rhino horns

Wildlife trafficking is the world’s fourth largest form of organized crime, behind only drug trafficking, counterfeiting, and human trafficking. When we hear about wildlife trafficking, we think of elephant ivory, rhino horns, tiger parts, and the like. But so-called forest crimes, which includes poaching protected trees and illegal logging added up to somewhere between $30 billion and $100 billion during the period 2014-2018. A 2020 report by the United Nations estimated that illegal trade just in rosewoods comprised more than 40% of the value of all trafficked species – animal and plant – during that time.

Even though rosewood comprises multiple tree species, world stocks of nearly all of them have been depleted through overexploitation. Rosewood is now protected worldwide, and some 300 species are under trade restrictions.

With a value of as much as $1.5 million per cubic meter, rosewood is at the center of a great deal of illegal activity, government corruption, and controversy. A shipment of 30,000 illegally felled rosewood logs from Madagascar was seized at a port in Singapore in 2014. Those rosewood logs, worth at least $50 million, have been hung up in multiple legal proceedings and disputes ever since and remain in Singapore.

With huge financial stakes, it is perhaps not surprising that the U.N. estimates that as much as a third of the supposedly legal global timber trade involves illegally harvested wood.

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How Traffickers Got Away with the Biggest Rosewood Heist in History

Photo, posted April 19, 2010, courtesy of Dinesh Valke via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Northern White Rhinos are virtually extinct; only two female individuals survive in Kenya. Southern White Rhinos also nearly vanished early in the 20th century, mostly because of excessive hunting. A surviving group of fewer than 100 animals was identified in South Africa, and ongoing conservation efforts led to the existing population of southern white rhinos, which now numbers more than 16,000.

Among the most successful conservation efforts took place at a 30-square-mile farm, Platinum Rhino, that was set up in 2009 about 100 miles southwest of Johannesburg. The owner of the farm did a great job of maintaining genetic diversity of the herd and protecting it from poachers. Eventually, it was costing $175,000 a month just for security against illegal hunters seeking rhino horns.

Faced with unsustainable expenses, the farm put the herd of 2,000 rhinos up for auction in April with a starting price of $10 million. No bidders came forward.

Fortunately, in September, the conservation group African Parks announced that it had reached a deal to take over the herd. African Parks partners with 12 countries in Africa to manage 77,000 square miles of protected areas.

The plan is to start moving the rhinos into a series of new sites in the wild starting next year. Moving the 5,000-pound animals to new locations will be complicated and expensive, costing anywhere from $1,500 to move a single rhino by land within South Africa to $50,000 for far afield air transport. African Parks is now raising funds to relocate the animals.

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Now Available: 2,000 Rhinos, Free to Good Homes With Plenty of Space

Photo, posted September 4, 2023, courtesy of Eric Huybrechts via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Forest crimes

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Finding Homes For Rhinos | Earth Wise

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