For most Chinese, the rhinoceros horn incident was a matter of unfurling the grand banner of cultural pride and national sentiment--without really knowing what the issue was all about. Most of us have never actually seen a rhino horn, much less ever taken any as medication. Haven't government officials said that we stopped using rhino horns a long time ago? We've been tongue-lashed for no good reason--now what?

Ivory is one of the products related to endangered species whose importation is strictly controlled. The Council of Agriculture has burned smuggled ivory that it confiscated many times recently. （photo by Pu Hua-chih）

In fact, rhinos, along with more than 100 other species, were listed as a category-one type of endangered wildlife species, for which hunting, trade or consumption is strictly prohibited, by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), signed by more than 100 member states of the United Nations, 15 years ago.

In later years, unfortunately, the demand for rhino hide picked up in Yemen, an oil-rich Middle Eastern country where rhino hide daggers are status symbols. And in East Asia, where rhinoceros horns have traditionally been prized as a medicinal ingredient, the economic takeoff enabled more people to buy them, creating a rampant market for smuggling and poaching.

Five years ago, CITES took the unprecedented step of demanding that every country destroy any and all stocks of rhino horns within its borders. It hoped in that way to prevent the people of the world from using any rhino-related products and thereby help maintain the continuation of the species.

But that step didn't solve the problem of smuggling.

"Do you think it'd be possible to collect and destroy all the ivory decorations and rhino horn ornaments in the mansions and palaces of Europe?"asks Kurtis Pei, an associate professor of wildlife biology at National Pingtung Polytechnic Institute. It's just as impossible, he maintains, to ask a people who have made use of a certain animal for a very long time in a certain way to suddenly change their traditional habits.

Only a tiny amount of rhinoceros horn is used in preparing Chinese medicine. Scholars believe that strictly prohibiting the smuggling of rhino horns while deregulating the use of domestic stocks in medicine is the best way to protect the rhinoceros and to preserve our traditional culture.

In particular, wild plants and animals in the world today are mainly concentrated in poor, non-industrialized countries, where they may be one of the countries' most important resources for survival.

In recent years, as wildlife protection groups and agencies under the United Nations and in various countries have found that rare animals have continued to dwindle despite the strict laws and measures adopted to prohibit their trade and consumption and that markets continue to exist, they have begun to revise their approach and attach greater importance to the habits and thinking of people in the areas concerned.

As a result, even though concern about rhinoceroses is shared around the world, that doesn't mean that all international protection groups approve of the extreme measures adopted towards the R.O.C. by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) of Britain.

Wildlife protection groups differ in concepts and methods, and the measures they resort to are not all the same.

With unabated population growth and the destruction of nature, protecting wild animals is an unaffordable luxury, and so nowadays the consensus is to rely on international help to support wildlife protection. （photo by Arthur Cheng）

Wildlife protection groups around the world today generally come in two kinds: One takes radical action to support the total prohibition of trade in endangered species; the other believes that wildlife protection cannot be accomplished in a single step and tries to study and gain an understanding of local conditions and works with local agencies or scholars in order to carry out long-term, systematic protection.

The EIA that infuriated Chinese in Taiwan can be categorized as belonging to the first type, while the Orangutan Foundation, which has set up a branch in Taiwan, belongs to the second. Neither of these two types is considered higher or lower in status than the other. The EIA once demanded that more than a hundred airline companies stop carrying wild bird species, and its success is considered a major contribution to wildlife protection work.

In fact, the two types of groups supplement each other in effect. "Both are equally important," says Marcus Phipps, Asian regional director of the Orangutan Foundation.

In particular, even though the validity of wildlife husbandry for sustainable use is gradually being affirmed, herd populations are too low in some species for stable propagation, and not every species can be restored as desired to its original state. Rhinos are an example.

Even if we could raise black bears as plump as pigs and slaughter them for the dinner table, does the relation between man and animals stop at the level of pleasing the palate?

Rhinos have a history on the earth of 40 million years, yet the number of species today has dropped from more than 300 to only five, while the total population has declined from countless numbers the last century to fewer than 10,000. The population of black rhinos has fallen below 300, a straight-line drop in the charts drawn by wildlife experts.

Phipps says that herds of elephants, also listed as a category-one endangered species, have been recovering, thanks to the efforts of wildlife protectionists and of ivory-producing countries such as Zimbabwe. As a result, there have been "revisionist" calls among owner countries, demanding that CITES permit them to sell a certain amount of ivory. But the black rhino hasn't been so lucky.

Wildlife protection work must indeed take cultural differences into account or else it will be very difficult to carry out. But people also have to consider that the rapid increase in the human population has reached a stage where we threaten the existence not only of wild animals but even of parts of our own culture. Not to mention the fact that rhinoceros horns may no longer be available for use in medicine to save lives, a day may come where people will have to gesticulate to describe a rhino to their children or line up at a museum if they want to show them a rhino horn. People around the world need to reconsider their traditions, methods and attitudes about using resources.

Clearly, it's not a question of, "other people eat beef and wear fur, so why can't we use rhino horns for medicine?"

It is very difficult to repropagate an endangered species: The panda and the Formosan sika are examples where years of efforts have had meager results. We must reconsider our traditional attitude toward using resources or else part of our culture and way of life may disappear along with the extinction of the animals.

Nor can our situation be discussed in the same breath with that of other developing countries. At the Global Summitin June, for instance, Malaysia engaged in a fierce debate with the West over its use of rain forests. Prime Minister Mahathir, roundly attacked, clearly became the spokesman for the Third World in a dispute over ecological protection.

Forests are an important economic resource in Malaysia, and Malaysia was able to win a certain amount of understanding and sympathy from developed countries for having its own methods of operation and management. Rhinos, however, are not a resource of ours and do not involve our livelihood. Surveys show that more than 90 percent of the rhino horns in the Taiwan area that have been smuggled in have been bought as ornaments for vain display or stockpiled to sell at a higher price in the future.

Most countries that are home to rhinos are very poor compared with the countries that consume them. Civil war, disease and famine make local people willing to risk their lives to hunt them. The poachers have weapons, and the police charged with managing and protecting the animals are sometimes murdered, while areas from which rhinos have disappeared are often overexploited and became barren.

Do you realize that we're animals, too?

Local governments once tried drastic tactics--cutting the horns off living rhinos--but the horns grew back by about six centimeters a year, and the rhinos continued to fall prey to covetous poachers. Others have suggested sending rhinos to protected sanctuaries, but based on past experience 20 percent die in the moving process. In fact, both methods are inhumane and run counter to the very meaning of wildlife protection.

The fight to protect the black rhino holds an important symbolic significance in the annals of wildlife protection in the 20th century. Smuggling and trading in rhinos is now treated as a crime in most parts of the world, as evil as trafficking in drugs. If all of us understood this background and were better informed of what has gone on in the rest of the world, we might realize why a wildlife protection organization could adopt extreme measures to stop rhino horn smuggling.

Marcus Phipps, who belongs to a wildlife protection group himself, says that even though the ELA is based in Britain, that neither means that only British environmental groups are concerned about the use of rhino horns in Taiwan nor excuses explaining away the dispute as racial discrimination or a conflict in cultural differences.

"Wildlife protection groups in almost every country around the world are concerned about rhinos just at deeply," he says.

There's no smoke without fire, it's said--if something has gone wrong there must be a reason. Taiwan began to control the importation of rhinoceros horns in 1985, and in 1989 it implemented the Wildlife Conservation Law, which extended controls to all the category-one species listed by CITES. But rhino horn smuggling continued unabated.

The government has burned smuggled animal remains including rhinoceros horns five times in the past five years, but it has never caught any smugglers. South Africa, on the other hand, has frequently intercepted smuggled rhino horns destined for Taiwan. In 1991, two smugglers headed for Taiwan were caught with more than 100 rhino horns in their luggage.

Many official and unofficial protection groups from overseas, including the EIA, have come to Taiwan hoping to gain a better understanding of the smuggling and rhino horn situation here. Local officials have repeatedly stressed that we have a wildlife protection law, but the visitors still see horns displayed in many Chinese medicine shops. Chi Wei-lien, member of the board of directors for the Asian region of the Orangutan Foundation, says frankly, "The seeds of today's rhino horn dispute were planted early on."

When the members of CITES met in March in Japan, some countries called for a boycott of Taiwan products to protest the continuation of rhino horn smuggling here. The suggestion was finally vetoed, but it represented a strong protest by the world community, and local scholars who attended the conference delivered a serious warning on their return, a warning that unfortunately didn't receive much popular attention or media coverage.

In November, the activist group EIA finally launched its campaign in Britain. After the incident exploded, Chinese were wrapped in a haze of nationalist sentiment, and the causes and effects of the matter were lost in the fog.

It's true that it was Western hunters who created irreparable damage by decimating rhino herds in the first place. But today the West is reflecting on its actions of the past. The time may be a little late, but when rhinos have reached a stage of near extinction, "do we want to be the final executioners?" asks Fang Chien, president of the Green Consumer Foundation.

The EIA hasn't aimed its barbs only against Taiwan. Radical wildlife protection groups have taken up the fight to save endangered species in places around on the globe, including their own countries. Examples are efforts to stop the killing of whales in Japan, of sea turtles in France and of seals in Canada.

Beyond endangered species, fox hunting is frequently condemned in England. Even more extreme are some animal rights groups that oppose vivisection and have even tried to murder animal lab scientists.

Some people say, however, that these groups don't try to use another country's exports as a weapon. "You've got to make the most effective appeal depending on the local circumstances. In the case of Taiwan, that's the ploy that works most effectively. In the case of another country, maybe you'd have to use another tactic," a wildlife activist explains.

It's just as Lin Ho, head of the department of atmospheric sciences at National Taiwan University, has said: What's happening now is that Taiwan has become "the straw that broke the camel's back." Everyone focuses attention on the last straw, putting us in an embarrassing situation. "We just happen to be prosperous at a time when the rhino is facing extinction. The wildlife protection movement just happens to be in full flood. And we just happen to be the number one nation in terms of foreign exchange reserves," he says, sounding wrongly abused.

In fact, there are a few wildlife protection groups that do take into consideration our cultural background and traditional use of rhino horns. Aimed at rhino horn smuggling and consumption, the Trade Record Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC) of the World Wildlife Fund began to get in touch with local experts and wildlife protection groups here four years ago to carry out a survey of rhino horn stocks used in Chinese medicine.

Veterinarian Chi Wei-lien, one of the main members of the survey team, says there is no question that smuggling should be stopped. But the scholars don't believe that current stocks should be burned, as called for by CITES.

There are always a few unscrupulous people where there's money to be made. If the stocks are burned, the scholars are afraid that large batches of horns will be smuggled in to fill up the vacuum. People in the half-starved countries that are homes to the rhinos will undoubtedly risk their lives to supply the horns, and the effect will be further slaughter.

None of the pharmacists surveyed wanted to see rhino horns--this ancient medicinal ingredient --disappear, and all expressed a willingness to work with the experts and scholars. "Very few people are involved in smuggling," Chi says. "The government should legalize the use of stocks by practitioners of Chinese medicine. It could even release the horns it has confiscated to lower market prices." Since criminalization has failed to stop smuggling, it would be better, he says, to legalize the use of stocks and work with the Chinese medical community to gain a better understanding of the situation and manage stocks more easily. That kind of attitude, scholars believe, is the best way to look after both the animals and the preservation of Chinese culture.

When the EIA set off the controversy with its radical action, the Council of Agriculture promptly announced that the use of rhinoceros horns and related products would be completely banned rather than allowed on the basis of a prior application, as previously. Chi worries that that approach will only force the practice underground, making future control even more difficult.

Even if no hurt feelings were involved, looking at it strictly from the standpoint of wildlife protection, "I don't see the point in ELA's strategy either," Kurtis Pei says frankly.

In fact, even though foreigners suggested the survey in the first place, its main members are scholars from Taiwan. When the Council of Agriculture, which is in charge of wildlife protection work, found out about the survey, it suggested providing economic assistance. Chi believes the government should come right out and say that it will allow foreign protection groups to set up branches here and is willing to support the study--or aren't we really sincere about rhino horn management?

Today the world realizes it isn't fair to demand that poor African countries protect natural resources all on their own. Developed countries consumed and enjoyed the bulk of them in the past, but since the resources that remain make up the common maintenance system of mankind, all of us have a duty to do our part.

Following the Global Summit, that sort of practice has become a tacit understanding. Japan, home of the "economic animal," has donated the most money to adopt and save tropical rain forests. We could do something similar. The government could commission a foundation to raise money to support the protection of the rhinoceros.

The EIA's methods and attitude may not be employed by other wildlife protection groups, but "if we want to prove they were wrong, we still have to rely on our own performance," Fang Chien says.

Taiwan has drawn international attention for its economic success and is eager to return to the international stage. People naturally look closely at our record to see whether we can play by the rules of the game.

We do need to do more in wildlife protection. We need to create a beneficial exchange, bringing in more information from abroad and putting out the story of our own cultural heritage, the sincerity of our efforts and our practical actions, to avoid a repeat of the rhino horn incident, with its hurt feelings, wasted energy and the risk that a traditional ingredient in Chinese medicine may disappear.

[Picture Caption]

p.6

Protection of the rhinoceros has been a significant part of the wildlife Protection work of this century. It's definitely not a matter of "people wear fur and eat beef, so why can't rhino horns be used in medicine?"

p.8

Ivory is one of the products related to endangered species whose importation is strictly controlled. The Council of Agriculture has burned smuggled ivory that it confiscated many times recently. (photo by Pu Hua-chih)

p.9

Only a tiny amount of rhinoceros horn is used in preparing Chinese medicine. Scholars believe that strictly prohibiting the smuggling of rhino horns while deregulating the use of domestic stocks in medicine is the best way to protect the rhinoceros and to preserve our traditional culture.

p.10

With unabated population growth and the destruction of nature, protecting wild animals is an unaffordable luxury, and so nowadays the consensus is to rely on international help to support wildlife protection. (photo by Arthur Cheng)

p.11

Even if we could raise black bears as plump as pigs and slaughter them for the dinner table, does the relation between man and animals stop at the level of pleasing the palate?

p.11

It is very difficult to repropagate an endangered species: The panda and the Formosan sika are examples where years of efforts have had meager results. We must reconsider our traditional attitude toward using resources or else part of our culture and way of life may disappear along with the extinction of the animals.

p.12

Do you realize that we're animals, too?