UK leads clampdown on rhino horn trade

Countries and conservation groups will share intelligence and work on public awareness campaigns

Press Association
Sunday 21 August 2011 11.20 BST

Britain has secured international agreement to clamp down on the illegal trade of rhino horn, which has become so sought after it is worth more than diamonds, gold, heroin and cocaine.

The UK will lead a global steering group to dispel the myths that rhino horn can cure cancer or help stroke patients, which are fuelling demand for it in Asia and driving up its price to £50,000 a kilo.

Countries and conservation groups will share intelligence and policing tactics and work on public awareness campaigns against the illegal trade. The agreement was reached at the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species in Geneva.

The environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, said: "Criminals trading in rhino horn have lined their pockets while bringing this magnificent animal to the brink of extinction, but their days are now numbered.

"We will be leading global action to clamp down on this cruel and archaic trade, and to dispel the myths peddled to vulnerable people that drive demand for rhino products."

There has been a significant increase in the number of rhinos killed in countries such as South Africa since 2010, in what conservationists warn is a "poaching crisis".

The UK will support a workshop in South Africa in September to develop better co-operation between countries where rhinos are poached and those where their horns are sold.

Last September, after the UK's animal health agency detected a rise in the number of rhino horn products being sold through auction houses, it issued a warning that it would refuse almost all applications to export such items from the UK.

It was feared that the legal export of "worked items", such as ornaments, created and acquired before June 1947, was being used to send rhino horn to Asia, where it is powdered and used for medicinal purposes. The trade could stimulate the market for products from the endangered animal, fuelling poaching, officials said.

Under rules brought in for the UK and then backed by the EU, export licences are granted only if the item's artistic value exceeds its potential value on the black market, if it is part of a genuine exchange of goods between institutions such as museums, if it is being taken as an heirloom by a family moving country, or if it is part of a bona fide research project.