Roundup: Calls emerge at CITES for legalizing trade in rhino horns

Calls for legalizing trade in rhino horns emerged on Wednesday at the ongoing world wildlife conference.

Swaziland, together with some other countries, submitted an 11th-hour proposal asking to be permitted to introduce a limited, regulated trade in rhino horn, during the 17th Conference of Parties (Cop17) to the the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

"We need to show our support for Swaziland's proposal because the CITES ban on trade has clearly not helped to save the rhino," said Pelham Jones, chairman of the Private Rhino Owners Association (PROA) in South Africa.

Rhinos are facing the real possibility of extinction, with 100,000 rhino having been poached since 1977 when the CITES trade ban came into effect, according to the PROA.

Some 23 African range states have lost all their rhino and only a handful of southern African countries remain custodians of the white rhino, the organization said.

"Our militaristic approach has not worked -- rhino are being killed on a daily basis, as are people trying to protect them. We have to find a better solution," Jones said.

In attempting to have the ban on international trade of rhino horn overturned, Swaziland is to be commended for its bold gambit, said Jones.

The plight of the white rhino is one of the major topics at the conference in Johannesburg.

The PROA has published a document calling for the legalization of trade in rhino horn, authored by a number of conservation experts, scientists, economists and individuals responsible for protecting rhino on a daily basis.

Jones said private rhino owners are increasingly having to sell their rhinos because they can no longer afford to look after them.

"A rhino owner wrote to me to tell me she had to sell her car to buy food for them because they cannot graze freely on the property due to the poaching risk," he said.

"She took her children out of private school simply to pay for rhino security. This is the reality on the ground," Jones said.

Jones said he believed that the Swaziland proposal will, at the very least, ignite debate about rhino horn trade.

"The NGOs at CoP17 do not own rhino and have no risk exposure, so it is easy for them to condemn legal trade as a model for conservation," he said.

Two-thirds of the 182 countries represented at CITES will have to vote in favour of abolishing the ban on trade for the Swaziland motion to be passed. Endit