the Pretoriuskop section of the park was arrested in connection with the crime, he said. Last month, 4 park officials stationed at the rest camp appeared before a White River magistrate in connection with rhino poaching in that area of the park, where at least 11 rhinos have been killed since the beginning of the year.
South African National Parks (SANParks) and the police were "working flat-out to determine if links exist between the fifth park official arrested and other internal suspects in relation to the two rhino killed in Pretoriuskop last month", Mr Modise said. Last week, a suspected poacher was shot dead in the park and two other suspects were arrested, he said. SANParks has lost 78 rhino this year, while 17 have been killed outside its properties in Limpopo. 3 have been killed in Mpumalanga, 3 in the Eastern Cape, 18 in KwaZulu-Natal and 1 in the Western Cape. 20 people have been arrested in connection with rhino poaching in the Kruger National Park this year (82 last year), 10 in Gauteng, 29 in Mpumalanga, 3 in Limpopo, 15 in North West, 6 in the Free State, 5 in KwaZulu-Natal and 1 in the Northern Cape.
Karen Trendler, a veterinary nurse and rhino rehabilitation expert, told Reuters, the news agency, on Monday there were predictions that the species could be extinct by 2015. "The problem has been exacerbated by the fact some people working in wildlife conservation and animal welfare have been implicated in the lucrative poaching industry," Ms Trendler said. "There are some incredibly good guys in the business who are doing amazing things and who would give their lives for those rhino ... But unfortunately we do have an element of corruption," she said. "There have already been prosecutions and arrests where government officials are complicit."
The booming market for rhino horn and increasingly sophisticated poaching methods helped explain the devastating death rate, Ms Trendler said. In February, the Phalaborwa Regional Court sentenced 3 rhino poachers to 25 years’ imprisonment on various counts. Several non-governmental organisations said these were some of the toughest, if not the toughest, sentences handed down thus far for rhino poaching in South Africa.
Source: Business Day
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Farmer gets R1m fine, 8 years in jail for rhino poaching
A Limpopo game farmer has been given an eight-year sentence for his involvement in rhino poaching, according to a report on Wednesday. Jaques Els (39) of Thabazimbi, was also ordered to pay the Green Scorpions R1-million, by the Makhado Magistrate's Court on Monday, Beeld reported. Els was granted bail of R300 000, pending his intention to lodge an appeal. He will appear in court again on June 2. This came as the environmental affairs department took over the release of all information and statistics about rhino poaching.
Albi Modise, the department's director of communications, said on Monday that rhino poaching had reached a crisis point, Beeld reported. Several organisations had been very critical of this decision and accused government of trying to cover up or manipulate information, Modise said. "The only reason why information about rhino poaching is being centralised is because the issue has become a crisis. We want a single message to reach civil society."
The Rhino War News Bulletin, run by Tim Condon, a former KwaZulu-Natal game ranger now based in Canada, reported on Monday that 109 rhinos had been poached in South Africa since the beginning of 2012. Modise said Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa would speak to journalists about the issue over the weekend.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Albi Modise, the department's director of communications, said on Monday that rhino poaching had reached a crisis point, Beeld reported. Several organisations had been very critical of this decision and accused government of trying to cover up or manipulate information, Modise said. "The only reason why information about rhino poaching is being centralised is because the issue has become a crisis. We want a single message to reach civil society."
The Rhino War News Bulletin, run by Tim Condon, a former KwaZulu-Natal game ranger now based in Canada, reported on Monday that 109 rhinos had been poached in South Africa since the beginning of 2012. Modise said Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa would speak to journalists about the issue over the weekend.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Friday, March 9, 2012
Legalised trade is a cover for laundering wildlife
For anybody who has been appalled by the unmitigated failure of the "legal" trade in ivory to reduce elephant poaching, the prospect of permitting a similar trade in rhino horn can only inspire a horrified sense of déjà vu. For the record, the international trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn is forbidden under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) and, after a brief respite from widespread poaching of both species during the 1980s and 1990s, populations started to recover. Cites is signed by 175 governments, including that of one of the world's biggest markets for illegal wildlife products, China, and the emerging market of Vietnam. But poaching has escalated sharply in the past three years, resulting in 2011 being declared the worst year for elephants since the ivory trade was outlawed in 1989.
Investigations by our organisation, the Environmental Investigation Agency, clearly show that a major factor behind this disastrous rise has been the demand stimulated by the Cites-sanctioned one-off sales of stockpiled ivory, which confuses consumers and offers a perfect cover for laundering poached ivory. With this rise has been an uncontrollable wave of rhino poaching; South Africa has been particularly hard hit, losing more than 440 rhino last year and now seeing one killed every day. Another terrible year for another species. Behind this rhino massacre is the belief in the Far East that rhino horn is a medicinal panacea -- a lethal and destructive fallacy driven by growing wealthy classes in China and Vietnam.
Astoundingly, and alarmingly, the argument is being made in some quarters that "zero trade" has clearly failed and the only way to save the rhino now is by creating a legal international trade in its horn. Such a trade could only ever work with stringent controls in place. China claimed it could implement such "rigorous" regulations and controls against illegal ivory, but has spectacularly failed to do so. The legalised trade has only made matters worse; the demand in China remains high and is growing. The price for "legal" ivory is so high that illegal traders can undercut the market and still make a hefty profit. The poached ivory is cheaper than the "legal" stockpiled ivory. And this is the "model" that is so successful.
Rhinos have already teetered on the brink of extinction once in the past 30 years, but the current crisis has an added dimension not seen before -- the involvement of organised international criminal syndicates in countries that are neither range states nor major consumer markets.
China again seems to be one of the principal markets, yet if it cannot implement a control system for ivory designed specifically to address the problem of elephant poaching while at the same time satisfying demand, how can it be considered a suitable candidate for introducing a similar system for rhinos? China has excelled in winning agreement at Cites, convincing the parties that it can regulate legal wildlife trade, in particular of ivory, bears and farmed tigers, without detriment to wild populations. Yet the evidence speaks to the contrary. It has not remotely demonstrated adequate commitment or investment in the kind of enforcement required to end illegal trade -- intelligence-led and with an inter-agency approach to tackling organised international criminal syndicates.
In the end it is about money, not conservation. For instance, John Hume, a leading proponent of the reintroduction of international trade in rhino horn, stands to make the greatest profits. As one of South Africa's most successful businesspeople and the owner of the biggest private rhino collection (and an undisclosed private stockpile), the issue of "conflict of interest" rings alarm bells. Opening up trade has not worked for elephants and it will not work for rhinos either.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Investigations by our organisation, the Environmental Investigation Agency, clearly show that a major factor behind this disastrous rise has been the demand stimulated by the Cites-sanctioned one-off sales of stockpiled ivory, which confuses consumers and offers a perfect cover for laundering poached ivory. With this rise has been an uncontrollable wave of rhino poaching; South Africa has been particularly hard hit, losing more than 440 rhino last year and now seeing one killed every day. Another terrible year for another species. Behind this rhino massacre is the belief in the Far East that rhino horn is a medicinal panacea -- a lethal and destructive fallacy driven by growing wealthy classes in China and Vietnam.
Astoundingly, and alarmingly, the argument is being made in some quarters that "zero trade" has clearly failed and the only way to save the rhino now is by creating a legal international trade in its horn. Such a trade could only ever work with stringent controls in place. China claimed it could implement such "rigorous" regulations and controls against illegal ivory, but has spectacularly failed to do so. The legalised trade has only made matters worse; the demand in China remains high and is growing. The price for "legal" ivory is so high that illegal traders can undercut the market and still make a hefty profit. The poached ivory is cheaper than the "legal" stockpiled ivory. And this is the "model" that is so successful.
Rhinos have already teetered on the brink of extinction once in the past 30 years, but the current crisis has an added dimension not seen before -- the involvement of organised international criminal syndicates in countries that are neither range states nor major consumer markets.
China again seems to be one of the principal markets, yet if it cannot implement a control system for ivory designed specifically to address the problem of elephant poaching while at the same time satisfying demand, how can it be considered a suitable candidate for introducing a similar system for rhinos? China has excelled in winning agreement at Cites, convincing the parties that it can regulate legal wildlife trade, in particular of ivory, bears and farmed tigers, without detriment to wild populations. Yet the evidence speaks to the contrary. It has not remotely demonstrated adequate commitment or investment in the kind of enforcement required to end illegal trade -- intelligence-led and with an inter-agency approach to tackling organised international criminal syndicates.
In the end it is about money, not conservation. For instance, John Hume, a leading proponent of the reintroduction of international trade in rhino horn, stands to make the greatest profits. As one of South Africa's most successful businesspeople and the owner of the biggest private rhino collection (and an undisclosed private stockpile), the issue of "conflict of interest" rings alarm bells. Opening up trade has not worked for elephants and it will not work for rhinos either.
Source: Mail & Guardian
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