Should rhinos be 'farmed' for their horns?
A version of this post originally appeared on the blog. The views expressed are the author's own.聽
This year has had a bad beginning with respect to the preservation of Africa鈥檚 remaining rhino populations.
罢丑别听聽announced that by Jan. 17, some 37 rhinos had been killed in South Africa. According to the Jan. 31聽,聽over 1,600 have been killed worldwide in the past two years. There could be fewer than聽聽rhino left worldwide.
Conservationists, activists, governments, and many others are putting forward resources, manpower, and strategies to combat this聽.
The South African government made a聽聽for conservation and anti-poaching strategy submissions. One strategy that is receiving increasing attention is the possibility of legalizing the trade in rhino horn 鈥� of farming rhinos 鈥� to feed the growing demand in Asia.
The debate is necessary, but so is caution. Should the door of legal trade be opened, it could prove impossible to close; even if it backfires on conservation efforts.
A recent聽, commissioned by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and published in November 2013, will fuel debate over the pros and cons, and the known and unknown consequences of legalizing the trade in rhino horn. Already the proposal has聽.
The fundamental argument of the report is that there are too many unknowns about legalizing the trade; more research is necessary. Legalizing could flood the market with legal horn and at the same time聽.
Or, it could work as advocates intend and undercut illegal horn prices, driving poachers and traders out of business; we just don鈥檛 know.
Given the outrage over the聽聽for a black rhino hunt in Namibia, and the continued anger over Spanish聽鈥� Botswana elephant hunt -- popular opinion, in the West at least, is firmly against legalization.
There are strong arguments that the聽聽of 102 tons of elephant ivory to Chinese and Japanese traders in 2008 fueled the explosive expansion of the ivory trade in Asia, a trade which currently feeds the serious escalation of elephant poaching in Africa. The legal ivory provided the very聽聽for illegal ivory it was intended to undercut.
Given the currently numerous and growing initiatives聽, for聽, and for聽聽of rhino horn to information on its lack of medicinal properties and the horror of its trade -- perhaps the strongest arguments against legalization are its unpredictable consequences.
And then there is the unfortunate precedent of the bad consequences of the legal sale of ivory.
Emily Mellgard is a research associate for the Council on Foreign Relations Africa Studies program.
