Private rhino owners want trade legalised The majority of private rhino owners support legalising trade in rhino horn, says Pelham Jones, Chairperson of the Private Rhino Owners Association (PROA), who addressed the SATSA conference in Stellenbosch on Friday. Jones pointed to a PROA survey of rhino owners that was conducted among 380 privately owned reserves. It had a 32% response rate. As many as 97% of the respondents supported a legal trade in rhino horn. Furthermore, 47% of respondents were confident they would continue to keep rhinos in the future, while 53% were uncertain or already considering selling their rhinos. Jones was putting forward the argument in favour of legalised trade as part of a debate at the conference (for more on the debate, look out for the September issue of the Tourism Update Digi Mag). He said private rhino owners owned 2.2 million hectares of land on which rhinos roamed, roughly the equivalent of the Kruger National Park. The land was spread over roughly 380 reserves that were dotted across the country, said Jones. However, he emphasised that private owners did not have the resources to protect rhinos from the onslaught of poaching, pointing to increased security costs to counter the threat. He said, as a result, many private reserves had gone from being profitable to making a loss over the past few years. Jones added that the private sector did not have access to funding from donors or the state. “We are fighting this battle on our own,” he said. tourismupdate.co.za/NewsDetails.aspx?newsId=73668
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 06:44:50 +0000
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