Do something before last rhino falls

We're likely to have to say goodbye to the last rhino in 2026, says Braam Malherbe, pictured here with a baby rhino.

We're likely to have to say goodbye to the last rhino in 2026, says Braam Malherbe, pictured here with a baby rhino.

Published Sep 22, 2014

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Amid the haggling about legalising the trade in horn, and the government pussyfooting around politics, the poachers are winning, says Braam Malherbe.

Cape Town - With the price of rhino horn fetching more per kilogram than platinum and gold together and well over 3 000 rhino corpses piling up in just the past six years, we’re likely to say goodbye to the last rhino in 2026.

This is a great unacknowledged war of consumerism versus conservation. And with a war on our hands, we have to change our tactics if we don’t want to lose an entire species at the altar of bling. Because, in spite of the general perception that rhino horn is used in medicine – which it is – much of it is also turned into tchotchkes, the way ivory used to be. Rhino horn bangles, for instance, are a highly valued status symbol.

While for years I was vehemently opposed to legalising the trade in rhino horn, I now see no reason not to at least test the market with natural mortality horn and possibly with registered dehorned stockpiles.

It would have to be done under strict conditions, including keeping the price high. Currently, 1kg of rhino horn is valued at $90 000 (R9.9 million), and one rhino can supply an average of 3kg. Rhinos can safely be dehorned 10 to 12 times in their lifetime with no ill effects to the animal.

However, this is not the only way to approach this endless, exhausting battle for the survival of a species, and I remain committed to the ideals of a holistic approach. This should include education of the end users who must be made aware of the devastating effects of the demand for a commodity culled from live animals.

Yet, while we conservationists haggle among ourselves about whether legalising trade is right, and the government pussyfoots around the politics of sharing a 350km porous border with Mozambique, through which poachers troop unabated, we are losing not a battle, but the war.

If it is war we’re engaged in, we’re going to need to change the rules of engagement on the battlefield. In most situations in which someone enters a country illegally, steals its most valuable commodity and resists arrest, that person would be apprehended by whatever means are necessary.

Instead, the rangers who have to try to keep the rhino massacre at bay in the Kruger National Park – where about 65 percent of the 3 000 rhinos poached since 2008 were killed – have to be within arm’s reach of a poacher in order to arrest him. He may not shoot unless the enemy shoots first, which they don’t do, knowing that their chances of escape are good.

In the wide, open spaces of the veld it’s hardly possible to sneak up to a band of poachers without being noticed – there are usually three of them and there are up to 15 such bands in the park at any one time.

There were 108 sightings of poachers by rangers last year, but fewer than 10 people could be arrested. Only a few of those were prosecuted. The others, who are out on bail, have not been seen since.

Have I mentioned that we’re losing a war here?

While I have formally called on the minister of environmental affairs to urgently change the rules of engagement between rangers and poachers in the Kruger Park, I am aware that there are millions of people who feel powerless to help. I would urge them not to succumb to the temptation of doing nothing because they are overwhelmed, but to do at least one well-considered thing.

Without the continued support of public – even if they are only giving their small change – we cannot win this war. Conservation without money is conversation, as Anton Rupert once put it, and to save rhinos we need every cent we can get.

If you really care about rhinos, then make 100 percent sure that the way in which you are donating your money – whether it is a small or a large amount, regular or erratic – will have a direct effect on rhino conservation.

Make sure that the charities claiming to support rhino conservation are squeaky-clean. I have embraced two ways of collecting money: the My Planet card – which costs consumers nothing but raises about R100 000 a month for conservation – and Relate Bracelets, which is a 100 percent not-for-profit organisation.

Using a third of the profits from the sale of its Endangered Wildlife Trust bracelets, Relate has so far collected more than R350 000 for rhino conservation. Another third of the profits go towards earning and upskilling opportunities for local men and women who make the bracelets and are invested into creating enterprise development initiatives. The final third is used for materials and running costs.

There are organisations and money-collecting charities like these which are single-minded in their desire to get all the small change donated from a caring public right up to the front line in this war. Don’t get fooled and conned into donating money to anyone who manipulates this worthy cause to rake in money that is either squandered or misspent.

That rhinos are dying is an economic problem. It requires an economic solution. Legalising the trade in rhino horn is the possible big-picture economic solution and it should be pursued, though with care, caution and due diligence.

The small economic picture is you and your small change.

I believe in the DOT principle – it stands for Do One Thing. However overwhelmed you feel, do just one thing. Choose that one thing with care, but do it.

* Braam Malherbe is director of the Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Newspapers.

Cape Argus

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