The government of South Africa is yet to decide whether it will seek a two-year window in which to sell off its rhino horn stockpile as a means of halting or slowing the slaughter of the animals by poachers.
This comes as the belief persists in some circles that flooding the market with legal horn would reduce the attraction of poaching as the price of the horn falls.
Scores of rhino have already been poached in SA this year.
Worldwide, the trade in rhino horn trade was banned in 1977 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
In SA a moratorium on domestic rhino horn sales was introduced in 2009.
Should SA ask for a legal horn trade it will have to convince two-thirds of the members of CITES that it is the right thing to do.
