Rhino horn trade banned again in South Africa

This video says about itself:

31 October 2013

Volunteers in South Africa are giving up their time to give baby rhinos orphaned by poachers a second chance. As one of South Africa’s first dedicated rhino orphanages the facility, built by Legends Lodges Resorts, gives round the clock care to the calves, some of which are as young as three weeks old. The facility features a specially designed veterinary building and pens, as well as a custom made rhino ambulance which is used to rescue the young animals from poaching sites.

From Reuters news agency:

South Africa says domestic rhino horn trade on ice, takes issue to top court

June 8, 2016, 9:21 AM

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s department of environmental affairs said on Wednesday an on-again-off-again moratorium on domestic trade in rhino horn had been reinstated after it appealed to the top court in the land to render judgment on the thorny issue.

The outcome has no bearing on a ban on international trade in rhino horn. Potential domestic buyers could include those who see rhino horn as a store of wealth that could appreciate in value and those who want it as a decoration.

Conservationists have expressed concerns that domestic buyers could also illicitly supply markets in Vietnam and China, where demand for rhino horn – coveted as an ingredient in traditional medicine – has triggered a wave of poaching.

In May, South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed the government’s bid to uphold a seven-year ban on the domestic trade in rhino horn. The Constitutional Court is its last judicial option.

“The moratorium on the domestic trade in rhino horn, or products or derivatives thereof, is once again in place,” the department said in a statement.

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