According to the Guardian, however, conservation groups are worried that the sale will have the opposite effect on the black market. Rhino horns are in high demand in Vietnam for medicinal use, and the horns could also benefit those selling them illegally.
Poaching has for the last few years been on the rise in South Africa, which holds 73 percent of the world’s rhino population. The country expects to lose 800 of its 20,000 rhinos to poaching this year.
So far at least 446 rhinos have been killed, many at Kruger National Park, a conservation area roughly the size of Israel. The South African government is considering building a fence around the park, which shares a border with Mozambique.
While poaching only occurred sporadically in previous years, in 2010 demand in Vietnam rose dramatically after news came out that a rhino horn had supposedly cured a Vietnamese minister’s relative of cancer.
In Vietnam, rhino horns sell for about $65,000 per kilogram, making it more expensive than gold.
“South Africa cannot continue to be held hostage by syndicates who are slaughtering our rhinos,” said Edna Molewa, South Africa’s environment minister.
In related news, South Africa is backing a proposal to legalize the trade of rhino horns in another effect to cut down on poaching, as reported by Bloomberg.
Members of the United Nations’ Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora won’t be voting on an anti-poaching proposal until 2016, but several countries are already on board with the plan.
US President Barack Obama said on Monday that poaching is an “nternational crisis that continues to escalate.” He set aside resources to help strike back against illegal wildlife trafficking.
White and black rhinos faced extinction in the 1960s, but efforts by South Africa helped bring the population up to a stable 20,000.
“Ironically, the very success of our national conservation effort, which has resulted in over 73 percent of the world’s rhino population being conserved in our country has, in turn, resulted in South Africa being targeted by international criminal rhino poaching syndicates,” Molewa said.
