Aust scientists push for legal rhino trade AUSTRALIAN researchers hope to end the deadly poaching trade that's fuelled by wealthy elites using rhino horn to detox, pushing the price higher than gold or cocaine. The trade in rhino horn has been banned since 1977. But demand has surged along with economic growth in East and South-East Asia, say researchers Duan Biggs, Franck Courchamp, Rowan Martin and Hugh Possingham in a paper in the journal, Science. With retail prices skyrocketing from about $4700 a kilogram in 1993 to around $65,000 a kilo last year, poaching has become more sophisticated. "Rhino horn is now worth more, per unit weight, than gold, diamonds, or cocaine," the article says. Rhino horn is composed entirely of keratin and regrows when cut. Sedating a rhino to shave its horn, which can give about 0.9kg of horn a year, costs as little as $20, says lead author Dr Biggs, of Queensland University's Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science. Instead, rhinos are being killed for their horn, which is used for dagger handles in Yemen and to help the liver detoxify the blood from poison or alcohol in Chinese traditional medicine. "Poaching in South Africa has escalated to such a point that African wild rhino populations could become extinct within 20 years," the article says. They think the issue could be combatted with a carefully regulated legal trade based on the humane and renewable harvesting of horn from live white rhinos. Dr Biggs says that under a legal trade, stronger anti-poaching efforts could be funded by the sale of horns in the legal market. The successful trade in crocodile skins shows how this has worked. Currently, anti-poaching efforts are taking resources away from other conservation actions," he told AAP. The researchers say the ban is failing because it artificially restricts supply in the face of persistent and growing demand. The only remaining option is regulated legal trade. Based on estimates of demand for horn, they think it could be met by the 5000 white rhinos on private conservation land in South Africa alone. A legal trade could simultaneously supply horns, fund rhino protection, and provide an incentive for their sustainable use and long-term survival. They say the technology exists to track the legality of individual horns through the selling chain to the end consumer to minimise laundering and the illegal trade . The article suggests a central selling organisation would negotiate and manage the selling of horns so that it is more attractive, reliable, and cost-effective for buyers to obtain the product legally than through illegal means.