Rhino poaching again!
I have received many emails about lifting the ban on the trade in Rhino horn. I do not pretend to know all the answers but I’ll try to respond to the points made.
First, none of the arguments put forward have convinced me that the trade ban should be lifted - and they have been well articulated. We know that the trade ban is not the reason for the poaching pandemic. The trade ban was imposed way back in 1977 and it did not cause a poaching crisis then. In fact, so long as the Asian crime syndicates were away, the trade ban worked just fine – for decades.So the cause of the crisis is the arrival in Africa of the rich, cruel, ruthless Asian syndicates. They have emptied the forests of Asia of wildlife – and now they are intent upon doing the same thing to the plains of Africa. The Rhino are just the beginning. To understand what we are in for, read Ben Davies’s book Black Market – Inside the Endangered Species Trade in Asia.
For our wildlife this is an evil which is our worst nightmare – a combination of weak, incompetent and corrupt African governments, in thrall both politically and economically to the self-serving and powerful Chinese economic juggernaut. So the solution to our rhino crisis is a political one –will African governments have either the political will or the capacity to crack down on the Asian syndicates; to stand up to the puppet governments they control; and to take lethal military action on the ground to counter a para-military poaching insurgency. I can’t see it: can you?
The trade ban has become a distraction. We all debate the trade ban as if it had any relevance - because the real threat is so overwhelming and depressing.
The other point I’d like to make about many arguments in favour of legalising the trade in Rhino horn, is that they lack vision. What is their vision for the future of rhino conservation? All they talk about is increasing rhino numbers, but for what? Captive Rhino breeders, like canned lion breeders, farm with rhino and sell some of them to be shot by hunters. If the only purpose of breeding rhino in camps is to allow them to be shot by foreign hunters, so that some fat slob can hang a piece of lifeless clutter on his wall, then the species is better off extinct.
Real conservation is “the preservation of natural functioning eco-systems”. That is a holistic thing, and this obsession with individual species is a distraction from real conservation. Proponents need to spell out a vision we can all support: to explain how legalising the rhino horn trade will contribute to the “holistic preservation of natural functioning eco-systems”. i.e. all species of fauna and the flora that support them.The Asians have so much money that they can bribe the rhino to extinction. Poorly paid African conservation staff are vulnerable to the obscene amounts of money being thrown at them by the poaching syndicates. Trade or no trade ban, this will continue. Lifting the ban may change some of the rules, but it will not change the game.
Sorry to be so pessimistic, and I do hope that someone can convince me to change my mind - it remains open. Meanwhile here is a link to a well-researched article on the Rhino issue.
