IUCN 9 Jul 09;
Rhino poaching worldwide is poised to hit a 15-year-high driven by Asian demand for horns, according to new research.
Poachers in Africa and Asia are killing an ever increasing number of rhinos—an estimated two to three a week in some areas—to meet a growing demand for horns believed in some countries to have medicinal value, according to a briefing to a key international wildlife trade body by WWF, IUCN and their affiliated wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC.
An estimated three rhinos were illegally killed each month in all of Africa from 2000-05, out of a population of around 18,000. In contrast, 12 rhinoceroses now are being poached each month in South Africa and Zimbabwe alone, the three groups told the 58th Standing Committee meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species Standing Committee, meeting this week in Geneva.
“Rhino populations in both Africa and Asia are being seriously threatened by poaching and illegal trade,” says Dr Jane Smart, Director of IUCN’s Biodiversity Conservation Group. “IUCN and its African and Asian Rhino Specialist Groups are working hard to gather data and information on rhinos so that CITES parties can make informed decisions and ensure that rhinos are still here for generations to come.”
“Illegal rhino horn trade to destinations in Asia is driving the killing, with growing evidence of involvement of Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai nationals in the illegal procurement and transport of rhino horn out of Africa,” the briefing states.
Meanwhile, rhino poaching is also problematic in Asia. About 10 rhinos have been poached in India and at least seven in Nepal since January alone—out of a combined population of only 2,400 endangered rhinos.
“Rhinos are in a desperate situation,” says Dr. Susan Lieberman, Director of the Species Programme, WWF-International. “This is the worst rhino poaching we have seen in many years and it is critical for governments to stand up and take action to stop this deadly threat to rhinos worldwide. It is time to crack down on organized criminal elements responsible for this trade, and to vastly increase assistance to range countries in their enforcement efforts.”
Almost all rhino species are listed in CITES (the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) in Appendix I, which means that any international trade of any rhino parts for commercial purposes is illegal.
“Increased demand for rhino horn, alongside a lack of law enforcement, a low level of prosecutions for poachers who are actually arrested and increasingly daring attempts by poachers and thieves to obtain the horn is proving to be too much for rhinos and some populations are seriously declining,” says Steven Broad, Executive Director of TRAFFIC.
The situation is particularly dire in Zimbabwe where such problems are threatening the success of more than a decade’s work of bringing rhino populations back to healthy levels.
For example, earlier this week a park ranger arrested with overwhelming evidence against him for having killed three rhinos in the Chipinge Safari Area, was acquitted without any satisfactory explanation for the verdict. Similarly, in September 2008, a gang of four Zimbabwean poachers who admitted to killing 18 rhinos were also freed in a failed judiciary process.
The briefing concludes that governments need “an accurate and up-to-date picture of the status, conservation and trade in African and Asian rhinoceroses, as well as the factors driving the consumption of rhinoceros horn, so that firm international action can be taken to arrest this immediate threat to rhinoceros populations worldwide.”
The 58th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee is being held in Geneva from 6 -10 July. This issue will be further discussed at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES, which will be held in Doha, Qatar March 13-25, 2010.
To read the full briefing, http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/status__conservation_and_trade_in_african_and_asian_rhinoceroses.pdf
For further information:
* Sarah Horsley, Media Relations Officer, IUCN, sarah.horsley@iucn.org, +41 22 999 0127.
* Sarah Janicke, Species Communications Manager, WWF International, sjanicke@wwfint.org, +41 79 528 8641.
* Richard Thomas, Global Communications Co-ordinator, TRAFFIC, Richard.thomas@traffic.org, +44 1223 279068.
Poachers pushing rhinos to extinction-nature groups
Robert Evans, Reuters 9 Jul 09;
GENEVA (Reuters) - Poachers seeking horn for traditional medicines are driving once thriving populations of rhinos in Africa and Asia towards extinction, global nature protection groups said on Thursday.
In a report issued in Geneva, they said illegal slaughter of the already endangered animals is rising fast, with rates hitting a 15-year high amid stepped-up activities by Asian-based criminal gangs feeding the demand for horn.
"Illegal rhino horn trade to destinations in Asia is driving the killing, with growing evidence of involvement of Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai nationals in the illegal procurement and transport of the horn out of Africa," the report declared.
"Rhinos are in a desperate situation," said Susan Lieberman of the Swiss-based environmental body WWF-International, which issued the report together with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The report, presented to a meeting of the United Nations- sponsored CITES agency which works to prevent trade in endangered species, said South Africa and Zimbabwe were seeing a particular surge in poaching.
While between 2000 and 2005 a relatively low total of three rhinos were estimated to have been illegally killed each month in Africa out of a total population of some 18,000, 12 were now being slaughtered monthly in the two countries alone.
In India, 10 of the animals had been slaughtered for horn since January and at least 7 in Nepal, out of a total population for the two countries of just 2,400, the report said.
In many Asian countries, rhino horn has long been regarded as a vital ingredient in folk cures for many illnesses as well as for male sexual impotency, although medical specialists say it has no healing or potency powers.
Trade in any rhino parts is banned under the international CITES treaty, the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
But the WWF's Lieberman said the upsurge marks "the worst rhino poaching for many years" and represents a deadly threat to the animals' survival around the world.
It was time for governments "to crack down on organised criminal elements responsible for this trade, and to vastly increase assistance to (rhino) range countries in their enforcement efforts," she added.
Steve Broad, who heads the TRAFFIC network that works with WWF and IUCN in monitoring wildlife trade, said a lack of law enforcement and a low level of prosecutions of arrested poachers was making the situation worse.
"Increasingly daring attempts by poachers and thieves to obtain the horn is proving to be too much for rhinos, and some populations are seriously declining," he declared.
'15-year high' for rhino poaching
BBC News 9 Jul 09;
Rhino poaching around the world is set to reach a 15-year high, conservation groups have warned.
They say demand for the threatened animals' horns is being driven by the traditional medicine trade in Asia.
The groups estimated that the number of rhinos being killed in southern Africa had risen four-fold in recent years.
The findings were presented at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in Geneva.
"Rhinos are in a desperate situation," said Heather Sohl, species policy officer for conservation group WWF.
"This is the worst rhino poaching we have seen in many years and it is critical for governments to stand up and take action."
The briefing, prepared by WWF, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Traffic, highlighted some of the threats facing the animals.
"Illegal rhino horn trade to destinations in Asia is driving the killing, with growing evidence of Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai nationals in the illegal procurement and transport of rhino horn out of Africa," it observed.
The document also said that rhino poaching was a problem in Asia itself, with evidence of about 10 of the animals being killed in India and a further seven being slaughtered in Nepal since January.
Conservationists fear that recent successes in stablising rhino populations over the past decade are being undone by the upsurge in poaching.
"Increasingly daring attempts by poachers and thieves to obtain the horn is proving to be too much for rhinos and some populations are seriously declining," warned Steven Broad, executive director of Traffic.
Under Cites, almost all rhino species fall within "Appendix I", which means that any international commercial trade in any rhino parts is outlawed.
The conservation groups said it was vital for the international community to get an "accurate and up-to-date picture on the status, conservation and trade in African and Asian rhinos".
Dr Jane Smart, director of the IUCN's Biodiversity Conservation Group, added: "IUCN and its African and Asian Rhino Specialist Groups are working hard to gather data and information on rhinos so that Cites parties can make informed decisions and ensure that rhinos are still here for generations to come."
More Rhinos Hacked Apart as Horn Demand Spikes
John Roach, National Geographic News 13 Jul 09;
Bloody and incomplete, their horns hacked away by poachers, rhinoceros carcasses are appearing in greater numbers, due to growing Asian demand and international trade, groups say.
In Zimbabwe, for example, gangs of poachers use rifles to shoot the one-ton animals and then hack off the horns with axes, according to an account from Save the Rhino, a London-based conservation group.
Poachers target adults, often leaving behind calves that are too young to survive on their own, the group added.
Investigators say two phenomena are largely to blame: rising demand for rhino horn as medicine and ornamentation plus increasing sophistication among crime rings happy to meet that demand.
"It's a dangerous spike," said Susan Lieberman, the species program director at the international conservation organization WWF.
"At this rate of poaching, we will lose rhino species."
In 2008, for example, an average of 12 rhinos a month were poached in South Africa and Zimbabwe alone.
By contrast, only three rhinos a month were killed, on average, in all of Africa between 2000 and 2005. The African rhino population is currently around 21,500, according to figures compiled by Save the Rhino.
In Asia an estimated ten rhinos this year have been poached in India and seven in Nepal since January (Indian rhinoceros pictures, facts, map, more). The combined rhino population in Asia is approximately 3,050.
Together with the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC, WWF detailed the killings at a meeting on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 9. The convention bans the international commercial trade of almost all rhino species.
Ground up and added to liquids, rhino horn has been used for millennia in traditional Asian medicine to treat fevers and other ailments, Lieberman said.
Now the belief that rhino horn can cure cancer is apparently taking root, fueling some of the new demand.
"There is some mythology developing in Vietnam because somebody took rhino horn and went into cancer remission, or at least that is the information we're getting," Lieberman said.
"But it is not, and never was, a cure for cancer."
In addition, there's a lucrative market in Yemen and Oman for daggers with rhino-horn handles—often given to boys during rites of passage—said Cathy Dean, director of Save the Rhino.
Asian Appetite, African Menu
Growing wealth in Asia and increasing Asian-African trade also appear to be driving up demand for rhino horn.
"There seems to be evidence that the growing Far Eastern footprint in Africa has led to local spikes in poaching," Dean said.
For example, there's a correlation between Chinese roadbuilding contractors in northern Kenya and a spike in rhino killings there, she said.
The cost of protecting rhinos is also spiking, she added.
A Save the Rhino partner organization in Kenya was recently forced to increase its payments to antipoaching informants, because the poachers were paying larger bribes, Dean said.
Lax law enforcement in Zimbabwe is of particular concern, WWF's Lieberman added.
But in many countries—such as Botswana in Africa as well as Nepal and India in Asia—officials are simply being outmatched by well-financed, sophisticated poaching operations.
"This is the most dangerous [wildlife] trade right now, because it involves organized crime," Lieberman said. "This isn't the case of someone smuggling a few [products] across the border."
Combating the Trade
Some overwhelmed countries could benefit from hands-on help from countries such as the U.S. to stem the trade, Lieberman said.
Other countries such as China are competent at undercover investigations and simply need to make stopping wildlife crime a priority, she added.
For its part, Save the Rhino is focusing on raising the value of living rhinos and their habitat in the eyes of local communities.
Ecotourism operations are one way to increase the local value of rhinos, though Save the Rhino's Dean said the tourism trade is too fickle to guarantee a steady income.
Other avenues include trophy hunting, breeding-compensation programs, and sustainable "harvesting" of the animals, with the proceeds returned to rhino conservation, she said.
"Local communities have to have a say in rhino habitats that they manage," Dean said. "They need to see some form of economic reward and incentive."
Though the outlook is grim, WWF's Lieberman remains optimistic.
"There was significant poaching—almost at this level—15 years ago," she said. "It can be turned around with high-level government commitment and enforcement."
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