Call for SA to sell rhino horn stock
RHINO experts have called on Parliament to open rhino horn trading beyond South African borders to allow wildlife farmers to sell their stockpiles.
Parliament’s portfolio committee on environmental affairs yesterday heard that the country might have stockpiles which can sustain the wildlife industry for close to 10 years if sold to international markets.
Conservationist Alan Sara told the committee allowing individuals to trade their rhino horn stockpiles would benefit communities.
“There are two huge opportunities in the rhino industry for the government that they have to take with both hands.
“The wildlife industry last year made R80 billion. It produced more than the beef industry in South Africa,” said Sara.
The Department of Environmental Affairs’ deputy director, Shonisani Munzhedzi, told the committee 518 rhinos were killed last year, with a decrease as compared to 2016 where 680 rhinos were killed.
Between April 1 and December 31 last year‚ the Hawks arrested 16 level 3 to 4 local buyers and exporters of wildlife traffickers of South-East Asian‚ South African, Mozambican, Zimbabwean and Kenyan origin. Members of the Private Rhino Owners Association facilitates rhino horn trading in the country.
The organisation assists both buyers and sellers of legal horns with compliance, the Financial Intelligence Centre Act and verification of permits.
Sara said the only sustainable use of the rhino horn would be to allow its trade into the international market.
“We have enough stockpiles in South Africa to filter into the international market to control the price of rhino horns for 10 years without de-horning a rhino.
“Natural deaths of rhinos is high… You can harvest that horn, if we are allowed to sell that horn, get the wealth. That wealth can go to conservation and also be distributed to the community,” it said.
The committee was also briefed by the Department of Environmental Affairs on its initiatives to curb the killing of rhinos and wildlife trafficking.
Munzhedzi said they were familiarising themselves with domestic trading and protecting the endangered species.
“We have been adjudicating a number of permits and dealing with sales and buyers. We are putting through legislations to manage this space. Some of the things were new to us to deal with and we needed to manage and put protocols to that effect.
“We have (to) tighten the requirements for trading, especially domestically. We have tightened DNA analysis to make sure that things are in the database and profile proof of acquisitions,” Munzhedi said.