South Africa, which is home to 79% of the world's rhinos, has declared its intention to devise a strategy by the end of 2030 to eliminate a nearly fifty-year-old ban on the trade of rhino horns.
A draft of the country's first rhino biodiversity-management plan, which was released recently, contains a suggestion that is controversial due to the decimation of rhino populations across Africa due to poaching for their horns.
The horns are pounded into a powder and marketed in East Asia, where they are wrongly thought to be able to cure cancer and other maladies.
Bloomberg reports that the national cabinet will be presented with a recommendation for the restart of commerce by the country's environment agency.
It will be contingent upon the sustainability of rhino populations.
The proposal would thereafter be presented at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, which has prohibited the trade since 1977.
The department stated that the plan's objective is to ensure that the necessary conditions are in place to advocate for the legitimate international commerce of rhino horn from protected wild rhinoceros for conservation objectives.
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