Wildlife smuggling

Traffickers find new ways to smuggle rhino horn out of Africa

Instead of shipping poached rhino horns whole or in chunks, transnational criminal networks have started manufacturing jewelry and other rhino-horn trinkets in southern Africa, according to a new report from conservation NGO Traffic.

Beads, bangles and other carved rhino-horn trinkets have previously been found in destination countries like Vietnam and China. However, manufacturing such products before shipping them out of Africa represents a new tactic for evading detection, and indicates a possible shift in consumer demand.

“I think it makes it extraordinarily difficult for law enforcement agencies,” said Julian Rademeyer, a South Africa-based project leader for Traffic and one of the authors of the report. “They are already overstretched and under-resourced, and who’s going to be able to stop someone walking through an airport wearing a rhino-horn bracelet or bangle or beads, or carrying them in a bag? It’s not the sort of thing that law enforcement agencies and customs officials are looking for. They’re looking for whole horns or chunks of horns.”