How to save the Black Rhino

It’s been said that desperate times call for desperate measures.  Hegel said that, “Amid the pressure of great events, a general principle gives no help.“

But while all about you might be losing their heads and foresaking general principles, we instead think that desperate times call for the most sensible measures and that the application sound general principals is our only hope.

It is desperate times for the Black Rhino, but unfortunately all the solutions are unremarkable rehashes of the same failed policies of the past.

The desperate measures are the wrong measures.

It’s time for a rethink, a refreshing of our perspective.  It’s time to have the courage to adopt some measures that by today’s standards seem reckless and outlandish.  But these measures are the Black Rhino’s only hope.  Without them the species is highly likely, maybe even certain, to be added to the already far too long extinction list.

As South African’s we have a deep affinity with Rhinos.  I personally get more excited about seeing Rhinos in our game parks than almost any other animal.  Rhinos, like elephants and whales, seem to occupy their own stratus of the animal kingdom, neither predator nor prey.  It is the second largest land mammal on earth, and is a truly majestic creature that, perhaps more than any other, allows us a glimpse of the pre-historic.

Biodiversity should be protected on this planet, from the smallest creatures to the largest beasts.  In such a complex biological system, we cannot hope to be able to speculate which species we can ‘live without’.  All animals contribute to a great biological chain, the degradation of which makes us all poorer and our existence on this planet that much more difficult.

There are probably now only a little over 2000 Black Rhino left in existence, and judging by 2010 poaching records the decay rate on this number is at least around 10-15% per year and rising.  The time is incredibly short.

The current Black Rhino population is easily large enough to replenish its numbers over time and restore the species to a healthy and sustainable state.  But action – serious, innovative, remedial action – needs to be taken a.s.a.p to get the Black Rhino out of its remorseless decline.

Human Action proposes 3 imperative steps that must be taken immediately to save the Black Rhino.  (As South Africa is home to most Black Rhino, this will be written in the South African context but can and must of course be applied to other African countries)

1. Privatise all national game parks immediately

The state currently owns and manages vast tracts of game reserve and huge quantities of wildlife.  These need to be sold into private hands immediately.  For one the state would be able to raise billions of rands into state coffers to pay off the national debt, but, more importantly, these precious assets would now be under the management of private wilderness asset managers.

Areas like the uMfolozi Wilderness Area in the south of the uMfolozi game reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa are especially in need of privatisation.  The uMfolozi wilderness section is one of the key cradles for Black Rhino conservation and has often been used in the past to replenish diminishing Rhino stocks in the rest of Africa.

Here’s the problem.  This massive wilderness area in Zululand is managed by one, lonely, underfunded wilderness manager and a few local underlings.  Rhino poachers pick off Rhino’s with impunity here and the state coffers are too easily run dry before proper security systems can be put in place with enough man-capacity to back it up.

Moreover, the wilderness area is open to no one.  No one sees it, no one can legally go into it (as they can in the northern parts of uMfolozi game reserve), no one can view its wealth of wildlife.  It is effectively a rich resource of wildlife that no one truly benefits from in any direct sense.

The local Zulu population resents the wilderness area as to them it is simply a fenced off area that restricts their space for cattle-grazing.  If anything they’ll aid and abet Rhino poaches and give them refuge on the perimeter of the reserve.  Indeed, many of the poachers are locals hired by the more wealthy businessmen further down the Rhino horn supply chain.

Privatising reserves can be done in conjunction with a just settling of community land claims and private land buyers can enter into co-management agreements with local communities.

Privatisation can run something along the lines of Welgevonden Reserve in the Limpopo Province.  Welgevonden is effectively owned according to a sectional title structure, where owners purchase a section of the park.  These are usually sold for many millions of rands and they entitle the owner to build a residence/resort on their section, according to a set of rules as defined by the “body corporate”.  Each owner then also pays levies to maintain and manage the overall reserve, fund animal research, and most importantly, pay for reserve security.

As of September, Welgevonden hadn’t lost a single Rhino.

Private asset owners always have the utmost incentive to protect their assets.  This will remove the failing centralised state security system from the equation and instead usher in private reserve and wildlife asset security.

Every Rhino on planet earth should be privately owned and managed.

2. Legalise trade in Rhino horn

Killing a Rhino to obtain its horn is a cruel and ultimately ignorant act.  But did you know that Rhino horn is made of similar substances to that of fingernails and hair?  Rhino horn grows back at a rate of about 6cm per year.  The only reason why Rhino are being killed for their horn is because there is no other means to obtain it.

Legalising horn trade would liberate the tons of Rhino horn sitting in state lock-up.  That alone would immediately help depress the price of horn AND see poaching rates plummet.  Legalising horn trade would also free it up into the open channels of trade, reducing costs considerably as open competition proliferates.

If the price of horn fell, it would no longer be as attractive to risk killing Rhino illegally.  If this was coupled with better reserve security, poachers lives would be a lot more difficult.

The Asians want a product.  That product is Rhino horn.  Their desire for this may be illogical and superstitious.  While this demand leads to the death of an endangered animal at the moment, there is no reason why it has to.  Rhino horn is a sustainable resource!  You can cut it off without killing the animal, and it grows back!

Estimates vary but a Rhino would probably sell right now at a game auction for about R500,000.  Because horn trade is illegal, the value of horns is not properly factored into this price.  In fact, due to the risk of asset loss inherent in owning a Rhino currently, the current price may be discounted from a price that would prevail if Rhino poaching was much less prevalent.  After all, the buyer has to factor in before buying the asset the cost implications of keeping it a productive asset, including protecting it from disease, security infrastructure costs, and natural risk.

Rough estimates of Rhino horn prices are as high as R200,000 per kg.  That’s not that far off the gold price.  In fact, converted to ounces Rhino horn is about $900-1000/oz.  Not too shabby for a clump of hair-nail.

Now let’s do a few sums.  I’m going to guess that the average full-grown larger Rhino horn is about 50cm long, and that it’s average diameter is 10cm (this is pure guestimation but it makes the point).  So that’s almost 4000 cubic centimetres of Keratin horn.  Now the interweb says that the average horn weighs about 2kg.  So that’s basically about R400,000 per horn at current prices at 0.5 grams per cubic centimetre.

So growing at roughly 6cm per year would produce about 500 cubic centimetres of horn, which at current prices yields about R50,000 per year.

If the Rhino cost R500,000 that would be a tidy 10% annual yield, over and above tourist value and breeding value.  Folks, these are highly productive assets!

Now it is true that if reserves were privatised and horn trade illegal, Rhino prices would probably rise and horn prices would fall, lowering this 10% yield on horn.  However over time Rhino populations would recover, adding to Rhino supply and lowering its cost again.

I cannot see why every Rhino cannot be privately owned in privately owned reserves or zoos or farms.  I cannot see why we can’t meet Asian demand for horn, and have a sustainable growing Rhino population.

One advocacy group, Care for the Wild, says that Rhino farming cannot work because the animal is worth more dead than alive.  Mmmm, yet cattle or chickens are also worth more dead than alive, and there are an estimated 1.3 billion cattle head on earth and the chicken is the most abundant specie of bird in the world… There are also over 1 billion sheep in the world.  These three species are literally bred to die, so Care for the Wild’s argument is a weak one to say the least.  What about just harvesting horn the same way we harvest milk and eggs?  We only kill Rhino for horn because it’s done illegally via poaching and is the fastest and most efficient method to avoid detection.  Furthermore, if horn is more expensive than the actual Rhino these days (a marginal call) that is because the laws banning trade in horn perversely distinguish between horn and animal, and artificially raise the price of horn and lower the price of animal.

To our mind the only hindrance to a proper economic solution is forcing horn trade into the underground and making it illegal.  This raises the price of horn, forces Rhino killing instead of farming, and arguably depresses the price of Rhino’s due to the risk factor of keeping them.

3. Change preferences through cultural education

Instead of banning horn trade and forcing the state to do ‘more’, why don’t advocacy groups spend their resources educating Asians about the futility of Rhino horn and create true aweness of the product and its better alternatives.  This is fully commensurate with freedom as it will all be done voluntarily.  Those Asians who do not want to give up using horn don’t have to, and a viable and sustainable market will still service their needs.

Those who do give up using horn will discover they are able to buy better medicinal remedies for cheaper, and/or will have more money to spend on truly worthwhile goods and services.

This need not be another tragedy of extinction, but we must avoid Hegel’s warning that “amid the pressure of great events, a general principle gives no help.”

The general principal of property rights and economic freedom would not only save the Black Rhino, but would again see it thrive in Africa, and be an economic benefit to boot.