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A startup company called Pembient is developing a process to synthesize rhino horns. Their aim is to mass produce fakes that are indistinguishable from real horns, and hence destroy the profit motive for killing wild rhinos.
The plan begins with using modified yeast cells to produce a substance called keratin, the main component of the horn. Various trace elements found in natural horns are added in, as well as genuine rhino DNA. From these materials, a 3D printer is then used to recreate the complex structure of the horn. The only things that are missing, are the trace elements of pollutants that have made their way into the real rhino horn over time. This makes the synthetic horn more pure than the real one.
Some wildlife groups are very skeptical of the plan.
Pembient's concept, which another company – Rhinoceros Horn LLC – is also pursuing a version of, has raised the hackles of conservation groups from the World Wildlife Foundation to the wildlife monitoring network Traffic. It panders to consumers' behaviour rather than trying to change it, which could set back efforts to educate, they say. "There is general horror at the idea," says Cathy Dean, international director of the UK-based charity Save the Rhino, which earlier this month issued a joint statement with the International Rhino Foundation opposing the synthetic horn. Dean adds that ersatz horn is unlikely to dent the market – if people can afford the real thing they are going to buy it – and rebukes the company for failing properly to consult conservation professionals on the idea first.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2015, @12:35PM
South African here. (We have something like IIRC 95% of the rhino in Africa.)
We already do that. In fact we have many, many tonnes of rhino horn in storage (some cut off when the rhino died, some confiscated from poachers and some from times and places where they were pre-emptively cut off to discourage poaching) and could easily flood the market with the existing horn sitting in expensive guarded storage.
The problem is CITES. They refuse to allow legal trade in any horn whatsoever, thereby suppressing supply and creating massive profit for illegal trade. African governments have been campaigning for the simple and effective solution for years but environmental groups lobby to ensure that their ideology stays in power, even if it means extinction for the animals.
Let me give you an example of how big the problem is. It is legal to hunt rhino given that you get a permit. We actually farm* large game to supply the various reserves and hunting-oriented game farms with genetic diversity and larger numbers. I've personally been on a lion farm not far from here. You can cut off the head of a rhino and mount it on your wall, no problems, and you can take that trophy just about anywhere in the world. But cut the horn off your legal trophy, and suddenly you're a big bad poacher. People are in prison for just that.
* "Canned" hunting is, however, not allowed. No taking a hand-reared lion to the wild for some sucker-hunter to shoot two weeks later.