Posts in the News Category

As many of you who have been following Breaking The Brand (and now Nature Needs More) know, I have previously expressed my concern about the lack of ability (or willingness) of the large conservation organisations to challenge the current, rhino horn pro-trade agenda.

Pro-trade advocates are happily stepping in to the void left by large conservation in this regard. They have created and honed simple, catchy messages that give the uninformed public the impression that current conservation efforts tackling the illegal wildlife trade are failing (which is largely correct) and that only allowing people to make money from exploiting them, if it pays it says approach, can ‘save’ them (which is a blatant lie). [Read more…]

Background

While in the short-term demand reduction campaigns will be needed to change people’s motivations to consume illegal and endangered wildlife ‘products’, to ensure a long-term sustainable future we must provide alternative ways to engage with nature. This involves understanding how to re-direct desire in specific user groups, which is the last step in targeted demand reduction campaigns.

We cannot assume that we can simply re-direct these users to ‘legal luxury consumption’. Reverting to mainstream luxury products may not fulfil their desire and may be seen as a backward step by some elite users of illegal wildlife products. Many of the target groups already engage in all forms of ‘legal luxury consumption’ (including the super-brands and hyper-brands), which is one of the reasons they have moved to ‘illegal luxury consumption’ to differentiate themselves from the broader elite group.

[Read more…]

Reading news reports recently, there appears to have been a step up in rhino poaching in South Africa in the last few months

Pro-trade groups are trying to attribute this to ‘poaching syndicates reacting to the threat of a potential legal trade in rhino horn’ (see red box). There is no evidence to back up this statement. This is pure conjecture to support their desire for a legal international trade; in the last few months the domestic trade in rhino horn has been legalised in South Africa, which I have commented on previously.

Equally you could say that this step change in rhino poaching levels in the last few months could be a result of ‘poaching syndicates preparing for the opportunity to launder illegally poached rhino horn into the recently agreed South African legal domestic marketplace’. Before I explore this in more detail, let’s look back at the history of rhino poaching from 1990 onward. [Read more…]

I often have people say to me “But what can one person achieve” or “What can I realistically do, I am only one person”. Well this weekend, I can give you two fantastic examples of The Power of One.

Nicholas Duncan, Co-Founder and President of the SAVE African Rhino Foundation

A couple of days ago, on the 10th June, The SAVE African Rhino Foundation celebrated 30 years of dedication to rhino conservation. I am sure people won’t realize that SARF is the world’s biggest NGO donor to Zimbabwe rhino conservation. Similarly, I am sure that people won’t know that SARF is the second oldest specialist rhino conservation NGO, after Save The Rhino Trust in Namibia and the 4th largest rhino dedicated charity in the world. Not bad, given the organization is 100% volunteer run!

Nicholas, a passionate animal lover and successful entrepreneur was in his early 40s when he decided he wanted to do something to help tackle the Rhino Poaching Wars of the 1970s and 1980s.

Park rangers in Zimbabwe needed equipment, so Nicholas and the original committee set about getting them what they needed. I love these photographs from 1988, with Nicholas looking like the quintessential Englishman (he originates from the UK), in a navy blue suit, giving the first donation from the foundation, a red Landrover together with replacement tyres and parts. [Read more…]

In recent years, as I have been monitoring the rhino horn trade/no-trade debate, it has become apparent that conservation groups, large and small, have very little ability to deal with government, donors, agencies, organisations or individuals who have a (overt or, particularly, covert) pro-trade agenda. This inability to fight back is not just about rhino horn, it is also why we find ourselves in a similar position on climate change, mining and many more issues.

Reflection and Questioning

Over the last year, we are seeing more articles of the type:

1. Why conservation is failing
2. Has big conservation gone astray?
3. How big donors and corporations shape conservation
4. And even the seemingly unchallengeable has been challenged: The BBC’s Planet Earth II did not help the natural world

[Read more…]

On 11 April 2017, the International Trade Centre published a paper titled: Demand in Viet Nam for rhinoceros horn used in traditional medicine. This expands on a paper published in 2016.

The ITC paper focuses on Traditional Asian Medicine (TAM), not using rhino horn as a status symbol, which I will comment on later in the blog. It states that the ITC conducted a survey of 1,000 consumers of TAM, including 239 people who self-disclosed they used rhino horn.

So, the first questions must be:

1. Did they interview the users of genuine rhino horn or those buying fake rhino horn?
2. Just how relevant was their survey group to the trade/no-trade debate?

[Read more…]

No one should be surprised about the South African governments legislation to allow a domestic trade in rhino horn. It has been very clear from the beginning that trade in rhino horn is what they support and want.

What is troubling is how easy they got it, with little resistance from large conservation, international agencies or governments. While there has been a lot of ‘noise’ there hasn’t been much substance to the arguments put forward. Most discussions have been ideological and, while there is nothing wrong with that, they are not enough. I am sure that they feel that there has been a lot of behind-the-scenes diplomacy, but it seems they were played.

As someone who has been observing systems and cultures for a couple of decades, what I see is a conservation system that has become stable and sustainable but not useful in solving present day wildlife trafficking problems. The problems have evolved over the last two decades, the skills have not. Are we seeing another Kodak Moment? [Read more…]

This is just one of Warren Buffett’s quotes highlighted in Breaking The Brand’s Vietnamese New Year RhiNo campaign: The Gift Of Bad Luck.

When Breaking The Brand started interviewing the wealthy users of rhino horn in 2013 we asked them who they were influenced by. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Richard Branson, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama were the answers. We first presented these findings publicly in March 2014 at the Zoo and Aquarium Association (ZAA) Annual Conference held in New Zealand and and we expanded on it in an October 2014 blog: Giving up rhino horn to be accepted into a higher status group.

So, given our target groups’ expressed interest in global business and political ‘celebrities’ we have chosen to use quotes from Warren Buffett to drive the message home that giving rhino horn is not going to be a good strategy for building reputation in a globalised business world. Certainly Warren Buffett understands the critical importance of reputation on business success. His quotes about reputation, honesty and integrity are well known and we are using a few of the key ones to speak to select business leaders in Viet Nam.

Buffett not only understands the link between reputation and company value, he also knows how hard it is to build a reputation and how easily it can be lost. All of this highlights that long-term opportunities are, in the main, dependent on being able to preserve reputation and integrity. When these are called into question it can limit professional prosperity and success; two of the top Vietnamese New Year wishes.  [Read more…]

In recent months Breaking The Brand volunteers have created a database of over 700 companies, worldwide, who use a rhino as part of their logo. From Australia to the USA, the UK and continental Europe to India and the African continent, many companies have benefited from their association with the rhinoceros. It has helped build a distinct company identity and brand conveying uniqueness, determination and strength. These companies may not have thought, when choosing the rhino as a logo that one day this iconic species would be threatened with extinction in the wild. Breaking The Brand is now asking at least 30 of these 700+ companies to be part of a business2business (B2B) initiative, asking their business peers in Viet Nam to help change consumer behaviour in the key demand side country.

As many of you who follow Breaking The Brand know, the rhinos’ demise is not a result of traditional Asian medicine, but because it is being used as a status symbol and a way to negotiate business deals and gain favours. This is a modern business fad and fashion.

A relatively small number of businessmen in Viet Nam are the primary drivers of rhino poaching. These rhino horn consumers:

Are NOT influenced by politicians Are NOT influenced by the conservation sector Are NOT influenced by the plight of the rhino Are NOT influenced by media celebrities Are NOT influenced by the law Are NOT influenced by their family and children They ARE influenced by their business peers.

Right now many are influenced by their local peer group to use rhino horn, Breaking The Brand would like to work with their international peer group to influence them to stop.

[Read more…]

Today I find myself reading yet another article supposedly exploring the case for a legal trade in rhino horn. Over the last 3 years I have lost count of how many of these I have read, with titles such as: Would a legal trade in rhino horn save the rhino?

I decided to undertake an analysis of media articles that covered the trade topic, focusing on the just last 18 months. Of the 40 news articles I read, just one made mention of the user’s preference for a wild product over a farmed horn. The reality is, a fundamental question appears to have been forgotten! How is the media missing this? On purpose?

[Read more…]