WildLife Group
of the SAVA
whole. Dehorning is an option that could really get
local communities involved in conservation.
Unfortunately, for poor people, the “if it pays it stays”
principle is a reality. Horn trade can create jobs,
alleviate poverty, and in the end farm workers, rangers
and the local communities will protect the rhino out
of their own will.
This can lead to the protection of suitable habitat,
habitat that is so vital for many other species,
some equally and even more threatened, but not
considered ‘important’. Dehorning is easily achieved
in smaller populations like small game reserves and
private game ranches.
With a combined effort dehorning is quite achievable
even in larger national and provincial parks. If we
adopt the trade regulations that a third of the money
generated from sale goes to the farmer or reserve,
a third to the local communities and a third to
government then this would be a benefit to everyone.
The private game farmer can use that money to buy
more land, buy more rhino and fund rhino security.
Conservation areas can plough their money straight
back into rhino protection by employing more rangers,
paying them better salaries etc. The farm workers,
rangers and local communities that now benefit from
rhino (wildlife) will now help conserve the rhino, their
habitat and other wildlife on these game farms and
protected areas. Government can use the muchneeded income to build better roads, schools and
hospitals.
If we are to conserve rhino and wildlife in general
we have to give ownership to local communities. It
is important not to just give these communities the
money generated from the sale of the horn, but they
must be involved first hand.
They must not own a third of the rhino in an area, but
rather a third of each rhino. Thus if a single rhino is
poached in the area, they also loose. In the end these
communities will be driving the protection of these
rhino.
20
On smaller game farms and reserves the decision
could be made to dehorn all the rhino every few years
or stagger the dehorning of individual rhino over
time. Within bigger conservation areas like national
and provincial parks only a percentage of rhino need
to be dehorned every year in order to generate
income that would far exceed any form of tourism,
government or donor funding, this without having the
entire rhino population dehorned and effecting the
tourism. This will however only be achievable after a
few years when the poaching is under control. With
more money going to conservation this is definitely
possible, even by having a large percentage of horned
animals.
We must not fool ourselves into thinking the rhino
horn supply, even if we sell all stock piles and dehorn
every single rhino in Africa, will ever be enough to
flood the market, fill the demand and bring down
the value of rhino horn. If each Chinese person only
consumes 0.1 gram of horn each year, we would still
need an astronomical 130 tonnes of horn each year
to satisfy their demand. But what legal trade can do is
to increase the risk for the poacher. Why risk your life
when there is a much easier way of acquiring horn?
Poachers will convert to anti-poachers/rangers, and
there is no better ranger than a converted poacher.
There are few things as magnificent as a rhino with
a beautiful set of horn. But there are few things as
sad as a dead rhino, with its horns hacked of, and the
horns in the hands of the poachers and syndicates.
We need to change this before it is too late.
*I took the liberty of naming this ‘refined’ method
after colleagues and conservationists Drs Pete Morkel
and Mike Kock. These two men have helped save a fair
number of rhino through dehorning. Morkel and his
team were the first to dehorn rhino in Namibia.
They used a handsaw to remove the horns back in
those days… Kock and his Zimbabwean team learnt
from Morkel, but after taking several hours to dehorn
a big bull, they decided on a more drastic approach.
Kock was the first to dehorn rhino with a chainsaw
in order to shorten the immobilization period and
improve the survivability of these rhino.)