Asian money leads to S.Africa rhino poaching rise

Asian money leads to S.Africa rhino poaching rise
By Jon Herskovitz

JOHANNESBURG, July 15 (Reuters) - Booming demand from increasingly rich Asian markets has led to a spike in rhino poaching in South Africa this year, officials say.

The latest rhino victim was found on Wednesday in South Africa's Krugersdorp Nature Reserve, where the animal was downed with a tranquiliser dart, had its horn removed with a chain saw and bled to death on the dusty terrain.

Poaching has been a long-term problem in impoverished African states. But the recent rise appears to be due to increased demand and higher prices for rhino horn in Asia where it is used as a medicine, and successful conservation in South Africa that has led to an increase in the rhino population.

South Africa has lost nearly 100 rhinos this year to poaching, after losing 122 last year, which was a record high. In response, Africa's richest economy has set aside more funds for rangers, equipment and policing to crack down on the trans-border crime.

"This is a war we plan on winning," David Mabunda, the head of South African National Parks, said in a statement.

This month, in a high profile case, a Vietnamese man was sentenced to 10 years in jail for trying to smuggle rhino horn, one of the harshest sentences ever given in the country.

South Africa was home to about 90 percent of the white rhinos in Africa as of the end of 2007 with just over 16,000, according to a report submitted last year to a U.N. commission by conservation groups including the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Rhino horn has been used for centuries in Chinese medicine, where it was ground into a powder and often mixed with hot water to treat a variety of maladies including rheumatism, gout, high fever and even devil possession.

In recent years, it has taken on the reputation for being an aphrodisiac and gained in popularity among the newly rich in Vietnam and other southeast Asian states, where it is seen as a cancer remedy, studies have found.

This has caused the price of rhino horn to swell to 36,300 pounds ($55,700) a kilogramme, making it far more expensive than gold, according to the conservation group International Rhino Foundation.

It said the typical adult rhino has about 7 kg (15.4 pounds) of horns, which would translate to about $40 million worth of value being taken by poachers in South Africa so far this year.

Poachers target rhinos in South Africa's sprawling and difficult to patrol national parks and massive game preserves, according to government conservation officials.

They use foot soldiers on the ground and helicopters in the air to search for rhinos that they either gun down with high-powered arms or by letting them bleed to death as happened in the most recent killing.

South Africa, which uses wildlife tours to draw tens of thousands of tourists, has become the main battleground for poachers who have devastated rhino populations in other African states.

"We ... are paying a high price with these senseless killings of our animals, while some leader of a syndicate is winning the minds and hearts of ordinary and poor members of society to be on the frontline of these evil operations," Mabunda said. (Editing by Mark Heinrich)