South African Constitutional Court ruling has made Rhino horn sales legal in South Africa again, subject to standard government and provincial permitting requirements.
The ruling dismissed an application to appeal from the government to keep a ban on the trade in place. Ending a lengthy legal battle that pitted rhino owners, who rear rhinos and want to be able to sell their reserves of rhino horn once again, against the government’s Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), which placed a moratorium on the trade in 2009 after a jump in poaching, reports National Geographic.
The court’s decision means that rhino horn sales will soon be legal again within the country making many fear that it will exacerbate the poaching crisis. South Africa is home to 70 percent of the world’s 29,500 rhinos.
“Given that there is no existing market for rhino horn in South Africa, lifting the domestic trade ban could very easily spur increased illegal international activity,” said Leigh Henry, the senior policy adviser for species conservation and advocacy at the World Wildlife Fund told NY times
For Rhino Alive and commercial rhino breeders, the decision is welcomed since it will enable private rhino owners who wish to sell their stocks of rhino horn to make a sell, according to their press release. According to the organization the steps to make an existing legal market into an illegal drove rhino horns prices to sky-high leading to more and more poaching.
According to the Press release, the organization hopes that the legalization will bring in the much-needed funds for keeping more and more rhinos safe through various anti-poaching and security measures and will encourage the people who sold the rhinos on their reserves to reinvest in them and offer them safe-havens again.
A global ban on the horn trade, enforced by a United Nations convention, remains in place.
