White rhino in Zimbabwe, where poaching accounts for two-thirds of all rhino deaths.

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THE HAGUE: Africa's rhinos, already classified as threatened with extinction, are under severe pressure from poachers tied to organised criminal networks, say conservationists.

All but a handful of the 30-odd rhinoceros remaining in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002 had been killed by 2005, while poaching accounted for two-thirds of all rhino deaths in neighboring Zimbabwe, according to a study released by the wildlife trade monitoring network, Traffic.

Only 13 and eight per cent of illegally obtained horns were recovered from these two countries respectively, as compared with an overall recovery rate of 42 per cent across the continent, the report said.

The report was launched at a meeting of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), being held in The Hague, Netherlands, until 14 June.

Criminal trading networks

"The situation in the DRC and Zimbabwe is a particular concern," said Traffic's executive director, Steven Broad. "It tallies with an increase in the organization of criminal horn-trading networks operating in Africa."

If countermeasures are not taken, the surge in poaching "may pose a more serious threat to rhino populations," the report said.

One sub-species of white rhino in the DRC is on the edge of extinction, with only four specimens remaining, and another sub-species in Cameroon has disappeared entirely.

The largest markets for illegally procured horns are the Middle East, especially Yemen, where they are prized as dagger handles. In East Asia, they are ground into fine powder and mixed into traditional remedies to bring down fever.

On the whole, the continent's rhino populations are well managed and growing, said Traffic zoologist Simon Milledge, who authored the study.

There were an estimated 3,725 black rhinos and more than 14,500 white rhinos in Africa as of late 2005, concentrated mainly in South Africa and Namibia, where the animals have become an important source of revenue through eco-tourism.

Their numbers have increased since then by about six per cent per year, according to the International Conservation Union.

"Overall, rhino conservation is a success story," said Milledge. "At the beginning of the 20th century there were probably only a couple of dozen white rhinos in all of Africa."

Well-armed poachers

But in a handful of countries plagued with economic turmoil – or lacking the means to fight well-armed poachers – rhinos have been decimated or even wiped out entirely.

"In Cameroon, failure; in the DRC near-failure; in Zimbabwe, great concern," was how Milledge summed things up.

Traffic runs a database of every rhino that has died on the continent since 2000, and can determine with a high degree of accuracy what percentage of their horns wind up in the hands of wildlife traffickers, he said.

What is most alarming is the increase in the proportion of horns lost since 2000, despite stepped up enforcement, pointing to more sophisticated criminal operations.

Milledge is optimist that rhinos will continue to recover if poaching is brought under control and rhino populations are well managed.

"They are pretty resilient animals. There is little doubt that they are a viable species," he said, adding that their numbers have been increasing steadily since 1994.