Zimbabwe has once again failed to live up to its obligations to CITES by releasing six rhino poachers from custody.

Despite recently arresting four rhino poachers, Zimbabwe continues to demonstrate its lack of commitment to protecting its endangered rhino population by granting bail to six rhino poachers.

Rampant poaching – allegedly being spearheaded by government officials – has caused both black and white rhino populations to decline in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe undermining decades of rhino conservation efforts

Zimbabwe is under tight scrutiny by CITES, as a recent finding revealed that high-ranking government officials are suspected to be behind the country’s unacceptable rate of rhino poaching.

Steven Broad, Executive Director of TRAFFIC, said via WWF that Zimbabwe’s unwillingness to enforce the law is undermining decades of African rhino conservation efforts.

Rhino poachers are currently operating in an environment where they are allowed to break the law without appropriate consequences. This kind of ineffective law enforcement increasingly undermines the success of more than a decade’s work of bringing rhinoceros populations in southern Africa back up to healthy levels.

According to a recent report by TRAFFIC and IUCN, Zimbabwe’s conviction rate for rhino poachers has been just 3%. This further raises suspicions of government involvement in rhino horn crimes.

Zimbabwe’s decision to release this latest batch of criminals comes just two weeks before the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP 15) in Doha, on March 13.

Rhino poaching driven by ‘superstitions’ about rhino horn

The demand for rhino horn is driven by an insatiable appetite in China and increasingly, Vietnam, where unfortunate superstitions attribute medicinal properties to rhino horn. China’s recent economic upswing has enabled an unprecedented number of citizens to afford “remedies” made from rhino horn, and from other endangered species.

Chinese pharmaceutical companies manufacture rhino horn into “medicines”, which are sold openly in pharmacies throughout China, and even in hospitals in Vietnam.

Contrary to popular belief, rhino horn is not used by the Chinese as an aphrodisiac. Primitive superstitions – still widely believed in China and other parts of Asia – consider rhino horn to be a cure-all for common ailments such as fever, pain, and even acne.

Scientific testing has proven that rhino horn has no medicinal effect on humans.

Image: istock.com

Sources:

• Release of Rhino Poachers Exposes Widespread Enforcement Failures, WWF, 02 March 2010
• African and Asian Rhinoceroses – Status, Conservation and Trade, IUCN/SSC and TRAFFIC, 20 November 2009

Rhishja Cota-Larson

I am the founder of Saving Rhinos LLC, which publishes news and information about the global rhino crisis. Besides writing Rhino Horn is Not Medicine, I am the author of the book Murder, Myths & Medicine, the Editor of Project Pangolin, and a writer for the environmental news blog Planetsave. When I'm not blogging about the illegal wildlife trade, I like to rock out to live music.

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