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 Caça furtiva ao rinoceronte na Namíbia infographic
A infografia mostra o número de rinocerontes caçados ilegalmente na Namíbia desce 2014.
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AMBIENTE

Cresce a caça ao rinoceronte na Namíbia

By Duncan Mil

January 31, 2023 - O número de rinocerontes abatidos na Namíbia em 2022 foi o mais
elevado em quatro anos – e quase o dobro de 2021 – motivado pelo comércio ilegal do corno.

Namibia, home to the only free-roaming black rhinos left in the world, recorded 87 cases of rhino poaching last year, compared with 45 in all of 2021 and 30 in 2020.

One rhino poaching incident has been recorded in 2023 so far. That brings the total tally of rhinos poached since 2014 to 504.

Gangs have decimated Africa’s rhino population to feed the demand for rhino horn, which, despite being made of keratin -- the same stuff as hair and fingernails -- is prized in East Asia as a supposed medicine, aphrodisiac and as jewellery.

At least 54 per cent of all rhino horn seizures worldwide involve citizens from China and Vietnam.

With the price of African rhinoceros tusks surging to more than US$60,000 per kilogram, they are now almost as valuable as gold. And with the weight of tusks often reaching two kilograms, poaching is again on the rise in Namibia.

Wealthy buyers bid for antique rhino horn carvings to display or as investments. A report by the World Wildlife Fund’s trade monitoring programme, TRAFFIC, described how wealthy Vietnamese and Asians would “routinely mix rhino horn powder with water or alcohol as a general health and hangover-curing tonic.” That group also included men who believed rhino horn could cure impotence and enhance sexual performance.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 31/01/2023; STORY: Graphic News; PICTURES: Pictures: Getty Images, IFAW via Flickr
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