The South Africa – Viet Nam Rhino Horn Trade Nexus (PDF ... - WWF

SiTuATion AT THE SouRCE: SouTH AfRiCA
SPORT HUNTING WHITE RHINOS IN SOUTH AFRICA
The White Rhino population is close to “maximum productive capacity” in State-owned conservation
areas in South Africa, meaning that if animals are not periodically removed, population growth rates
will stagnate and conservation goals for rhino numbers will not be achieved. Continued growth of
rhino numbers is dependent upon availability of land from private and community sector stakeholders
to enable continued rhino range expansion. The extent to which land is available for rhino range
expansion is largely dependent upon the balance between economic incentives and perceived risks
associated with rhino ownership.
Economic incentives for rhino ownership in the private sector and on community land come from ecotourism,
live sales of rhinos to other farmers or other ecotourism reserves, or by selling rhinos as hunting
trophies. National and provincial conservation authorities additionally benefit from funds generated
by live White Rhino sales and these have been used in the past to either help subsidize the high cost
of their conservation efforts (making up the shortfalls in government grants) or, in the case of
SANParks, to assist with buying additional conservation land, undertaking biological management
activities for Black Rhinos from a meta-population perspective, or, more recently, increasing rhino security
in KNP (M. Knight, pers comm., 2012).
Sport hunting of White Rhinos started in 1968 at a time when there were only 1800 animals in all of
South Africa (Adcock and Emslie, 1994). Since then, White Rhino numbers in South Africa, despite
numerous international translocations, have steadily increased to total nearly 18 800 by the beginning of
2011. Rather than hindering population growth, trophy hunting is regarded as having positively influenced
White Rhino numbers and population performance in many direct and indirect ways. From a biological
perspective, sport hunting results in the elimination of “surplus” male animals that otherwise
might engage in fighting and/or kill other rhinos or, minimally, compete for grazing resources with
breeding animals in the population (Adcock and Emslie, 1994). These selective removals have served to
stimulate breeding performance so that South Africa’s sustained population growth rate for White Rhinos
has remained high (Adcock and Emslie, 1994). In terms of rhino range and habitat considerations, sport
hunting has importantly produced incentives for the allocation or conversion of large land areas in the
private sector to wildlife-based land use for the specific purpose of stocking and maintaining rhinos. This,
with other forms of game ranching, has effectively resulted in another 20.5 million hectares of land being
made available for wildlife in South Africa, a phenomenal development that not only benefits rhinos but
the maintenance of biodiversity in general. Finally, the trophy hunting industry not only generates valuable
foreign exchange for the country, but also continues to produce strong incentives for game ranching
as a profitable economic activity so that it continually out-competes other forms of land use, such as cattle
farming or agricultural production, to the benefit of wildlife (Adcock and Emslie, 1994).
Although Natal Parks Board (NPB) initially translocated White Rhinos to other State-owned reserves in
South Africa, they later began selling rhinos to private owners (Buys, 1987). The sale price of a live
rhino was fixed at a low value: around ZAR2000 (about USD900) which was considerably less than the
market price for a White Rhino trophy hunt, which was ZAR35 000 (about USD15 000) at this time
(Buys, 1987). A quick and substantial profit could be made by selling White Rhinos for trophy hunting
and this often happened within a few weeks of delivery (Buijs, 2000). In fact, by 1987, there had been a
net decrease in both the number of White Rhinos on private land and the number of properties on
which rhinos were present (Buijs and Anderson, 1989). The low fixed list price policy had created perverse
economic incentives, which encouraged the over-hunting of White Rhinos (’t Sas-Rolfes, 2011; R.
Emslie, pers. comm., 2012). The first NPB White Rhino auction was held in 1989 and the average auction
price for a live rhino was ZAR48 732 (approximately USD18 600), nearly five times greater than
the average price paid for sales in 1986 (Buijs, 2000). Prior to the auction, approximately 10.5% of
rhinos on private land were hunted each year, however, once the auction was introduced, hunting rates
dropped to around 3% (Adcock and Emslie, 1994). Allowing animals to find a true market value on
auction replaced perverse economic incentives with positive drivers encouraging landowners to breed
more rhinos and expand their range, as well as generating greater revenue for NPB, an important conservation
authority in the country.
In 1972, the value of a White Rhino trophy hunt in South Africa was reportedly ZAR8000 (about
USD11 270) (Hall-Martin et al., 2009). This hunting price was considered to be very expensive in its day
but, once the novelty of offering rhinos for hunting purposes wore off, prices dropped considerably;
indeed, the USD value of the 1972 hunt was not equalled again for about a decade and a half
(Appendix 1). Overall, demand and the number of hunts has steadily grown, and there is little doubt
Figure 9 Number of White Rhinos sold on auction and hunted in South Africa from 1986 to 2010 (hunting data for
some years is not available; see Appendix 1 for data)
that hunting has been a key factor in driving the live auction prices for rhinos in the private sector.
South Africa has never required a quota system to regulate the number of annual White Rhino hunts;
in fact, it seems the market has self-regulated. Only a limited number of hunters from traditional hunting
destinations have been able to pay the relatively high trophy prices. It was estimated that between
1968 and 1994 a total of approximately 820 rhinos were hunted and that the average rate of hunting
over these periods remained below 1% of the total population (Emslie & Adcock, 1994).
With only a single exception involving a local South African hunter, all White Rhino hunting has been
done by foreign hunters from a broad range of countries (Castley and Hall-Martin, 2005). Collectively,
these transactions have served to create an economic industry that benefits a broad range of private sector
players, including landowners, professional hunters, taxidermists and other game industry professionals
directly, as well as a host of individuals playing secondary roles in terms of travel, accommodation and
hospitality. It also directly supports national and provincial government conservation bodies who supply
rhino for the live auctions. From 2005 through 2008, for example, these authorities sold 581 White
Rhinos, earning over ZAR98.3 million (or approximately USD14 million) to support government investment
in wildlife conservation in South Africa.
In Appendix 1, available price data show the costs of an average rhino hunt for selected years from
1971 through 2010, as well as data on the numbers and average prices of White Rhinos sold through
live auction or direct sales during this time period (Hall-Martin et al., 2009; Adcock and Emslie, 1994).
While this information has been obtained from numerous sources, it needs to be appreciated that the
average values cited for trophy hunts and auction prices in any given year are indicative as a range of
prices were certainly paid at any given time depending on a variety of factors, including the age and
sex of live animals and the size of the horns in question. It also needs to be appreciated that the rhino
trophy price does not include other costs associated with a hunt, for example the daily rate for a minimum
number of days or the costs of observers. Further, in many cases noted in Appendix 1, actual
records do not exist and it has been necessary to impute figures using available information. Regardless
of these shortcomings, the information detailed in Appendix 1 allows for the relationship between
trophy hunting prices and live rhino sales to be considered and the relative value of the industry to be
calculated.
As expected, the number of rhinos purchased and the number of rhinos hunted generally show a similar
pattern (Figure 9). It is also apparent that there has been an increase in both activities in South
Africa since 2004-05. While year-to-year fluctuations are evident, overall the trend lines indicate that
there has also been a robust correlation between live White Rhino auction prices and the price of a
White Rhino trophy hunt (Figure 10). Both auction and hunting prices demonstrate a steady increase
in value over the 29-year period.
46 the south africa – viet nam rhino horn trade nexus TRAFFIC 47
Number of White Rhinos
300
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50
0
1986
1987
1988
hunt
Auction
1989
1990
1991
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1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1999
1998
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2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010