Run Rhino Run [antikvár]

Introduction The 1970s may have been a good period for many in our consumer society, but for the rhinoceros it was a decade of disaster. In those ten years, 50 per cent of the world's rhino population disappeared. The black rhino bore the brunt of the damage. In eastern Africa, formerly the stronghold of the species, nine out of ten of these cumbrous, vulnerable and endearing creatures were wiped out. Most of the killing was done by poachers carrying out their cruel trade to meet the demand for rhino horn in Asia and the Middle East. In the mid 1940s, a single hunter shot just under 1,000 rhinos in an area of 200 square kilometres in eastern Kenya, to make way for African settlement. By 1980, an area 100 times as large, the adjoining Tsavo National Park, held only about 150 surviving rhinos. An animal that has inhabited the earth for some 60 million years is now reduced to a few thousands that cling onto survival in little pockets of bush and jungle set aside for their protection. And even there they are being relentlessly hunted, trapped and killed. Despite much discussion, argument and wringing of hands, despite expressions of concern by governments, despite eflforts by dedicated individuals to halt the trend towards extinction, the remarkable truth is that no investigation into the demand for rhino horn, the root cause of the trouble, was made until 1979. Then Dr Esmond Bradley Martin, sponsored by the World Wildlife Fimd, travelled through much of South-East Asia in order to find out who buys the horn, in what quantities, and for what purposes. He discovered that some of the most widespread preconceptions about the trade were wrong. That rhino horn was used in aphrodisiac concoctions, in the mistaken belief that it increased sexual virility, was the generally accepted doctrine. By questioning the people who actually sold the horn, the pharmacists—nearly all Chinese—of Singapore, Hong Kong, Macao, Taipei and elsewhere, Dr Martin found out that its main use is not as an aphrodisiac after all, but as a remedy for various ailments such as high fevers, headaches, arthritis and other infirmities. In parts of India it is indeed believed to stimulate sexual performance, but throughout South-East Asia, as well as in China, it forms part of traditional Chinese medicine practiced today, much as it was 1,000 years ago, alongside modern treatments using scientifically based drugs. From the rhino's point of view, of course, it does not really matter whether the protuberance on its nose is believed to be an aphrodisiac or a cure for fevers; in either case, the persecution of the species by the human race stems from a myth. But it is as well to establish the facts before seeking a remedy. Dr Martin also tells us that another market hungry for the horn lies in North Yemen, where daggers with elaborately carved rhino horn handles are highly prized by young men. Until recently, very few young men could afford them, but a seven-fold rise in per capita income has put them within the reach of almost everyone. The new wealth has so greatly increased the demand that this small country, with about six million inhabitants, has become the world's largest importer of the horn-an unexpected and, for the rhino, melancholy spin-off from the soaring price of oil. Trade in rhino products is banned by CITES—the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species—and so every country which has ratified this agreement, and which still imports or exports the horn, does so