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Rhinoceros ownership and attitudes towards legalization of global horn trade within South Africa's private wildlife sector

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2018

Elena C. Rubino*
Affiliation:
School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Florida, 103 Black Hall, PO Box 116455, Gainesville, Florida32611, USA.
Elizabeth F. Pienaar
Affiliation:
Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, USA
*
(Corresponding author) E-mail elenacrubino@ufl.edu
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Abstract

South Africa's private sector is vital to rhino conservation yet there is a lack of research into the attitudes of current and potential rhino owners towards rhino conservation and horn trade. We surveyed 169 members of the South African private wildlife ranching industry to examine these matters. We sought to understand: (1) ranchers’ motivations for owning or not owning rhinos, (2) how rhino ownership affects ranchers’ income and operations, and (3) the attitudes of wildlife industry members towards legalization of global rhino horn trade. Our findings indicate that all respondents recognize the risks of rhino ownership and tend to distrust national and provincial environmental departments. In addition to these concerns, rhino owners have substantial monthly security and management expenditures. We found positive attitudes overall towards global rhino horn trade. Rhino owners strongly agreed that legalization would benefit rhino owners and rhino conservation. Documenting the realities of private rhino ownership and the opinions of the wildlife industry is important for policy design and for informed debate about the legalization of the rhino horn trade.

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Article
Copyright
Copyright © Fauna & Flora International 2018
Figure 0

Table 1 The per cent (and number) of respondents engaged in various wildlife industry activities, the mean per cent of income derived from these activities, and a t-test of the difference in mean per cent of income between owners and non-owners.

Figure 1

Fig. 1 Per cent of all respondents combined, of rhino owners and of non-rhino owners in annual pre-tax income groups (ZAR 1 ≈ USD 0.076 in 2017).

Figure 2

Fig. 2 Per cent of respondents’ monthly security and management costs associated with rhino ownership by monthly expenditure group (1 ZAR ≈ USD 0.076 in 2017).

Figure 3

Table 2 Expressed level of concern (as % of each risk factor) of rhino owners and other respondents about the risks of rhino ownership on a scale of 1 (not at all concerned)–4 (very concerned), with median and mean level of concern.

Figure 4

Table 3 Responses to five statements (as % per statement) regarding global horn trade legalization, with probability of Fisher's exact test comparing rhino owners to non-owners.

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Rubino and Pienaar supplementary material

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