South Africa's minister of water and environmental affairs Edna Molewa announced that they will be making petition for a one-off sale of some of its $1 billion stockpile of rhino horn at the next CITES meeting in 2016. "South Africa cannot continue to be held hostage by the syndicates slaughtering our rhinos," said Molewa. The trading of rhino horn has been illegal under CITES regulations since 1977, but Molewa believes that if allowed the sale will 'flood the market' and will reduce the demand, at least for a while. And the money will go towards conservation and research. South Africa is home to more than 20,000 rhinos. The country lost a record of 668 rhinos last year and is expecting to lose about 800 this year. However, not everyone's on board with the plan and conservationists fear the plan could easily backfire.  

"If we were dealing with a species where the numbers were not a problem that would be a different matter, but we've passed the tipping point with rhino," said Jason Bell, IFAW's regional director for southern Africa. "It's a very dangerous experiment and could very easily be detrimental. “The reality is no one would be able to control it. The Chinese are not able to control the legal ivory trade. In China syndicates are already stockpiling ivory and horn for investment, as a hedge fund on future demands.” Rudi van Aarde, head of the conservation ecology research unit at the University of Pretoria, said: “Having sensitised the world to the plight of rhinos and the problems of the illegal trade, then to have government ask to be able to sell rhino horn legally, is going to cost us. South Africa has won accolades for conservation internationally. We’ve done a lot of good things. To throw that away in pursuit of R11bn will be selling off our international goodwill, and that is quite a price to pay.” (Source: DAN)