head of the government environmental crime investigation unit.

Conservationists have failed to persuade traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and consumers that rhino horn has no medicinal value. Some link the upsurge in rhino poaching to a 2007 Chinese government decision to promote traditional medicine as alternative medicine grows increasingly popular in the West as well. Until then, South Africa was losing about 10 rhinos a year to poachers.

Trophy hunting in South Africa is compounding the problem. More than 100 white rhinos were killed under permit here last year. The Department of Environment did not respond to questions about permits issued this year.

So tempting are the rewards that veterinarians and game ranchers — the very people supposedly dedicated to conserving wildlife — have been arrested in recent months for alleged involvementin the rhino horn trade.

Yet the National Parks department continues to sell wildlife, including rhinos, to game ranchers.

Two Vietnamese citizens were arrested in January in illegal possession of rhino horns killed on a legal hunt.

Police working with tax officials last month arrested a Thai man believed to be a syndicate leader, along with five alleged Thai hunters accused of using legal hunting to illegally acquire horns. Permits are needed to export one trophy horn per hunter. The horn has to be mounted by a taxidermist.

South Africa also has been criticized for exporting young rhinos to China. Conservationists fear they will be farmed for their horns but China denied any such plans. Still, suspicions remain and South Africa last year halted live rhino exports.

Some say the war can never