{"id":789073,"date":"2026-07-08T21:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/789073\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T21:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:29:11","slug":"south-african-courts-dismissal-of-appeal-against-rhino-horn-exports-may-test-canadian-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/789073\/","title":{"rendered":"South African court\u2019s dismissal of appeal against rhino horn exports may test Canadian ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Rhinos stand on a small hill at the Dinokeng Game Reserve near Hammanskraal, South Africa, in 2025.Alfonso Nqunjana\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

A South African High Court has dismissed its government\u2019s bid to block the export of more than 500 rhino horns \u2013 a decision that, if unopposed, could test whether Canada\u2019s regulations banning raw rhino horn imports are adequate to stop a shipment. <\/p>\n

The case was brought forward in 2023 by a South African rhino rancher who wants to export horns harvested from live, captive-bred rhinos under an exemption in international wildlife law that otherwise bans commercial rhino horn trade. <\/p>\n

Last fall, a superior court ruled in his favour, ordering the South African government to issue export certificates. The government appealed, but the July 3 ruling<\/a> found it had \u201cno reasonable prospects of success on appeal\u201d and declared the October, 2025, judgment \u201cimmediately operative and enforceable,\u201d giving the government until July 10 to issue the certificates.<\/p>\n

Canada<\/a> was among the eight proposed import destinations \u2013 alongside China, Hong Kong, Japan, Laos, Mongolia, the United States and Vietnam \u2013 but Hendrick Diedericks, the rhino rancher, says his plans have changed since Canada released regulations in 2024 banning raw rhino horn imports. <\/p>\n

With no meaningful market here, Mr. Diedericks says Canada is no longer on his radar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe literally only did that to test the waters and to see if Canada will grant import permits, because Canada does everything by the book,\u201d he told The Globe and Mail.<\/p>\n

But while Canada\u2019s new regulations should stop the import of rhino horns, it\u2019s unclear how effective that may be against a scientific exemption in the regulations which could allow imports that carry a medicinal purpose code. <\/p>\n

Rhino horn is made of keratin \u2013 the same protein as human fingernails \u2013 and has no evaluated pharmacological benefits, though it is highly sought in East Asia for unproven uses ranging from lowering fever to treating cancer. <\/p>\n

In depth: How Canada became a global player in the illegal wildlife trade<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Diedericks, the owner of Rockwood Conservation \u2013 a 33,000-acre nature and hunting reserve in South Africa\u2019s Northern Cape that is home to more than 450 white rhinos \u2013 has spent years fighting for the right to sell horn trimmed from his living animals.<\/p>\n

Dehorning \u2013 a non-lethal procedure to deter poachers that removes a portion of the horn, which grows back \u2013 has kept Rockwood poaching-free for 11 years, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are already talking to potential buyers in the east \u2013 China specifically, Hong Kong, Singapore \u2013 all of the countries where there\u2019s a demand for it,\u201d says Mr. Diedericks.<\/p>\n

He argues a legal, regulated supply would flood the market, drive prices down and eliminate the incentive to poach \u2013 a theory that has never been tested in real-world conditions. <\/p>\n

Taylor Tench, senior wildlife policy analyst at the Environmental Investigation Agency, which first flagged Canada as a potential import country in a report<\/a> published in May, says Canada cannot afford to look away, even with Mr. Diedericks\u2019s attention turned east. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf these horns are exported to other countries, will they find their way \u2013 either in raw form or medicinal form \u2013 to Canada in the form of re-exports and resale?\u201d Mr. Tench says. \u201cThere are large traditional Chinese medicine user communities in much of the world, including Canada. It\u2019s one thing to intercept a whole horn, but if you\u2019re getting processed and packaged medicine, that\u2019s much harder to detect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A wild white rhino in the North-West Province of South Africa in 2023.LUCA SOLA\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Globe asked Environment and Climate Change Canada whether its regulations are sufficient to block a shipment arriving under a medicinal purpose code. <\/p>\n

In a statement, spokesperson Samantha Bayard said a decision on the issuance of an import permit would be made under Canada\u2019s wildlife trade legislation and its implementing regulations. <\/p>\n

\u201cA scientific exception requires that the applicant provides a summary of the research project, including its methodology, which would then be assessed,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Mr. Diedericks\u2019s case centres on a little-used exemption in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species \u2013 the global treaty known as CITES, which effectively bans commercial rhino horn trade. He argues that Article VII(5), which allows animals bred in captivity for non-commercial purposes to be traded without standard permitting requirements, applies to Rockwood.<\/p>\n

Mr. Tench says the exemption comes with a catch. \u201cThe government loses its ability to determine whether or not the trade would be detrimental to the survival of the rhino,\u201d he says. \u201cThey can\u2019t stop the export if there are concerns over the intended recipient, destination or purpose of trade \u2013 it\u2019s just, was this rhino bred in captivity? Yes. Here\u2019s your certificate, send it wherever you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

If ultimately successful, Mr. Tench says it would mark the first commercial export of rhino horn since CITES banned international commercial trade in the product in 1977. The southern white rhino at the centre of this case is classified as near threatened, with South Africa holding 76 per cent of the world\u2019s approximately 15,750 individuals. Private owners such as Mr. Diedericks manage more than 70 per cent of them.<\/p>\n

The South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment told The Globe, \u201cthe Minister is currently considering the judgment and will thereafter make a decision on whether to lodge a petition challenging the recent refusal for leave to appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Rhinos stand on a small hill at the Dinokeng Game Reserve near Hammanskraal,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44,66],"class_list":["post-789073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}