
The Rhino's Last Stand - Thevet
https://www.guernicamag.com/features/the-rhinos-last-stand
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sandworm101
Open trade in rhino horn? The only market-based approach I'd tolerate would be
the development and flooding of the market with an indistinguishable synthetic
horn designed to trigger impotence in all the idiots who buy it.

The answer isn't in economics. It isn't even in protecting rhinos. The answer
is to educate all the stupid men of the world that still believe that eating
something shaped like a penis will increase their virility. That myth is the
real issue. I really don't care whether such things are part of any culture or
belief system. You don't get to wipe out such a species because you cannot
bother to exercise enough to keep it up on your own.

~~~
benkuykendall
Rhinoceros horn is not used as an aphrodisiac, rather to treat fevers. (of
course it doesn't actually treat fevers either) That aside, there are quite a
few people who have misconceptions about medicine; it seems noble but very
difficult to correct them all.

Why do you oppose market-based solutions? If any solution prevented some large
percent of poaching incidents, would it not be a net improvement?

~~~
sandworm101
> If any solution prevented some large percent of poaching incidents, would it
> not be a net improvement?

Perhaps for the Rhino, a single species, but this isn't just about them.
Tigers, bears, lions, elephants ... nearly everything bigger and more powerful
than humans gets chopped up for "traditional medicine". We cannot start
farming each and every critter some group thinks is magic.

Market-based approaches are also an acknowledgment of the underlying
mythology. I'm generally opposed to all quack medicine. Most of us are annoyed
but not screaming mad when we see homeopathic junk for sale a drugstores. We
laugh, try to educate our friends, and perhaps sign a petition to ban such
practices. But if I see baby rhino horns for sale at WholeFoods expect blood.

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adamnemecek
> Proponents argue that an open trade would flood the market and deflate the
> bubble—the street value of horn currently stands at $100,000 a kilogram,
> more than that of cocaine—driving down the incentive to poach.

It would not decrease the value enough to make poaching not profitable for the
poachers. Proposals like this one are very frequent but none of them address
the issue of how exactly are the animals living in the wild protected against
poaching. The assumption seems to be that as long as there are ranchers
raising these animals for profit, the species should be protected. It does not
address the issue of what will happen to the species once the demand for rhino
horn plummets.

These legalized sales are very unpredictable. For example, the current ivory
poaching crisis is attributed to the 2008 CITES reclassification of ivory that
let some African countries sell their ivory stockpiles to China and Japan.
This event caused an increase in demand for ivory products in China and Japan
and the demand for ivory has been increasing year over year since then. As a
result, poaching has skyrocketed to meet the demand.

If you live in Washington state, please support Initiative 1401
([http://saveanimalsfacingextinction.org](http://saveanimalsfacingextinction.org))
on the November state ballot. This initiative will help with reducing the
amount of illegal wildlife products coming to the US. Most of these products
come to the US from China so ports in Washington state are a prime destination
for the ships smuggling these products. California has recently passed a
similar law.

I've recently started volunteering with the campaign and we are looking for
more volunteers who would help out with the campaign efforts. If you live in
Washington state and have 2 hours of free time every now and then and want to
help out, email me at adamnemecek at gmail.com.

~~~
ori_b
I suspect that these proposals are partly due to desperation. Nothing else
seems to be working; At least if we're farming them there's an incentive to
keep enough alive that they won't go extinct.

~~~
adamnemecek
The thing though is that these proposals usually come from groups that are not
exactly impartial. These include e.g. Safari Clubs, "anti-environmentalist
think tanks", ranchers and other groups who would gain from free trade of
wildlife products.

> Nothing else seems to be working;

That's the thing though, not much has been tried as far as bans go. The
current bans leave a lot of loopholes so getting around the restrictions isn't
exactly hard.

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transfire
It might work if their were an appreciable increase in the African standard of
living as well. As it is, the price of horn could be $100 per kg and there
would still be someone poor enough to poach. However, it would at least reduce
the drive to poach substantially, and that may be enough for the Rhino to
survive.

On the other hand, we may have to face the fact that in the modern world large
wild animals simply aren't going to survive. It seems sad, of course, but
there is really nothing super-natural about it. Many more species have gone
extinct naturally than currently roam the earth. Perhaps it is for the best.
There is a reason we humans left the trees and created civilization. Surviving
in the wild is hard. The larger (and generally smarter) animals have some
awareness of this and probably, if given a choice, would choose a "civilized"
existence as well. If we make the effort to make zoos very accommodating to
the needs of animals (which means putting a lot more money into them) then I
think that is the future --and a generally better one for all.

~~~
aidenn0
I wouldn't be surprised if the African poachers were already making around
$100 per kg; a lot of that money goes to the cartels (and government officials
who have been bribed to look the other way).

~~~
adamnemecek
It's a lot less than that actually, it's on the order of hundreds of dollar
per tusk (a male elephant's tusk weight ~50+kg). And you are right, the people
who are making money from this are up to no good, a lot of these groups are
militias and terrorist organizations. There was a recent article about this in
National Geographic

[http://www.nationalgeographic.com/tracking-
ivory/article.htm...](http://www.nationalgeographic.com/tracking-
ivory/article.html)

[http://www.nationalgeographic.com/tracking-
ivory/map.html](http://www.nationalgeographic.com/tracking-ivory/map.html)

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Spooky23
How about reprisals against people associated with consumers?

Your corporate officer buys rhino horn or elephant tusks, sanction the
company. Put employees on no-visa lists, make money transfers painful, etc.

~~~
tsotha
That would be unconstitutional in the US.

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mdaniel
There was an absolutely fascinating and emotionally grueling episode of
RadioLab last week that is kind of related to this topic:

[http://www.radiolab.org/story/rhino-
hunter/](http://www.radiolab.org/story/rhino-hunter/)

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crag
They're almost gone, aren't they? Damn shame. Just a shame.

~~~
craigching
You may be thinking of the Northern White Rhino which is found (or was found)
in Northern Parts of Africa. These are Southern White Rhinos which are still
endangered, but not as bad off as their Northern brethren. Southern and
Northern White Rhinos are different species (or sub-species).

Not an expert by any means, just sharing what little I know about it ;)

