wildlife economy
Following a call for nominations, the South African
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species (lions, leopards, elephants, and black and white
rhinos). Among other matters, this panel is expected to
follow up on the work of the earlier rhino Committee of
Inquiry (on which I served). Earlier this year, private rhino
owners were dismayed to learn that South Africa has not
submitted a legal trade proposal to the forthcoming CITES
Conference of Parties, due to take place in Sri Lanka in May
- Evidently the South African government feels it is still
not ready to confront the inevitable fierce resistance such a
proposal will face and has decided to wait for the advice of
the future high-level panel on this matter.
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a future legal rhino horn trade? In terms of economic
efficiency, the case for legal trade is very strong indeed:
The current situation is untenable and unsustainable, with
criminals reaping the substantial profits while imposing a
crippling economic burden, not only on the directly affected
land-owners and managers, but also more generally on
conservation and the economies of the affected countries.
A sensibly designed legal trading regime would almost
certainly turn this situation around and provide a massive
economic boost to African wildlife economies. >>
A sensibly designed legal
trading regime would almost
certainly turn this situation
around and provide a massive
economic boost to African
wildlife economies.