Helping Save Our Biodiversity

Helping Save Our Biodiversity?

Every other day Africa loses a rhino to poaching.
Poaching has increased dramatically over the last year-and-a half, fuelled by demand for rhino horn from the Asian market. The numbers being tallied in South Africa are grim—more than 600 rhinos were poached across the African continent in the last five years and South Africa alone has seen the loss of over 212 rhinos since 2009.
There used to be hundreds of thousands of rhinos throughout Africa. South Africa, proud stronghold of the African black and white rhino with more than 80 percent of Africa’s total rhino population, has been losing at least 20 rhinos per month. Approximately 4,000 black rhinos and 17,500 white rhinos are all that prevent Africa’s rhinos from extinction.
This poaching epidemic is extremely worrying, says Matthew Lewis, WWF African species expert. If it is not stopped, the rhino conservation progress of the last decade will be in jeopardy, greatly affecting biodiversity as well as the tourism industry and the communities that benefit from it.




Vietnam a high consumer of rhino hornVietnam has been increasingly implicated as a main driver of the illegal rhino horn trade in Asia, and a major trade route has emerged connecting illegally killed rhinos in South Africa with consumers in Vietnam.In 2008, a Vietnamese diplomat working for the embassy in South Africa was filmed making an illegal purchase of rhino horn. In another incident, a Vietnamese man was sentenced in July 2010 to three years in prison for trying to smuggle five horns weighing 18 kg through Ho Chi Minh City’s international airport.Asian rhino most likely gone from VietnamWhile Asian rhinoceros have likely been extirpated in Vietnam, in part due to poaching for their horns, there are still important wild populations of rhinoceroses in Africa, especially South Africa where about 90% of all rhinos are found. Some ownership of rhino horns from trophy hunting is allowed, under strict regulations, but it is illegal to trade the horns commercially. In Vietnam, the lack of a system to register and track privately-owned horns could be allowing them to enter the trade illegally.Continued strong use in traditional medicine







Throughout parts of Asia, rhino horn is believed to cure a range of ailments, with some claims that it can cure cancer. In Vietnam, rhino horns (including fake horns) are being sold through traditional medicine stores, hospitals, and online sites.The South Africa visit is being hosted by the Vietnam CITES Management Authority, with support from TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network. CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is the primary international agreement regulating the trade in wildlife. The visit was made possible through the financial support of WWF-Germany, WWF African Rhino Programme and the US Government, who made a commitment to support such an initiative at the March meeting of CITES.

(The World Wildlife Fund is one of the many ecological conservation group)



WWF Achievements:
WWF has been involved in rhino conservation and management in Africa for more than 45 years.
WWF started its African Rhino Program in 1997, which, with the help of our partners has helped the black rhino population recover from a low of 3,000 to nearly 4,000.

Sources-

http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?uNewsID=169862

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/rhinoceros/

http://wwf.panda.org/?195896/South-African-delegates-visit-Vietnam-to-address-illegal-rhino-horn-trade

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