African Wildlife Foundation opposes legalization of rhino horn trade

African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) has voiced its opposition to the legalization of rhino trade, saying the move might drive rhinos toward extinction.

AWF senior director of conservation science, Philip Muruthi, warned that any move to legalize the trade in rhino horn will do more harm than good.

"Legalizing trade in a product belonging to an animal that is highly threatened would prove disastrous and accelerate rather than curtail rhino poaching in all of Africa," Muruthi on Wednesday said in a statement issued in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

His remarks come as a committee of inquiry established by South Africa's Department of Environmental Affairs begun hearing expert testimony on the subject of legalizing the rhino horn trade as the country, home to more than 80 percent of the world's rhinos, grapples with a rhino poaching crisis.

Based on its own investigation and testimony given by experts at a three-day meeting, the committee will eventually make recommendations on whether South Africa, a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), should submit a proposal to legalize rhino horn trade at CITES' 17th Conference of Parties to be held in Cape Town in 2016.

Muruthi cautioned that the legalization could be interpreted as an endorsement of the erroneous belief that the horn contains medicinal properties.

A rhino's horn is made up of keratin, the same material found in human hair and nails.

Consumers in many Asian countries, however, believe it can cure everything, from headache to cancer.

"If legalization is perceived as an endorsement, it could stimulate rather than reduce demand," Muruthi said.

He said there are fewer than 25,000 rhinos remaining in Africa, compared to the tens of millions of existing and prospective rhino horn consumers in demand countries.

"Hence, there is no realistic scope for achieving a sustainable balance between the supply of and demand for rhino horn," Muruthi said.

Based on the experience with the elephant ivory trade over the last 25 years, legalization as a strategy has proven ineffective in stopping elephant poaching, Muruthi said.

According to the charity, given CITES' one-country/one-vote procedure and the rhino's highly threatened status, a proposal to legalize rhino horn trade is very unlikely to pass. Endi