Tony Carnie
South Africa’s seven-year-old ban on selling rhino horn has been lifted in the aftermath of a court case involving the world’s biggest private rhino breeder.
The decision means that rhino horns can now be bought and sold again within South Africa, subject to permits, even though it remains illegal for them to be traded internationally in terms of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).
Mpumalanga rhino breeder John Hume, who owns more than 1 100 rhino and has an estimated stockpile of four tons of horns, managed to overturn the ban last November following a case in the Pretoria High Court – but the moratorium remained in force pending a legal appeal by the Environmental Affairs Ministry.
However, the Supreme Court of Appeal has now refused leave to appeal against the high court decision, thereby allowing horns to be sold legally again for the first time since February 2009.
Hume and other rhino owners argue that the moratorium fuelled the dramatic increase in rhino poaching since 2008.
Hume confirmed yesterday he planned to apply for permits to sell a limited number of horns, but said the Department of Environment Affairs had yet to respond on whether it planned to consider further legal action or initiate a fresh moratorium process.
Roger Porter, former head of conservation planning for Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, said he was concerned the government still did not have the necessary checks and balances in place to prevent horns being smuggled out of the country illegally.
Dr Colman O’Criodain, a wildlife trade policy analyst for WWF, said: “It is hard to see any positive benefits from lifting the moratorium on domestic trade in rhino horn, particularly at a time when rhino poaching figures are at record highs.”