Fashion trends push rhinos toward extinction
Fashion trends push rhinos toward extinction
mongabay.com
June 6, 2007
The illegal trade in rhino horn, used for dubious medicines in Asia and traditional dagger handles in the Middle East, is driving some African rhino populations toward extinction, reports environmental group WWF and wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC.
While rhino populations in some parts of Africa are increasing, poaching is accelerating in Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where poverty and failed governments have conspired to put rhinos at high risk from poachers and criminal networks. WWF estimates that 60 percent of the rhino population in Democratic Republic of Congo was killed between 2003 and 2005. In Zimbabwe the figure was 13 percent for the same period.
Photo by Rhett A. Butler |
“The situation in DRC and Zimbabwe is a particular concern,” said Steven Broad, Executive Director of TRAFFIC. “It tallies with an increase in the organization of criminal horn trading networks operating in Africa.”
Meeting this week in The Hague, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has called for better collaboration between countries along smuggling routes to prevent horns from reaching the black market. WWF notes that such measures appear to be working in Swaziland and Namibia and that overall, rhino populations in Africa are increasing.
“This population increase is of course very encouraging,” said Dr Sue Lieberman, Director of WWF’s Global Species Programme. “But better law enforcement and protection measures are still needed for African rhinos, particularly in the DRC and Zimbabwe.”
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This article is based on a news release from WWF