Biggs (2013) states the increased demand for illegal rhino horn is due to the “rapid economic growth in east and southeast Asia” (1038). The current ban on trade of rhino horn actually drives up the prices “because supply is restricted in the face of inelastic and growing demand” (Biggs, 2013, p. 1038). This map shows the route from South Africa to Mozambique to Vietnam. As previously noted, the rhino horn can be delivered to Vietnam within 24 hours of the killing of the rhino.
(Retrieved from traffic.org/species-reports/traffic_species_mammals67.pdf)
Social Impact:
What makes poachers poach? As Orenstein notes, the reason for poaching is a “combination of poverty and social disruption at one end of the chain coupled with affluence, greed, and ignorance at the other” (Orenstein, 2013, p. 45). Poaching may be one of the few ways for someone to make money. In the commodity chain of the illegal rhino horn trade, the poacher is at the bottom of the chain, and is usually paid very little relative to the black market price of rhino horn.
Gen. Johan Jooste, who leads the anti-poaching unit in Kruger National Park, reports that almost 80% of the rhino poachers are from Mozambique. Jooste says: “these are destitute poor people that are recruited to do this by crime networks who make the real money” (Serino). The picture below shows villagers at the funeral for Vusi Nyathi, a poacher in his 20s who was shot by rangers. Nyathi’s nephew told the reporter that he knows his uncle’s death will not deter others because “the money is there… that’s why you are forced to go there” (Serino).
(Retrieved from http://america.aljazeera.com/multimedia/2015/1/the-human-cost-ofrhinopoaching.html)