Selling of rhino horn stock pile could backfire. SOUTH Africa’s selling of 18 tons of stockpiled rhino horn in an attempt to flood the market and bring the price down could backfire and put the rhino population in greater danger, says the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). IFAW regional director for southern Africa, Jason Bell, believes the government’s proposal to ask Cites to sanction a one-off sale of the country’s horn – with a black market value of about R11 billion – will not make the illegal trade go away, and may even stimulate the market to want more. “If we were dealing with a species where the numbers were not a problem that would be a different matter, but we’ve passed the tipping point with rhino… It’s a very dangerous experiment and could very easily be detrimental to rhino.” Bell said the government’s economic argument was naive, as no one knew the parameters of the illegal rhino horn trade, so could not say what the effect of selling the stockpile would be. “The reality is no one would be able to control it. The Chinese are not able to control the legal ivory trade. In China syndicates are already stockpiling ivory and horn for investment, as a hedge fund on future demands,” Bell said. Legalising the trade could put more horn into the hands of syndicates, who would hoard it to control the price. International trade in rhino horn is banned under Cites. However the government will ask Cites at its meeting in 2016 to sanction a once-off sale of the 16 347kg government rhino horn stockpile and the 2 091kg stockpile in private hands.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 10:53:02 +0000