Can legal rhino horn save a species on the brink? 

In South Africa today, international commercial trade of rhino horn is still banned under the global treaty of ‘Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora’. (CITES) Rhino horn has been banned for exportation since 1977, and South Africa’s Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment reaffirmed that they do not support internal trade of horn. 

However, The Northern Cape High Court ruled in October 2025 that private owners of captive-bred rhinos can now export rhino horn under permit for conservation funding purposes. 

Sarah Ripley Forsyth, a nature conservation advocate and game breeder, explains why private game breeders, who she says own the majority of white rhinos in South Africa, have been calling for this to happen, 

“These are rough figures, let’s say it’s about 300,000 ZAR to 500,000 ZAR around a year per rhino to look after them. They (private game breeders) need to be able to make something off it at least to sustain their rhino.”

"They're going to need to make the money somehow from the animal itself. And what better than being able to cut off a horn and sell it, where you don’t have to kill the animal. The animal can slowly regrow its horn and then you're able to manage that animal," she says,

"So to go and harvest the horn while the animal is alive, cut off the horn, get it microchipped, so get the DNA, so you know what rhino it came from etc. Go through all the right protocols and get it solved legally.”

A press release from Rockwood, one of the largest private rhino sanctuaries in the world, celebrates this new legislation saying,

“This ruling unlocks millions in foreign revenue, supports community-led conservation, and shifts profits from poachers to protectors.”