worthful jewellery is n’t always made from precious metal or gems . Wildlife moon-curser in Africa are more and more duck the police force by mask illegally harvested rhinoceros horn as wearable baubles and trinkets , according to anew studyconducted by wildlife trade monitoring meshwork TRAFFIC .
As BBC News theme , TRAFFIC analyze 456 wildlife seizure records — recorded between 2010 and June 2017 — to delineate illegal rhino horn swop routes and place smuggling method . In a report , the organisation take note that criminals have disguised rhino horns in the past using all kinds of originative methods , include covering the part with aluminum foil , coating them in wax , or smearing them with toothpaste or shampoo to dissemble the odour of decline . But as recent seizures in South Africa suggest , Chinese traffic connection within the nation are now concealing the coveted mathematical product by shaping hooter into beads , disk , novelty , necklace , and other objective , like stadium and cupful . The jut are also ground into gunpowder and stored in bags along with horn bits and shaving .
" It ’s very perturbing , " Julian Rademeyer , a project leader with TRAFFIC , tell BBC News . " Because if someone ’s walk through the aerodrome endure a necklace made of rhino French horn , who is operate to stop them ? constabulary are looking for a musical composition of horn and whole horn . "
Rhino horn is a spicy good in Asia . The ceratin parts have traditionally been grate up and used to make medicines for illness like atrophic arthritis or cancer , although there ’s no scientific grounds that these treatments work . And in recent years , motor horn physical object have become condition symbols among moneyed world in countries like Vietnam .
" A heavy number of people favour the powder , but there are those who use it for lucky charm , ” Melville Saayman , a prof at South Africa ’s North - West University who studies the rhino horn trade , told ABC News . “ So they would like a piece of the car horn . "
harmonize to TRAFFIC , at least 1249 rhino horns — together weighing more than five tons — were seized globally between 2010 and June 2017 . The bulk of these rhino horn shipments originated in southern Africa , with the expectant requirement coming from Vietnam and China . The product is mostly smuggle by air , but routes exchange and pitch depend on edge controls and police force enforcement resources .
conservationist admonish that this booming illegal trade has led to a precipitous descent in Africa ’s rhinoceros population : At least 7100 of the country ’s rhinoceros have been vote out over the past decade , according to one estimation , and only around 25,000 remain today . Meanwhile , carry through the Rhino International , a UK - base preservation Greek valerian , told BBC News that if current poaching trend continue , rhinos could go extinct in the natural state within the next 10 year .
[ h / tBBC News ]
