EIA Comments on Draft Regulations Relating to Domestic Trade in Rhinoceros Horn

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is writing in response to the invitation to submit representations or objections to draft regulations relating to domestic trade in rhinoceros horn (Government Gazette, No. 41919, Notice No. 986, dated 21 September 2018).

EIA opposes all trade in rhinoceros horn and any other rhino derivatives, except for legitimate scientific and law enforcement purposes. We have serious concerns about the potential impacts of South Africa’s reinstituted legal domestic market for rhino horn will have on the country’s white and black rhinos. Rather than develop a regulatory system to enable trade, South Africa should permanently ban all domestic and international trade of rhino horn. However, acknowledging that rhino horn trade is currently legal in South Africa, it is imperative that a comprehensive, airtight regulatory framework be implemented to minimize to the greatest extent possible any resulting negative impacts of legal trade to South Africa’s rhinos.