I love surprises. So when someone suggested that I research the subject of legalising the trade in rhino horn I leapt at it. I could see that the issue was ripe for some Edward de Bono-type thinking.

In Africa the black rhino is considered critically endangered and the white variety is listed as near threatened by the International Union of Nature Conservation. Black or white, population numbers are fragile. The primary cause of this situation is the continuous slaughter of rhinos by humans.

Some good out-of-the-box thinking could serve rhino well, I thought. Surely all it needs is some imagination and rational pragmatism.

The number one reason behind the killing is the demand for rhino horn in the East where it is used in muti of the Chinese kind. And so the fundamental question around the trade in rhino horn can be expanded to all geographical regions where traditional healers are faced with a dwindling supply of ingredients: at what point do we reconcile traditional values with modern reality? It is a question that requires deep introspection.

Cultural beliefs arise from an ancient knowledge of, and affinity with, animal species. The Chinese have a long association with rhino. The animal is associated with the Pangu Myth of transformation that first emerged in the Three Kingdoms period (220-280CE). Artefacts indicate that rhinos were celebrated as guardians of tombs.

Adult rhino are almost entirely immune to predation. When they feel threatened they use their horn as a weapon. That the horn should therefore have protective properties was an easy connection for the ancients to make. Amplified by centuries of repetition this belief still exists. The modern use of rhino horn in traditional Chinese medicine is regarded as a cure for ailments ranging from fever to cancer.

Enter the current poaching crisis and the ‘traditional’ Western culture of materialism and monetary values. The recent spike in rhino poaching has been caused by two primary factors: rising affluence in the East and the closing of loopholes in the exportation of trophies from South Africa.

CITES data for 2006-2009 indicates large discrepancies between horn exported from South Africa and amounts imported into Vietnam, for instance. There are also anomalies between the number of live animal exports and deliveries to China. One explanation that accounts for the difference is the repeated use of a single hunting permit for multiple hunts. These schemes have now been restricted.

Denied access to horn the quasi legal way Asian importers have turned to poaching to obtain their product. Coupled with increased disposable income in the East – Asian businessmen and industrialists are driving the market – the demand for horn has grown dramatically.

The danger associated with the acquisition of horn, combined with the wealth of the purchaser, has driven the wholesale price of horn up to a reported US$20,000 per kilogram. Criminal syndicates that use sophisticated equipment in slick, military-style operations are the main players. Their sheer efficacy has taken everyone by surprise. 333 animals were killed illegally in South Africa in 2010.

Naturally, private ranch owners are alarmed at the reduction in revenue this turn of events represents, and calls for the legalisation of trade in rhino horn are being heard. In South Africa 25% of the rhino population is in private hands, while the country provides a home for 82% of the total number on the continent. In other words, the owners of approximately 20% of African rhinos are raising concerns about the commercial viability of keeping them.

The idea being mooted calls for a centralised selling organisation that would control the amount and the price of horn released onto the market. It is envisaged that natural mortalities, harvested product and stockpiles would supply this structure. The financing of conservation efforts through the generated revenues is a persuasive argument in favour of the concept. Furthermore, the opportunity to profile the horn through DNA testing would ensure its legal provenance.

“The real issue for conservation is the source of supply of a particular product: was the product obtained from a source that will encourage further poaching, or does the source compete with the providers of freshly supplied (poached) product?” says Mike t’Sas-Rolfes, an environmental economist.

It all sounds very sensible in the cold light of finance.

Most entrepreneurs will tell you, however, that a fundamental precept in doing business is to minimise risk. The financial argument is but one aspect of the whole. So let’s step back and ask what the overall issue is.

“To conserve genetically viable populations of each individual species in the wild,” is one of the chief objectives of all conservationists observes ‘tSas-Rolfes.

The lesson we have learned is that a trade ban, on its own, is inadequate as a conservation measure. “There is a growing realisation that trade bans cannot be effective without the use of direct measures (such as consumer awareness campaigns) that genuinely reduce consumer demand to residual levels,” says ‘tSas Rolfes.

So would a reversal of the trade ban be the silver bullet? Would allowing limited trade satisfy consumer demand and ensure the continued existence of rhino in the wild? This is where I was really hoping for an ‘aha’ moment – one that would sweep me away with its unexpected common sense. One that would show that the risk to rhino of such a reversal was minimal.

After much grappling with the problem, looking at it every which way I could, I kept coming back to people and how we behave.

Here I couldn’t get past the muddled message that lifting the trade ban would send. On the one hand: ‘rhino horn doesn’t cure cancer – get with the programme.’ And simultaneously: ‘you can have rhino horn as long as you’re prepared to pay us for it.’ Talk about mixed signals.

Lifting the trade ban would mean endorsing the consumption of rhino horn. This would not only undermine education programmes, it could also be interpreted as: ‘as long as you are rich it’s okay to remain mired in the past.’  Something about that smacks of imperious irresponsibility, and is about as useful as a damp facecloth in dousing a roaring inferno.

Poaching is the direct and immediate problem facing rhino. Therefore direct and immediate interventions will serve the species best: greater security, better intelligence and harsher punishment for criminals. The wider solution requires simple, clear and consistent promotion: rhino horn has no curative properties, the conservation of biodiversity is essential to our own longterm survival.

So rather than try to fit a changing world into a specific bias, perhaps we should expand our thinking, and allow for the interconnection of different views and their effect upon one another.

It is appropriate that the plight of the rhino, an animal associated with transformation in the Asian mind, has come to the fore during this period of great change in Chinese and Vietnamese society. It is a symbol of a culture shift.   And it is inevitable that, with or without the existence of rhino,  the Asians will eventually learn that its horn has no place in modern medicine.  Likewise, at some point, Western culture needs to accept that not everything in life is about money.

References:

Elephants, Rhinos and the Economics of the Illegal Trade, Michael ‘tSas-Rolfes, Pachyderm No. 24 Jul-Dec 1997.

African and Asian Rhinoceroses – Status, Conservation and Trade, IUCN and TRAFFIC Report, Nov 2009.

“You must do the elephants, they’ve been the highlight of our whole trip,” urge the Americans as we step onto the airstrip, a ribbon of highground surrounded by the blue-green carpet of the Okavango Delta.

At dinner we meet Doug Groves, director of Grey Matters, an education-based eco-tourism company. Soft-spoken and diffident, with the demeanor of a true gentle-man, Doug tells us he has been the human element of the elephant partnership for the better part of twenty two years. It becomes apparent that Doug’s benign nature makes him an obvious candidate for a pachyderm calling.

Doug’s relationship with the elephants began when he adopted two orphans, Jabu and Thembi, from a Kruger Park cull in 1988. They were two years old and deeply traumatized. Love and attention were lavished on the pair so that now, as twenty-four year olds, they are well-adjusted and accomplished wildlife ambassadors.

The third elephant, Morula, is a Zimbabwean orphan with a sad history. Already seventeen years old when she met Doug she’s been the recipient of extra ministrations to alleviate her emotional pain.

“It took ages to build up a trusting relationship with Morula,” says Doug. “In the beginning we had to use Jabu and Thembi as intermediaries.”

It is in the role of emissaries that the trio provide a powerful yet humbling experience for humans.

The next day we meet the team and from the moment we see, smell and hear the grey hulks foraging peacefully in the wild, we are overcome by wonder. While we stand by quietly observing these examples of life’s diversity we realise they are not out to harm us.

Gradually, in the most agreeable way, Doug introduces us to the elephants. One by one we are invited to go up and touch their textured bodies and commune through all our senses with them.

“Jabu loves toes,” says Doug as the snouty end of the elephant’s proboscis gently plays around my feet. Looking down I realise this is a greeting. For a brief moment I wish to have a nose in my toes so that I can return his hallo, Eskimo-style.

Standing over three metres tall with probably another metre to grow, Jabu’s presence is overwhelming, to say the least. As you stand beneath his massive head you realise that all it would take is one small flick of his trunk, or one stomp of his dustbin-lid sized foot, or one shake of annoyance from his head … and you’d be hamburger.

It is in this utter commitment to trust that you begin to understand what they, elephants and other wildlife, must feel in their relationship with humanity. For at this moment the shoe is on the other foot.

By entrusting your safety to them, and knowing that in this submission you are asking for their tolerance and consideration, you begin to understand with emotional intelligence the vulnerability of all non-human life at the present time in evolution.

What it feels like to be at the mercy of another species has an important part to play in the transformation of human consciousness. From the experience we are in a better position to transfer that understanding to others. The projection of compassion onto other species, large and small, will save us in the end.  We cannot survive alone as a monospecies on an earth we are busy trampling in so cavalier a manner.

It is in this utter commitment to trust that you begin to understand what they, elephants and other wildlife, must feel in their relationship with humanity.

This appreciation deepens as Doug takes you through aspects of elephant biology and the impact that biodiversity loss is having on all life on the planet.

Interspersed through the morning’s learning are little games, (to keep the elephants’ attention from waning, naturally) as well as a concert performed by the wind section of the OPO (Okavango Philharmonic Orchestra).

Notably, and in contrast to other elephant tourism products, no riding of the animals takes place. The Elephant Experience is not about man’s supremacy over the beasts, it is about respect and understanding between species.

As a new awareness rises that man and nature are not separate, but interconnected in ways we don’t yet fully understand, Jabu, Thembi and Morula provide a lasting emotional bridge across the great species divide.

www.livingwithelephants.org

Situated in a narrow strip known as the Strandveld, the Diamond Coast is host to many of the Succulent Karoo plant species – a global biodiversity hotspot.

The Succulent Karoo comprises 6,356 different plants, of which 40% are endemic. This in a harsh, arid environment, where one sheep requires 5,000 hectares of land to support it. The diversity is so extraordinary that you’ll find one species endemic to a small 100 square metre patch of earth.

The adaptations that all forms of life have made to survive in this harsh landscape are revelationary. The surprises take your breath away. For example, Euphorbia morantanica is a deciduous evergreen. Yes, that’s right it goes both ways! Losing its leaves in summer to reduce transpiration and retaining chlorophyll in its stem to continue photosynthesis. Or how about the Namaqua Dwarf Adder, the world’s smallest viper, that collects the fog rolling off the Atlantic Ocean on its scales to drink?

In the floral kingdom life-strategies and adaptations fall into two broad categories: evasion and tolerance. Generally the annuals, the flowering plants that Namaqualand is famous for, fall into the evasion category. They exhibit a rapid completion of their life cycle in a short, favourable period i.e. spring. Differing germination regulation mechanisms mean that not all species flower every year – there is a staggering of procreation over a series of years. One could also call it a sharing of the available resources . Other species produce two different kinds of seeds: one favourable to one set of germination conditions and another to a different set.

The succulents and stone plants generally fall into the tolerance category, where a thick outer skin and fewer stomata reduce water loss. Some have even adopted a different photosynthetic pathway and only take in carbon dioxide at night, when opening their stomata means a reduced loss of moisture. Others, called windowplants, actually withdraw under the soil allowing only a small “window” to protrude at soil level to let sunlight in.

It’s all quite mind-boggling. And extremely humbling.

It appears that this extraordinary tenacity and versatility has rubbed off on humans. Ancient middens provide proof of mankind’s presence up to 3,000 years ago. More recently, hardy settlers survive in Namaqualand’s harsh environment. It’s almost as if Namaqualanders realise that under such extreme conditions the smallest adaptation can make the difference to existence. That’s why you’ll find the people of Namaqualand incredibly helpful. If there’s anything they can do to help, they’ll do it. They know, to the core of their beings, just how priceless this phenomenon called Life is.

]]> http://www.clarissahughes.com/conservation/diamond-coast-%e2%80%93-arcane-world-of-miracles/feed/ 0 http://www.clarissahughes.com/people-and-culture/biodiversity-and-bushmen-in-2010/ http://www.clarissahughes.com/people-and-culture/biodiversity-and-bushmen-in-2010/#comments Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:00:36 +0000 Clarissa http://www.clarissahughes.com/?p=481 2010 is a significant year for Africa. The pride that the first time hosting of the FIFA world cup brings is tangible. “Ke Nako” is the refrain. It is Time – to be acknowledged, to be recognised, to take our place on the world stage.

What is less on our minds is the fact that 2010 has been declared as the United Nations International Year of Biodiversity. The rapid loss in biodiversity on the planet gave rise to this attention-getting intiative. Species extinctions are almost a daily occurrence, and they are only the ones we know about – there are many more, unknown to science or beneath the surface of our awareness that we remain ignorant of. The real scary part is that these extinctions are, in almost all cases, caused by human beings.

The Bushmen have collided with this realisation – that biodiversity is important to safeguard our future – in their desire to remain on traditional land. When they lived as hunter/gatherers their impact on the land was minimal. However, things have changed and the former hunter/gatherers have now acquired livestock, drive vehicles and shoot game with rifles. This is their lifestyle choice. Their ecological footprint has increased signficantly from times of yore.

The situation in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana highlights this issue. The land the Bushmen wish to remain on is declared a game reserve. It receives an average of around 300 mm of rain each year. Desertification, caused by overgrazing livestock, is a real and imminent threat.

Parallel to this the Government of Botswana has long recognised, and implemented, a sound Tourism Policy that utilises the country’s natural resources in a sustainable manner. Tourism is a vehicle that provides benefits for its citizens into the future. The choice presented to the Bushmen of the Central Kalahari goes something like this: if you want to keep livestock you need to move out of the reserve; if you want to stay here then continue to live the true hunter/gatherer lifestyle or get involved in the tourism industry.

As the responsibility of preserving biodiversity falls to governments and citizens alike, the assumption that the Bushmen don’t understand the issues of sustainability is patronising, to say the least.

Which is not to say that we shouldn’t mourn the loss of the old way of hunter/gatherer lifestyles, along with the knowledge and skills that went with it. In light of the vanishing culture the preservation of that wisdom should be encouraged (e.g. museums, books, storytelling etc.). But it certainly is not up to outsiders to decide how the Bushmen should live.

So in this year of 2010, of African Pride, could there be an emerging trust that sometimes Africans do know what they’re on about?

The sustainable use of the Earth’s natural resources is a lesson the whole world needs to learn.

]]> http://www.clarissahughes.com/people-and-culture/biodiversity-and-bushmen-in-2010/feed/ 2 http://www.clarissahughes.com/conservation/somali-pirates-improbable-conservationists/ http://www.clarissahughes.com/conservation/somali-pirates-improbable-conservationists/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:18:34 +0000 Clarissa http://www.clarissahughes.com/?p=367 I recently met a South African who’d spent some time living with the locals on the coast of Kenya at Malindi. He’s a keen spear fisherman and likes to take time out from his stressful job (that sends him to all corners of our continent) to spend time with other Africans.

While in Kenya he listened to the native drums, which asserted that all along the Swahili coast, fish stocks were on the increase.

The upsurge in Somali piracy has had an unintended benefit, fish numbers have started to revive, as fewer foreign trawlers are willing to risk East African waters.

What a difference to the usual consequence of African lawlessness, where plummeting numbers are the norm when the human wheels fall off (e.g. DRC and Zimbabwe).

The critical question, of course, is who is the plunderer?

Outsider (regional and foreign) rapaciousness is the killer. Sensible and controlled temperance is clearly a relief to natural resources and, by consequence, to the humans who rely directly upon them.

I can’t help but ask how Asians and Westerners would feel if Africans started stripping their natural resources. Would this be the moment, then, for Africa to take heed of the history lessons, and save the planet?