Legalizing trade in rhino horn?

KZN to push for rhino-horn trade
http://www.zululandobserver.co.za/Pages/m08story2.html

STORY: Vivien van der Sandt

KZN Wildlife authorities are to push for the legitimisation of trade in rhino horn, Dr Bandile Mkhize said last week. The CEO of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife was speaking at a function at Thula Thula Private Game Reserve. He said Ezemvelo was preparing a submission for Cites, due in September. ‘The solution (to the rhino-poaching problem) is to legalise the trade in rhino horn,’ he said. ‘We have to lobby. We have to convince government at national level. ‘We are going to run with this.’
The province had the support of conservationist Ian Player, and that was important as he had been instrumental in saving the rhino from extinction in the 1960s. Mkhize spoke of the difficulties of smashing the illegal trade. ‘The sophistication of the syndicates involved is amazing, as is the money involved,’ Mkhize said, mentioning in particular the use of night-vision equipment and helicopters. ‘One kilogram of horn is worth R650 000. The average rhino horn weighs five to six kilograms. So you can work out what that horn is worth,’ he said. He said there were five levels involved in the rhino-poaching network.
Law enforcement agencies often apprehended the bottom levels - one, two and three - that is, the poachers, the transporters, the sellers, and so on. But they could not crack the top levels, four and five. ‘Big businessmen are involved,’ he said. ‘They use people on the ground to do it. ‘What we do know is that all horns go to Gauteng. Whether they are poached in KZN or even if they are taken to Maputo first, they all end up in Gauteng. And from there, they just disappear.’ Mkhize’s views were not unanimously accepted, with members of the audience challenging his statement that flooding the market with rhino horn would stop the illegal trade and poaching.
Yvette Taylor, Executive Director of The Earth Organization said: ‘China has over a billion people, Vietnam has about 90 million. ‘How are we going to ‘flood the market’ and supply them all?’ Rhino are currently listed on Appendix 11 at CITES, an appendix that protects species that are not considered threatened with extinction but that may become so unless trade is closely controlled. The 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to Cites will be held 3-15 March 2013 in Thailand. The number of dead rhino in Zululand alone has risen by at least six in the past 10 days.
Members of the Richards Bay Organised Crime Combating Unit are investigating after two white rhino were found dead and dehorned near Mpila in the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Park 10 days ago. Last Sunday at a private Game Lodge near Hluhluwe, a mother and calf were shot and their horns removed. Two male rhinos were found dead at Ndumo Reserve on Thursday, apparently as a result of fighting. However, the horns had been removed from the carcasses.