THE RHINO SERIES - The Big Legalisation Debate
In the first instalment of The Rhino Series we discussed the past and present of rhino poaching and took a look at the effect of COVID-19 on poaching stats. Now we’re going to get into the biggest debate potentially in the history of biodiversity conservation; whether to legalise the trade in rhino horn or not. There are few debates in this field that are as complex and controversial as this one. Trophy hunting and the lion bone trade come close but I think this problem is arguably the most divisive. The illegal trade in rhino horn is another one of those wicked problems, where solutions aren’t clear cut and any solution, including legalising the trade, could have unintended consequences and leaves so many questions. Ask almost anyone in southern Africa about this debate and they’ll have an opinion. So let’s break it down.
Where are we now?
The reason we’re in this situation in the first place is because the trade in rhino horn has been banned since the 1970s. Rhino horn is used in traditional Chinese medicine, in dagger handles in Yemen and as a status symbol in south-east Asia. Unfortunately, as we have discussed before, banning the trade in a product does not diminish the demand for it so often it just forces the supply underground. As such there are many who argue that banning the trade in rhino horn has had a negative effect on rhinos and their conservation. However, even with the loud audience who claim that the ban should be lifted, it appears that we still abide by the precautionary principle. CITES members have voted on this exact topic twice and both times the majority voted to keep the status quo. So all of the below arguments are hypothetical and scenarios are modelled rather than played out. All the information in this article comes from a few papers which have been published recently, you can find the details at the end.
Arguments for legalising the trade
Those in favour of legalising the trade say that the current status quo is failing rhinos and those tasked with protecting them. A key argument for the legalisation of this trade comes down to money. There is already a trade in place (albeit illegal), so why not legalise the trade, reduce the temptation for poaching, save anti-poaching units a lot of stress and sell our rhinos’ horns? The income from these horns could be used to support further rhino conservation and breeding programs as well as land protection. While many rhinos are found in government protected areas, there are a significant amount found on reserves and owned by land owners. Reserves fund their upkeep through tourism and trophy hunting. However, as costs increase, private land owners have argued that they would be able to collect a significant amount of revenue from the sales of the horns of rhino on their land if the trade was legalised. This money would also lead to greater tax revenues, meaning that the benefits of a legal trade would be spread further than simply the rhino and land owner. In particular this money could be used for socio-economic development in regions where poachers normally emerge from. But then a question arises straight away - would this not be an encroachment on wild biodiversity? What if, instead of using wild rhino horn, we started farming rhinos? White rhinos in particular will live happily together so logistically it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
can’t we just Farm Rhinos?
Legalisation proponents argue that essentially rhino horn is a renewable resource and that if we farm rhinos and safely harvest the horn for the trade we may no longer need to battle with poachers and this illegal industry. This scenario has played out before in the crocodile industry and it has worked well. This sounds good, so why would we not start farming rhinos? We farm cows for their meat, what’s the difference between a rhino and a cow?
“RHINO HORN IS COMPOSED ENTIRELY OF KERATIN AND REGROWS WHEN CUT. SEDATING A RHINO TO SHAVE ITS HORN CAN BE DONE FOR AS LITTLE AS $20. THE ANNUAL HORN PRODUCTION OF ONE WHITE RHINO AVERAGES 0.9 KG PER YEAR. THE CURRENT SPECULATIVE ESTIMATES OF THE DEMAND FOR HORN BASED ON THE ILLEGAL SUPPLY COULD THEREFORE BE MET BY THE 5000 WHITE RHINOS ON PRIVATE CONSERVATION LAND IN SOUTH AFRICA ALONE.”
Biggs et al. 2013
Well I’ve thought long and hard about this and I think it comes down to the fact that there are no wild cows that domestic cattle are saving from extinction. In the case of rhinos, the theory would be that we farm some to save the rest in the wild. But just like with lion bones and salmon, there is always a chance that wild rhinos may become more desired and therefore valuable, meaning that poaching of wild rhinos could re-emerge to supply this demand. Alongside this, within traditional Chinese medicine, there is a frankly sickening belief that if an animal suffered for its product to be harvested the potency of that product may be stronger. So the desire for ethically and sustainably farmed rhino horn may not be as high as we think. It could seem that the problems with farming rhinos may be enough to prevent the legalisation of the rhino horn trade, but there are other aspects which need to be considered first before we even make plans of how to legalise the trade. What follows are just some of the many questions which pick holes in the pro-legalisation camp.
how would legalisation change the DEMAND for rhino horn?
Firstly, how do we even know if the demand for rhino horn would stay the same if the trade in it was legalised? There are many who argue that it wont. I mentioned above that we can’t really compare this to any other trade legalisation. But if we look at times when a trade has gone from illegal to legal - in the case of marijuana in many American states for example - this legalisation reduced the stigma associated with this product and created a whole new set of consumers. This could very likely occur with rhino horn - especially with its use as a social status symbol.
Aside from a whole new set of consumers, what if the legalisation of the trade opened up new markets entirely or reinvigorated ones which had lost their taste for rhino horn? We discussed in the last article how Yemen was a key importer of rhino horn for dagger handles but this had gone out of favour, what if this remerged? Which other markets in east Asia could open up? All of this would mean that there wouldn’t be enough legally farmed rhino horns to supply the demand. Although, as we discussed with pangolin scales, the events of 2020 may mean that previous theories may be incorrect. COVID-19 may lead to a lack of demand for animal products, especially in the health and medicine fields, but maybe even further afield. This is yet to play out and it will be really interesting to follow.
and would the price of rhino horn change?
We have all heard of the laws of supply and demand and you may have heard people mention ‘flooding the market’ when it comes to rhino horn. They suggest that legalising the trade and putting all the rhino horn that South Africa has in stock on the market would lower the market price of rhino horn thus lowering the incentive for poaching. Potentially yes, a lower price may mean that those who are after rhino horn for its status symbol-ness may be less inclined to purchase it. But then lowering the price may also lower the barrier to entry, meaning that the demand goes up because now more people can afford this product. A key thing to remember here is that the cost of rhino horn is price inelastic. Normally when the price of a product goes up the demand goes down as a certain amount of the market is out-priced. However, in many situations rhino horn has been proven to be inelastic. Meaning that price has limited effect on the demand for it, when the price goes up, the demand is unchanged.
If the trade is not legalised then we need to be really aware of the Anthropogenic Allee Effect. Essentially this means that as rhinos are hunted towards extinction the supply of rhino horn is lowered, making the product rare and causing the demand (and in turn the price) to sky rocket. Generally any increase in price of rhino horn would increase the incentive for wild rhino poaching, even if there were thousands of farmed rhinos supplying the majority of the trade with horns. So in any scenario we need to be aware of the changes in price and the role that corruption may play in the supply of rhino horn.
“THE DEMAND FOR RHINO HORN ROSE SUBSTANTIALLY IN YEMEN DESPITE A 40% INCREASE IN PRICE WITHIN FOUR YEARS AND MODELLING STUDIES HAVE SUGGESTED THAT REDUCING THE PRICE OF RHINO HORN WILL NOT CURB RHINO POACHING. THESE RESULTS SUGGEST THAT THE OVERALL DEMAND FOR RHINO HORN IS INSENSITIVE TO AN INCREASE OR DECREASE IN PRICE.”
Eikelboom et al. 2020
but what about CORRUPTIOn?
I hope that you’re starting to see that there are a LOT of questions surrounding this debate. So many to the point that it would seem prudent to not legalise the trade to prevent these questions from playing out in real time. Another big dark cloud hanging over this entire debate is corruption. It would be naive to think that simply by creating a legal rhino horn trade poaching would disappear. Unfortunately, as we mentioned earlier, there is always the chance that wild rhino horn may be seen as more valuable, driving poaching. And, as with lion bones, there is no difference (yet) between farmed rhino horn and wild rhino horn so having a legal trade could mean that poached items could be passed off as legally harvested. As with many debates in biodiversity conservation we can’t over look corruption. Many have argued for the establishment of a central processing unit for rhino horn in an attempt to prevent illegally harvested items entering the supply chain. However, we all know that corruption is pervasive so it is not unlikely that corruption would enter even a legal rhino horn trade in some area or another. This is something that we would have to be continually conscious of.
the best steps forward
Really, in the long term, we need to work towards a cultural shift, one which does not encourage the endangerment of a species’ extant nature and one which supports biodiversity conservation. However, this could take time, we’re talking generations. Unfortunately, at this stage, we don’t have generations. We’ve probably only got around 10 years to fix this. And on top of this, if the trade is legalised then we may create a whole new cohort of rhino horn users which sits in direct conflict with the cultural change that we would be searching for.
So we have a difficult choice here. If the goal here is to prevent poaching then on paper, legalising the rhino horn trade may be the best bet. But in reality there are a number of roadblocks. I think the key point here is that we are dealing with culture and that adds an extremely complex layer. We can try our best to be objective, but always with the acknowledgement that culture is not. If the trade in rhino horn was legalised we would need to ensure that corruption would not enter the system, that the demand will not increase due to the legalisation of the market and that farmed rhino horn would not be viewed lesser to wild rhino horn. I think the most pressing issue is the latter, there is corruption in most international affairs and if people are willing to pay a higher price for wild salmon in the supermarkets then I can’t see how people wouldn’t be willing to pay a higher price for wild rhino horn - even if there were legal farmed alternatives. With that in mind, it seems that currently the best steps forward are to keep pushing down the difficult path that we are already on, to prevent a sky rocketing demand for a product that is, at the end of the day, made of the same material as your fingernails. Whilst increasing cultural mindset changes, encouraging the removal of rhino horn from traditional medicine and reducing the preference for it as a status symbol. If these take place we would likely see a reduction in demand for rhino horn, a reduction in poaching and healthier rhino populations.
Check back soon for the final instalment of The Rhino Series where we’ll look at the future of rhino conservation, the role that rhinos play in ecosystems and how you can support rhino conservation as a tourist.