The current debate in South Africa on whether or not to trade rhino horn is sending mixed messages to the markets that consume rhino horn, while it is also creating stasis in plans for conservation.

This was the message delivered by Adam Welz, who is the South African representative for WildAid, and Colin Bell, co-founder of Wilderness Safaris, last week at a function organised by the Endangered Wildlife Trust.

Welz’s presentation was based on WildAid’s slogan: “When the buying stops, the killing can too”.

He presented this idea as the “demand reduction approach”. Poaching can only stop when the market is educated on the impact and consequences of rhino product trade.

South Africa’s sending of mixed messages has resulted in speculators starting captive breeding camps to supply the demand in Asia. This makes the Asian market believe it is all right to buy rhino horn, says Welz. 

He added that there was a shortage of political will from South African and that corruption within the state was also impacting conservation and preventing the catching of key players in the poaching ring.

Bell stressed that if rhino product trade was legalised it would not save the animal from extinction. To legalise the trade, each horn would have to be registered with a serial number and the Chinese and Vietnam markets would have to register as buyers to purchase the horns. In the time that it would take for all necessary permits and registration forms to be approved, the rhinos would already be extinct, due to the rapid rate of poaching.

Bell believes a solution lies in uncoupling hunting and game ranching from rhino trade. All forms of rhino product trade must be declared illegal. Game ranchers must know that legalising the trade of rhino products won’t save the species from extinction, added Bell.

Game ranchers must create value from the rhino as an animal and not just see value in its horn. Bell said the horn must become worthless for the rhino to survive in the wild.

Welz also mentioned the conservation success stories of the Endangered Wild Life Trust and WildAid, such as the shark fin awareness campaign.

In 2006, WildAid teamed up with Yao Ming, a retired Chinese professional basketball player, to endorse an awareness campaign, emphasising the effects of consuming shark fin. In 2013, WildAid released an advert with Ming, who committed to never eat shark fin again. Since the advert aired two years ago, shark fin sales had fallen by 82%, said Welz.

Since then, the Chinese government office administration of the state council also agreed to stop serving shark fin soup at official banquets. Welz added that local governments, such as Yueqing City, the hub town of shark fin processing, and Wenzhou, also banned shark fin soup from their banquets.

"Demand reduction can be very effective," said Peter Knights, Executive Director of WildAid. "The more people learn about the consequences [of eating shark fin soup], the less they want to participate in the trade," Welz cited.  

In 2015, WildAid released another awareness campaign advert with Jackie Chan, to present the vast impact of rhino poaching. In the advert, Chan says that anyone who buys a rhino horn is also paying for guns, bullets, pangas and the death of a rhino.

This advert reiterates the message that “when the buying stops, the killing can too”.

Since the advert aired in China, the awareness that horns came from poached rhinos increased by 51.5%, according to Welz. The Asian public believed that rhino horns fell off once a year and that was the horn they were buying, says Welz.

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David Beckham and the Duke of Cambridge are among the celebrities enlisted by WildAid for their awareness and conservation campaigns.