BBC World Service_ Newshour - Should the rhino trade be legalised 23Aug17
An auction of rhino horns has been staged in South Africa, where buying and selling the product is legal, even though exports are forbidden under a 40-year international rhino trade ban. Advocates for legalisation say it will put poachers out of business. But conservationists fear it would encourage criminals who butcher rhino for their horns. Newshour's James Coomarasamey discussed the issue with Douglas MacMillan, a professor of Conservation and Economics at the University of Kent who favours legalisation, and Tania McCrae-Steel, a wildlife crime expert at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, who says the auction in South Africa will not help rhinos.
