Friday, 27 November 2015

South Africa lifts ban on domestic trade in rhino horn

A full bench of the High Court in Pretoria has the overturned government's moratorium on rhino
horn trading because there was not enough public consultation, and has also made a decision to lift
the ban on the DOMESTIC rhino horn trade.

Judges Francis Legodi, Vivian Tlhapi and Myron Dewrance granted an order to two of South
Africa's largest rhino breeders, John Hume and Johan Krüger, to set aside the moratorium which
has been in place since 2009.

A couple of questions spring immediately to mind.

Who is going to buy the rhino horn locally and for what purpose?

If Asian buyers were allowed to come into the country and buy it, what would they do with it 
since commercial international trade in rhino horn is still prohibited in terms of the 
provisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)?

It seems to me that it would be illegal for them to take it out of the country. But since they
are adept at smuggling whole horns across the border I would say it would be a piece of cake
for them to hide some ground up horn and disappear it.

This is truly stupid. Has nothing been learned from the knock on effects of previous 
elephant ivory sales which were meant to flood the market and depress the price. Some people
will be gleefully rubbing their hands together already.




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