Rhinos
Rhinos are being killed for their horns in a poaching crisis that has stretched on for nearly two decades. In 2006, 60 rhinos were poached in Africa. Nine years later, the official figure leapt to a staggering 1,349 rhinos killed in 2015. More than 10,000 rhinos have been killed since the poaching crisis began.
Today, rhino populations in South Africa and Namibia are bearing the brunt of rhino poaching. This is especially true for protected areas that were once safe and secure strongholds for wild white and black rhinos, including Kruger National Park and Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park in South Africa and Etosha National Park in Namibia. Kruger National Park has seen its white rhino population plummet from more than 10,000 individuals to fewer than 2,000 as of 2023, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park experienced consecutive record-breaking years of rhino poaching in 2022 and 2023, and Critically Endangered black rhinos continue to experience high levels of poaching in Etosha National Park.
Demand for rhino horn comes primarily from a consumer base in China and Vietnam where rhino horn is carved into trinkets and consumed for its purported medicinal value. Organized criminal networks control international rhino horn trafficking and are responsible for the poaching of wild rhinos in Africa and Asia. This organized crime is facilitated by corruption, a lack of resources, poor international enforcement collaboration, and insufficient political will in range, transit, and consumer countries. Public and private rhino horn stockpiles kept in some rhino range states exacerbate rhino poaching and illegal trade by perpetuating demand and presenting costly enforcement burdens.
This is not the first time that poaching has pushed rhinos to the brink of extinction. In the late 20th century, rhinos were also being wiped out by poachers to meet demand from Taiwan, China, and Yemen. The international trade in rhino horn has been banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since 1977, and most countries have since enacted domestic bans on rhino horn trade. When Taiwan and China implemented and enforced domestic bans on rhino horn trade in the early 1990s – closing the last major consumer markets for rhino horn – the poaching stopped, rhino populations stabilized and began to rebound.
EIA campaigns to uphold the international rhino horn trade ban and improve enforcement worldwide to protect rhinos from poaching and rhino horn trafficking. EIA utilizes a variety of scientific, economic, and social primary evidence to campaign for improved enforcement of laws that prohibit rhino horn trade and to support governments working to dismantle the organized criminal networks controlling transnational rhino horn trafficking. EIA also maintains a Global Environmental Crime Tracker, developed by EIA’s UK office, which contains an interactive database of rhino horn trafficking incidents and prosecution data. Check out the Crime Tracker here.
