The Price of Protecting Rhinos | Hacker News Reader

The Price of Protecting Rhinos

theatlantic.com

14 pointspseudolus8 comments

It's a nasty problem. Ultimately those responsible are those consuming rhino horn; they're paying for poachers to murder rangers and render a species extinct.

Interesting how people ascribe responsibility in different ways to thigs. Ultimately, those responsible are those killing the animals, thereby providing supply to a market for it.

It might be useful to talk about proximate and ultimate causes in that case[1]. Yes, the poacher pulls the trigger, but if the horn wasn't worth anything it, that wouldn't have happened.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proximate_and_ultimate_causati...

I read recently that there is a plan to flood China with artificial 'rhino horn'. This could destroy the market for real horns and probably clear out the problem pretty easily. [0]

The other problem, corruption, is harder to tackle. At least in Cambodia, the average wage of a ranger is around $100 per month (and sometimes as low as $30 per month due to budget cuts). When a poacher approaches a ranger and offers $2000 to let them through, it's quite easy to accept that and make 2 years salary in just 1 day. [1]

[0] https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/08/world/fake-rhino-horn-int...

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/mar/27/ranger-c...

That's an interesting strategy that I wouldn't have consider it. Do you know of any goods/markets where proliferating fake products has killed demand?

I don't think they need to actually kill demand. If supply increases enough that the price plummets then acquiring and importing real rhino horn may not be profitable enough for poachers to take the risks.

I mean, it's China.

I'd be shocked if 99% of it isn't already fake.

Poachers are not what I'd consider the ethical type, generally - not to mention however many middlemen there are along the way.

You probably have better odds of getting pharmaceutical-grade heroin on corner in a bad part of Baltimore.

Make rhino horn legal so we can breed them and sell the horns. It would be a lucrative industry, like cannabis. Right now rhinos are high risk animals and no one wants to breed them and keep them on their game farms. There’s literally no incentive to do this.

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