http://www.news24.com/MyNews24...e-the-Rhino-20131010


How I would save the Rhino

There is a solution. I have spent a great deal of time thinking about how to save the Rhino. Our current methods just aren’t working. I have spoken to conservationists and other people alike, and this is my idea, different to mainstream ideas, but after much debating with people, I really feel it will work.

Before I share the idea, these are the points we have to consider:

1. We need to level the financial playing field. Currently, the poachers have all the financing behind them. This has to change or we are doomed.

2. We need Government buy in, big time, and the only way to do this is to make it worth their while.

3. We need to think about whether the CITES ban is helping the Rhino, or hurting the Rhino.

4. We need buy in from the people in the parks.

5. We need buy in from the rural communities surrounding the parks.

6. We need to analyse who has the power to help; and

7. This one is the most difficult. We need buy in from those who actually sell the stuff to the final consumer, and show them how this can benefit them!

The idea is very simple and also sustainable, and even profitable. Here goes:

a) Make it a law that whenever a Rhino dies (preferably naturally), the horn must be sold to one shop, and one shop only. This shop could be run by, say, the EWT.

b) Calculate a price per gram of horn which really makes it worthwhile for Private Game Parks as well as National Game Parks to bring their horns to this shop.

c) Don’t pay all the proceeds to the park. Split it so that some of the proceeds can go to the rural community surrounding the park. Build something tangible which the community can see and learn to love and enjoy!

d) Also, encourage the park to pay a small fee to the ranger who found the horn, so that the ranger is not tempted to do anything else with that horn.

e) Then, (this is important), sell the horn at a 20% mark up directly to the traditional medicine guys in China, undercutting the price they currently pay (thereby making it worth their while to rather buy from the EWT.)

f) From the 20% mark up in point (e) above, half should go to government (similar to a tax, to get their buy in) and half to the EWT.

The percentages etc. can be thought through further to ensure the money goes straight back into conservation. This solution could bring more money into conservation than we have ever seen before.

Some additional points and options:

· I have thought about de-horning all Rhino’s. It might work, but in the long run it may not be the best solution. For sure we would rather see living Rhino’s without horns, than dead Rhino’s without horns, but I think my solution above is better.

· I have thought about using the military on the ground. It won’t work. They earn so little. It’s not inconceivable that these people could become the biggest poachers. They have guns, in the park, where the Rhino’s are. It’s a recipe for corruption.

· I have thought about shooting poachers on site, but really, and this is difficult, what you actually want to do is to watch them do the deed (as difficult as what it is), and then track them!

· Why not involve the air force? They could do reconnaissance flights high above the park without the poachers being aware.

· Ask the US military for a favour - Put their drones to some positive use and help us track the poachers from high above. It could be good practice for them...

Impregnate a radioactive element in the horn which will not harm the rino but is poison and will cause death if injested.

CLONE rhino horn; alligator, croc, tiger, leopard,
cheetah, jaguar hide; elephant tusk; etc. and flood
the illegal markets. PROFIT MARGIN is what drives
the poaching. NO PROFIT - poaching ends essentially...

quote:

Originally posted by D R Hunter:
CLONE rhino horn; alligator, croc, tiger, leopard,
cheetah, jaguar hide; elephant tusk; etc. and flood
the illegal markets. PROFIT MARGIN is what drives
the poaching. NO PROFIT - poaching ends essentially...

The best idea I've ever heard on the subject. Why has nobody thought of this before? What am I missing? It could be done easily enough, right?

Guys

Only oneway to do it bugger cites let us sell all the rhino horn thats stack in safes all over south africa parksboar and zim everywhere and flood the market.

Luan

I still think that they should simply put toxins in the horn and kill a few horn worshipers.
Nothing like a few dead ones to slow the trade

My 2 cents worth,

We are sitting in a high risk high reward situation with the poachers, at this stage he is willing to risk his life for a pay day, and some of these Guys have not worked in 10 years and see this as a way out,

The poachers on the ground are getting more in their pockets than they could make in 3 years of labour work,

The tables need to turn where it becomes a High Risk Low reward, only way to do this is to legalise trade in Horn and flood the market with Free Horn, not cheap horn

There is more than 20 000kg of Rhino Horn in Government safes, this equates to around 2857 adult Rhino,

Nobody will risk there life for a Rhino horn if they will not benefit from it financially

This should be put into the market at a slow pace let’s say 1000 per year,

This will give you almost 3 years to set up a business plan with Local Rural farmers that have been given land by government,

These are the same people that are the poachers today,
Regards

JK

One problem with all these plans - the greenies won't go for it.

Much as they boast and bellow about wanting to stop illegal trade, bad things happening fills their coffers with donations. And it still involves animal "use" which greenies wear as a badge of honor to protest against.

Who the hell is Steven Thomas and why should anyone care what he thinks.

Inject any rhino horn that is confiscated with arsenic and release it back on to the black market. Once a few of them hit the ground, word will spread and they will stop buying it.

Asians are not endangered, Rhinos are.

Problem solved.

Your welcome.

Maybe the Chinks ought to try Alprostadil instead - it would be a lot cheaper too !

We are actually in the process of producing a movie on this subject for the next CITES meeting in conjunction with the Hunter Proud Foundation, Dr. Ian Player and a number of other leading conservationists in South Africa.

Key to the success in the legal trade of rhino horn is going to be how it is sold. One of the ideas that has come up is the setting up of a central selling organization (CSO) much like De Beers did with the selling of diamonds. The price must be strictly controlled. The idea of an open auction system in order to "flood" the market will not work and will in fact be counter-productive as the case with the last ivory auction has shown.

Here is an interview with John Hulme, the largest private owner of white rhino in the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?f...bedded&v=3uGkQWJBe_Y

quote:

Originally posted by Hunting the Box H:
I still think that they should simply put toxins in the horn and kill a few horn worshipers.
Nothing like a few dead ones to slow the trade

It doesn't work with heroin, cocaine etc...

Guys

Will be a interesting program with john hulme just wondering why he sold some of his land to dawie groenewald.



Luan

How much goes to China and how much goes to Yemen and surrounding countries for dagger handles. I thought at one time the dagger handles created the most demand.

You wouldn't need too many guys after daggers with rhino horn to create a problem, Then imagine one percent of chinas growing wealthy population wanting some. Flooding the market would only slow the demand and then create the feeling that it must be ok.
Farming on the other hand.....

quote:

Originally posted by luan:
Guys

Will be a interesting program with john hulme just wondering why he sold some of his land to dawie groenewald .



Luan

That is a bloody good question!

I also don't reckon much of his (Mr Hulme) idea of giving rhino to the indigenous populations because I doubt they'd last more than a few days or so......... these people ain't exactly well known for their forward planning!

Bring all the rhino to south texas and keep them on high fenced game ranches.

quote:

Then imagine one percent of chinas growing wealthy population wanting some. Flooding the market would only slow the demand and then create the feeling that it must be ok.
Farming on the other hand.....

Exactly. And it is not just China, SE Asia also buys rhino horn.

The black rhino story is really sad. If rhino horn was viewed the same as buffalo horn or oryx horn, or any other antelope horn, there would probably be plenty of wild black rhinos in Africa.

I think it would be easier to colonize Mars than to permanently reestablish the black rhino to just 10% of its original range.

How about darting them and drilling a network of holes through the horns In every direction and lacing the horns cyanide, then sealing the surface with epoxy like firearms stock bedding compound and make it public knowledge that all rhino horns are poison! Making it law that the horns of legally hunted Rhino horn had to be so treated before it could leave the country where hunted.

Might seem a little drastic, but at least make people wary of using it!

...................................................................

Well, according to all the hate email I get over at the Dallas Safari Page it's the hunters that are actually driving these animals to extinction.

Oh, and hunting is illegal in Africa by the way.

Some people are just nuts!

How about simply darting the rhinos and sawing the horns off? There are not millions of animals out there. Then, just like coyotes, put a per head bounty on poachers. Put the bounty at the same price or slightly higher than what the poachers would receive for the horn. Let them start killing each other to collect the bounties.

quote:

Originally posted by Gayne C. Young:
Well, according to all the hate email I get over at the Dallas Safari Page it's the hunters that are actually driving these animals to extinction.

Oh, and hunting is illegal in Africa by the way.

Some The majority of people are just nuts!

There fixed it for you!

quote:

Originally posted by boerbokrib:


The idea is very simple and also sustainable, and even profitable. Here goes:

a) Make it a law that whenever a Rhino dies (preferably naturally) , the horn must be sold to one shop, and one shop only. This shop could be run by, say, the EWT.

b) Calculate a price per gram of horn which really makes it worthwhile for Private Game Parks as well as National Game Parks to bring their horns to this shop.

c) Don’t pay all the proceeds to the park. Split it so that some of the proceeds can go to the rural community surrounding the park. Build something tangible which the community can see and learn to love and enjoy!

d) Also, encourage the park to pay a small fee to the ranger who found the horn, so that the ranger is not tempted to do anything else with that horn.

e) Then, (this is important), sell the horn at a 20% mark up directly to the traditional medicine guys in China, undercutting the price they currently pay (thereby making it worth their while to rather buy from the EWT.)

The supply of horn one would get from Rhino that only die of 'natural causes' is small compared to real world sustained/incessant demand for rhino horn.
so, If I were a horn buyer/re-seller in Asia, I would not stop trying to get my horn supply from Rhino that were poached.
The level of consumer demand/opportunity for profit, makes it all so difficult to resist such temptation.

quote:

Originally posted by David Hulme:

quote:

Originally posted by D R Hunter:
CLONE rhino horn; alligator, croc, tiger, leopard,
cheetah, jaguar hide; elephant tusk; etc. and flood
the illegal markets. PROFIT MARGIN is what drives
the poaching. NO PROFIT - poaching ends essentially...

The best idea I've ever heard on the subject. Why has nobody thought of this before? What am I missing? It could be done easily enough, right?

The reality is, that Rhino horn fetches up to $100,000/kilo. (so a reasonable size horn can get you $300,000)

Rhino horn is in such high sustained demand, that the Rhino horn related industries in Asia also use horn from other animals, but sell it as Rhino.
Even that non-rhino product can fetch up to $15,000/kilo....simply because frenzied consumer demand for real Rhino horn cannot be satisfied.
Unfortunately, the market supply of non-Rhino horn for $15,000/kilo,.. has only had the effect of further fuelling a widespread buyer frenzy/increased demand,
for real Rhino horn.

If one floods the market with cloned Rhino horn, It may not stop the demand for horn,
but just make it much more afforable/available to a much greater part of the Asian population at large.

Look at it this way, the Asian beer companies sell much more beer & make much more money, selling a bottle of their product
at $1 to the Asian population/market, than they would if they attempted to sell it for several dollars more, per bottle.
I have seen quality 'Tiger' beer that sells for $1 in Asia, sell for like near $10 per bottle,outside of Asian countries.

The lowest common denomonator in Asia, is poverty. There a widespread mountain of it.
BUt if you can make horn (or beer), much more available/afforable in such a high populous market,
you would become not a multimillionaire, but more likely a billionaire.
Flooding the market with beer, drugs (or horn), can turn a seemingly big problem [or consumer market], into a potentially much larger one.

Hurt/scare the end user. Less demand less production.


Best-
Locksley,R