Reducing Demand for Rhino Horn in South Africa by… Increasing Demand for Rhino Horn in South Africa. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

In June 2024, South Africa’s Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) published a draft Biodiversity Management Plan (BMP) for white and black rhinoceroses. The BMP is intended to serve as a species recovery plan for black and white rhinos in South Africa and envisions a future with “thriving national herds” that are no longer threatened by poaching and rhino horn trafficking.

It was therefore shocking to read the BMP and discover that unleashing domestic trade in rhino horn products and working toward a goal of overturning the international ban on rhino horn trade are core components of the plan.

The BMP is riddled with contradictions with respect to its stated aims and proposed actions relating to rhino horn trade. In some sections, the plan references “demand management / reduction” for rhino horn, but then goes on to list numerous proposed actions geared toward promoting trade in rhino horn, which inherently requires increasing demand.

The trade proposals in the BMP come on the heels of South Africa’s draft National Biodiversity Economy Strategy (NBES) released in March, which calls for generating new demand for rhino horn by creating a rhino horn market targeted at foreign tourists from Asia. There is a conspicuous lack of any explanation in both the NBES and the BMP as to how exactly propping up a domestic market for rhino horn targeted at foreign nationals is going to alleviate poaching and trafficking pressure on wild rhinos.

This may be because there is no plausible scenario in which creating demand for rhino horn will do anything except severely exacerbate the current threat to white and black rhinos posed by poaching and illegal trade – which are fueled by the very demand the BMP seeks to intensify.

While legal domestic trade in rhino horn may be confined within the borders of South Africa, the negative repercussions it will have on African and Asian rhino populations, organized crime, law enforcement efforts, and demand reduction will be global in scope. A radical shift in trade policies by South Africa to actively undercut the CITES ban on international commercial rhino horn trade will result in major enforcement challenges in all countries affected by rhino horn trafficking.

The governments in countries that have had to contend with illegal consumer markets for rhino horn, like China and Vietnam, have poured resources into awareness, demand reduction, and behavior change campaigns to eliminate demand for rhino horn, have strengthened their domestic legislation to prevent the trade and use of rhino horn, and have embraced a whole-of-government approach to enforcing legislation on wildlife protection, organized crime, and corruption to tackle the illegal trade in rhino horn and other illegal wildlife products. The trade proposals in the BMP (and the NBES) would directly undermine these efforts.

EIA submitted formal comments to the DFFE on the draft Biodiversity Management Plan, which are available here. Our core recommendation: Remove all proposals pursue domestic and international trade in rhino horn and instead promote demand reduction and the strict restriction of trade in order to protect white and black rhinos from poaching and illegal trade in rhino horn.