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| Location: |
Africa - Southern Africa - Zimbabwe |
| Subject: |
Distribution - Poaching |
| Species: |
African Rhino Species |
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Men have been, and are still killing rhino and each other in a tragic mockery of the CITES ban as the ?Rhino War' in Zimbabwe rages on with one rhino being killed every week in 1992 and possibly twice as many poachers losing their lives.
In June 1992, the standing committee of CITES, recognised ?the critical problem of rhino conservation despite the almost 20 years of Appendix 1 listing', and resolved to make trade related aspects of rhinoceros a project of special interest leading up to the next Conference of the Parties, scheduled for 1994.
In a desperate effort to create some reprieve from the poachers' onslaught new legislation in Zimbabwe came into effect last year providing for every black rhino in the country to be dehorned. A massive dehorning programme is now in progress, but fewer rhinos have been located than expected and some fear the effort is too late.
There has been an upsurge in poaching in the last twenty-four months. This is possibly because speculators in the Far East are stockpiling horn in anticipation of the commodity becoming unobtainable as wild rhino near extinction, which would rocket rhino horn prices to astronomical new levels: a desperate situation which requires urgent action. TRAFFIC, a trade monitoring group supported by the World Wildlife Fund, has urged the intemational community ?to move beyond the narrow scope of orthodox conservation strategies and con- sider the full spectrum of available options to enhance rhino conservation throughout the world.'
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Operation rhino rescue
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