FW: (VN) Health fads put rhinos on death row

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Pieter Cornelis

Sunday, December 20, 2009 8:36 PM

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Health fads put rhinos on death row

 

http://animals-in-the-news.blogspot.com/2009/12/neushoorn-hoorns-zijn-zeer-gewil\

d-in.html

 

19-12-2009 Thanh Nien Daily, Vietnam

 

 

With Vietnamese believing rhino horns have magical medicinal properties and

willing to pay big money for them, the giant animal is being driven to

extinction.

 

Nguyen Van Lam, a former deputy head of the Government Office, resigned in

July 2006 after he was found to have accepted cash as “gifts” from state

agencies during an official trip to the south.

The case broke when Lam absent-mindedly left a handbag with 10 envelopes

inside containing US$10,300 and VND20 million at the Hanoi airport.

He claimed that only VND2.25 million was meant for him while the rest was

from friends and colleagues who wanted him to buy rhino horns for them.

 

Besides the source of the money, the fact that a senior government official

like Lam had intended to buy rhino horns, an illegal act under the

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and

Flora (CITES) to which Vietnam is a signatory, was also incriminating, a

lawmaker said at that time.

 

Four months later South African police accused a Vietnamese embassy official

in Pretoria, Nguyen Khanh Toan, of carrying rhino horns out of the country.

South African authorities reported to the Vietnamese government since Toan

had diplomatic immunity.

 

But in November last year the Vietnamese embassy in South Africa was again

in the news after First Secretary Vu Moc Anh was filmed buying rhino horns

to a South African trafficker in front of the embassy building.

Anh was summoned home by the government but it is not clear what action was

taken against her.

 

Why rhino horns?

 

Traditional Chinese medicine considers rhino horn as one of the three main

restoratives. Shaved or ground into a powder, the horn is dissolved in

boiling water and used to treat fevers, rheumatism, and gout. East Asians

also consider it a powerful aphrodisiac.

 

Given the increasing affluence among Vietnamese, the rhino’s horn has become

more affordable. It is also a status symbol, a means for people to flaunt

their wealth. It is thus not all that unusual for affluent Vietnamese and

even government officials to gift each other rhino horns.

 

Now, a belief that the horn can cure cancer is apparently taking root. There

were some newspaper reports that a Vietnamese government official claimed it

had cured him of cancer, adding to the already booming demand.

 

The demand for rhino horns in Vietnam has driven poaching to a 15-year-high

and pushed the animals perilously close to extinction, a report by the World

Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), the International Union for the Conservation

of Nature (IUCN), and wildlife monitoring network TRAFFIC said last July.

 

This has also rendered the country a major destination for the horns, the

report said.

 

A report commissioned by CITES and produced by IUCN Rhino Specialist Group

and TRAFFIC confirmed last month that Vietnam has become an end-use market

for wildlife products in general and rhino horns in particular.

“Currently, most rhino horns leaving southern Africa are destined for

end-use markets in southeast and east Asia, especially Vietnam and China,”

the November report said.

 

It highlighted Vietnam as a country of particular concern – noting that

Vietnamese nationals operating in South Africa have recently been identified

in rhino crime investigations.

 

In Vietnam, rhino horns (including fake horns) are sold through traditional

medicine stores and hospitals, whilst other shops sell special bowls for

grinding and mixing the horns, the report said.

The horns were also marketed through at least six virtual trading websites

in Vietnam, it said.

 

The “online” horns are described as authentic, but no locations are given

and only mobile phone numbers are provided for contact, it added.

 

Poaching epicenter

 

Since 2006 the majority (95 percent) of the poaching in Africa has occurred

in Zimbabwe and South Africa, according to new data. “These two nations

collectively form the epicenter of an unrelenting poaching crisis in

southern Africa,” Tom Milliken of TRAFFIC said.

 

The clandestine trade in rhino horns between South Africa and certain

countries is a matter of serious concern, according to the November report.

 

It also quoted CITES import data as saying Vietnam only imported 38 rhino

horns since 2006 whereas South Africa has said it exported 268 to Vietnam in

the same period.

 

In terms of its CITES listing, only white rhinos can be commercially hunted

with a permit but it is illegal for the trophy owner then to sell the horn.

But poachers from China and Vietnam have found a loophole for obtaining

rhino horn by participating in legal trophy hunts in South Africa.

 

Investigations in South Africa have revealed disturbing evidence of

organized crime, including the frequent involvement of a small number of

Vietnamese nationals in rhino hunting, repeatedly on the same game parks.

 

Other evidence include numerous cases of Vietnamese “trophy hunters” paying

above market price for rhino hunts but then having to be instructed in how

to shoot and completely foregoing any proper trophy preparation or the

issuance of export permits for rhino trophies to Vietnamese nationals

previously linked to ongoing rhino crime.

 

Given this, concerted action at the highest level is needed to stop this

rampant rhino poaching, experts said.

 

“We urge the Vietnamese government to review and honor its obligations under

CITES,” said Cathy Dean, director of UK-based NGO Save the Rhino

International.

 

Thomas Osborn, TRAFFIC’s Program Greater Mekong Coordinator, concurred with

Dean. He also spelled out specific measures Vietnamese authorities should

take to combat the illegal trade.

“The Vietnamese Government [should] openly state that illegal rhino horn and

other illegal wildlife trade will not be tolerated,” Osborn told Thanh Nien

Weekly. “They can enforce the letter of the law by instituting criminal

proceedings against anyone, including officials, healthcare workers and

businesses, caught flouting the law.”

 

Osborn doubted if the eight seizures of rhino horns in Vietnam would be

enough of a deterrent.

“Seizing horns and slapping a fine is likely to be of limited effect,

especially as the potential profits from rhino horn trade can far outweigh

the fines.”

Rhino horns are said to fetch US$25,000– 40,000 per kilogram on the black in

Vietnam.

 

Nguyen Manh Hung, Vietnam’s ambassador to South Africa, told Thanh Nien

Weekly that his embassy is fully aware of the seriousness of the problem and

would be in close touch with the South African government to prevent this

illegal trade.

“We have been educating our staff as well as all Vietnamese citizens in

South Africa to adhere to the CITES regulations and domestic laws. We will

not brook any participation by Vietnamese in the illegal wildlife trade,” he

said.

 

Dean of Save the Rhino International also called for tougher action from the

South African government.

“South Africa should be encouraged to review its annual hunting quotes, to

ensure that they are set at sustainable levels in these changing times,”

Dean told Thanh Nien Weekly.

The South African government should impose tighter control over its

trophy-head export licenses so that rhino trophies can only be exported to

countries that have policies in place to register and track the ownership of

such trophies, and ensure that they will not be used for commercial purposes

or resale, Dean said.

 

Verge of extinction

 

The report also raises concerns about the low and declining numbers as well

as the uncertain status of some of the Sumatran and Javan Rhino populations

in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

 

Vietnam has few rhinos left. No one is quite sure how many though people

believe there may be only around five individuals, Osborn said.

 

WWF researchers began a census last month to see how many there are.

 

“The resurgence of rhino-horn trade in Vietnam and possibly China and other

parts of Asia is of paramount concern but remains poorly documented,

especially the extent of usage and trade in end-use markets in Asia,” the

report said.

“This issue needs to be carefully assessed, including through a better

understanding of the policies, legislation, and law-enforcement actions of

governments in end-use markets, especially Vietnam, where internet trading

of alleged rhino horns is currently taking place.”

 

PANACEA MYTH

International experts urge Vietnamese authorities to dispel a deep-rooted

belief that rhino horns can cure cancer and other diseases.

 

“The demand has increased because of the perceived medicinal benefits of

using rhino horn, including the ‘new’ use of curing cancer. However, there

appears to be no traditional medical backing to say that it works for

cancer,” Thomas Osborn, TRAFFIC’s Greater Mekong Program Coordinator, says.

 

Rhino horn is made of keratin, the same substance that is found in human

hair and nails and “reporting this supposed cure was highly irresponsible,

and may have led to other people wanting to buy rhino horn,” says Cathy

Dean, director of UK-based NGO Save the Rhino International.

 

“But it was not, and never was, a cure for cancer,” says Susan Lieberman,

former WWF species program director.

 

(Bron: http://www.thanhniennews.com/)

(Bron foto: http://zimbabwewilddogs.wildlifedirect.org/tag/poaching/)

Posted by Paul Kraaijer at 09:58