CRI听力: More Protection to Rhinos

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species meeting going on in Qatar has approved more protection for rhinos. The decision is aimed at increasing law enforcement, the training of guards, border controls and rhino population monitoring, and combating organized crime.

The black rhino is only found in eastern and southern Africa. Rampant poaching devastated the black rhino population from a high of 65,000 across Africa in the 1970s. Southern Africa now has a population of 3,600 black rhinos.

Rhino horns sell for more than gold on weight basis, and have been the reason for massive poaching of the species.

At Imire game reserve in Zimbabwe, the horns of the rhinos are sawed off. Maurice Mkala, a tour guide here, explains why.

"The reason why these rhinos are de-horned is that's the only way we can save them, because these rhinos are mainly killed for their horns."

Conservationists say that criminal gangs kill rhinos to sell the valuable horns, which are used as a traditional medicine in Asia and carved for ceremonial dagger handles in the Middle East.

According to Maurice Mkala, the guards at the reserve are taught to protect the rhinos at all cost.

"Any slight second you leave them alone, the next thing that you are going to hear is all the rhinos are dead. But if you have guards looking after them like our guys are on a shoot to kill policy. If they see a poacher, shoot him first and ask question later."

Raoul du Toit, director of the Lowveld Rhino Trust, says that much of the poached rhino ends up in Asia, and that the growing trade of rhino horns in Vietnam is a particular concern.

"There has been a clear trend, particularly in Vietnam, to open up a new front for the rhino market, and absorb that rhino horn into a market that is now using it for medical uses that weren't part of traditional Chinese uses that were the main market for rhino horn in the past."

Across Zimbabwe, the rhino population declined from about 830 in 2007 to 740 at the end of 2008 despite an excellent birth rate in monitored herds.

Activists warn that if action is not taken, rhinos may soon disappear in the wild.

For China Drive, I am Li Dong.