Why did Swaziland submit a last-minute proposal asking CITES to approve an experimental ‘pilot project’ to sell its stockpiled rhino horns? What does this mean for the COP17 conference? Yolandi Groenewald investigates A caretaker feeds a baby rhino in Swaziland’s Mkhaya Reserve after its mother’s milk dried up. Swaziland wants to sell nearly 330 kilograms of horn to an un-named number of ‘licensed retailers’ in ‘the Far East’. All photos by Yolandi Groenewald A proposal by Swaziland to legalise limited trade in rhino horn has not won wide support ahead of the major international meeting on wildlife trade in Sandton, South Africa, at the end of September. Supporters of the controversial proposal agree that the motion is unlikely to pass at the COP17 conference convened by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which regulates the legal international trade in wildlife. The secretariat of the conference has already recommended that the bid be rejected. But the advocates of legal trade still feel that putting a bid on the table for discussion at the conference is likely to open a lively debate on the subject for a future decision. The supporters believe that legal trade would counter the black-market trade in rhino horn. At the moment around 1,200 rhinos are killed in South Africa every year by poachers, and conservation agencies have an uphill battle to protect the rhinos, spending millions of rands every year in acquiring the best security for the animals. Private rhino owners who favour opening the trade recently organised a media trip to discuss the issue. Pelham Jones, chairperson of the Private Rhino Owners Association, said he believed the CITES agenda had been hijacked by activists who strongly oppose a trade in horns. Jones has more than 35 years’ conservation experience and is a private reserve and rhino owner himself. When the first rhinos were poached on private reserves in late 2008, he established the association to lobby for and coordinate assistance to private reserves faced with poaching pressures. “We are doing our damnest to save lives, but we are vociferously attacked by animal rights activists at every step,” he said. Global groups such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Born Free Foundation have warned that any nation supporting a rhino horn trade would face political isolation at the COP17 conference. “We expect a robust debate at the conference,” Jones said, adding that they were not hopeful of the bid passing. “Anti-trade is pushed all the time. We don’t hear nearly enough from the tradespeople.” The world’s biggest rhino farmer, John Hume, also lashed out against CITES, declaring that it had been hijacked by animal activists who are living in “lala land”. Hume said it would be a miracle if rhino trade was legalised at COP17. Hume has close to 1,500 rhinos living on his wildlife ranch in North West province. A legalised trade would see him turn a handsome profit from his estimated five tonnes of stockpiled horn, a fact his critics are quick to point out. Two baby rhinos in the orphanage on John Hume’s farm. He hopes his court case to open domestic trade will be finalised before CITES COP17 Ted Reilly, the 78-year-old head of Swaziland’s Big Game Parks, is the main author of the Swazi proposal. He said Swaziland submitted the proposal not only to counter the black-market trade, but also to raise money to ramp up security for the besieged rhinos. Two-thirds of the 182 countries represented at CITES would have to vote in favour of abolishing the ban on trade for the Swaziland motion to pass. The ban has been in existence since 1977. South Africa is home to 36% (totalling 1,893) of the world’s black rhinos and 90% (18,413) of the world’s white rhinos, giving any motion it supports on rhino horn trade gravitas. While the country’s national parks are reluctant to express a view on trade, KwaZulu-Natal’s conservation authority, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, is openly propagating trade. The South African government appointed a committee at the end of last year to study the idea of trading horn internationally, and it delivered a report to the cabinet in March. The country decided not to submit a bid for legal trade in April, shortly before the CITES deadline, though it was widely expected that the cabinet would support this. The government has not ruled out submitting a future bid to open trade. Jones called the decision a “cowardly act. South Africa would have been able to handle a trade proposal,” he said. Just days after South Africa’s announcement, Swaziland submitted a last-minute proposal that would allow for an experimental “pilot project” to sell off the tiny kingdom’s stockpiled horns.