So now, after the Ivory disaster of 2008 South Africa wants to legalise the trade in Rhino horn

In 2008, because South Africa’s elephant herds were growing, South Africa, along with Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, was permitted under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to sell its stockpiled ivory, accumulated from natural deaths and managed culls, to “accredited traders” in China and Japan.

It’s now generally agreed that the sales were poorly designed and executed, and rekindled a dwindling market and opened the doors for illegal ivory to be laundered along with the legal sale.
Moreover, South Africa has since been suspected of misappropriation of funds raised from its sale.


A public hearing will take place on 25 and 26 March near Johannesburg to discuss the legalised trade in rhino horn.

Let's face it, someone somewhere wants to get their hands on the cash from the sale of the estimated $1 billon stockpile of rhino horn that the government holds. They are prepared to ignore the lessons of history to achieve this.

Rhinos are in more than enough trouble as it is without the trade being stimulated by the sale of yet more horn.

We all know that manageing it properly would cease to happen as soon as the twin scourges of greed and corruption became involved, regardless of what was promised.