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 [...]

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: Why conservation is failing Has big conservation gone astray? How big donors and corporations shape conservation And even the seemingly unchallengeable has been challenged: The BBC’s Planet [...]

On 11 April 2017, the International Trade Centre published a paper titled: Demand in Viet Nam for rhinoceros horn used in traditional medicine. 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: Did they interview the users of genuine rhino horn or those buying fake rhino horn? Just how relevant was their survey group to the trade/no-trade debate? Now the paper itself states (page 54) that the price of illegally poached rhino horn [...]

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 [...]

“Honesty is a very expensive gift. Don’t expect it from cheap people”. 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 [...]

Did you know it took Esso 36 years from launching the “Put a tiger in your tank” slogan in 1959 to supporting tiger conservation in 1995 – the rhino hasn’t got this long! In recent months Breaking The Brand volunteers have created a database of over 700 companies, worldwide, who use a rhino as part of their name and/or 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 [...]

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 just the last 18 months. Of the 40 news articles I read, just one made mention of the user's preference for a wild product over farmed horn. The reality is, a fundamental question appears to have been forgotten! How is the media missing this? On purpose? This comes at an interesting time [...]

Over the last couple of years, Breaking The Brand has fielded many questions about our adverts using negative messaging and emotions. Since the launch of our campaigns we have had people in the rhino conservation space tell us what we do is ‘too hard hitting’, ‘racist’ and ‘would offend our donors’. I mentioned more about this in our Second Year Report. Similarly, there is a belief in many circles that all messages should be positive, don’t upset people, people only learn and change when they are positively engaged. This mindset is pervasive; it is also naïve and just plain wrong. If this were true, then from a media perspective why don’t anti-smoking adverts show happy people playing with [...]

With one day to go before the start of CoP17, below is a reflection and comment on some of the articles and submissions I have read leading up to the CITES meeting. While there is much in the Time Magazine article (featured on the left) to like – it is one of the best I have seen - it also misses a couple of critical points about why Viet Nam’s (illegal) trade in rhino horn hasn’t been closed down sooner. The Vietnamese Government’s demonstrated lack of commitment to close down the demand for and the trafficking of rhino horn cannot be decoupled from the fact that a future legalised international trade has not been decisively ruled [...]

As Breaking The Brand’s supporters know, our focus is demand reduction for rhino horn. This focus remains, but as a result of the recent elephant census we decided to demonstrate the type of campaign we could create to target just one group of ivory consumers. Ivory Buyers in China On page 26 of Breaking The Brand’s second annual report, published in April 2015, I mentioned reading an article in Virgin Australia’s Voyeur magazine which stated, "Nouveau riche around the world are realising that opulent displays of wealth doesn’t necessarily bestow class or taste." The solution? Etiquette classes with royal protocol expert William Hanson who is teaching wealthy Chinese women everything from ‘pastry skills’ to ‘how [...]