'Sell horn to save rhinos'

Draft regulations that would allow domestic trading in rhino horn have been welcomed as "a step in the right direction" by the Private Rhino Owners' Association of SA.

The association said the proposed regulations could save rhinos' lives.

But the World Wide Fund for Nature is sceptical, questioning the government's ability to police the legal and illegal trades simultaneously.

The regulations are intended to manage trading in, and the acquisition of, rhino horn in South Africa, and the exporting of rhino horn .

The draft provides for a person from another country who visits South Africa to export a maximum of two rhino horns "for personal purposes".

The draft regulations specify that Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport will be the only point of entry or exit for rhino horn or any rhino horn product.

The public has a month to comment on the draft, which was compiled following a High Court judgment in November 2015 that set aside a February 2009 freeze on the trading of rhino horn in South Africa.

The Ministry of Environmental Affairs noted last year that the judgment did not relate to international trade in rhino horn for commercial purposes, which is still prohibited by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites).

Rhino Owners' Association chairman Pelham Jones said his organisation was opposed to a moratorium on the legal sale of rhino horn.

"Although it was well intended, it has been a dismal failure and has not saved the life of a single rhino. It, instead, created a black market."

Jones said his members bore a huge financial burden in looking after the rhinos in their reserves, which many owners could no longer afford.

Jones said private reserves owned over 6,000 black rhino and about 450 white rhino, which constitutes 33% of the rhino population of this country.

Rhino programme manager for the WWF in South Africa Jo Shaw urged the government to retain the moratorium on trading in rhino horn and to focus on disrupting the criminal gangs involved in rhino-horn trafficking.