At the recent Indaba on the value of economic biodiversity, PHASA CEO Adri Kitshoff estimated the cost of rhino poaching over the past five years at R1,1 billion. The estimation was based only on the estimated value that would have been paid by hunters to have hunted the poached animals. The average price for rhino between 2008 and 2013 was R550 000 each. The estimate did not include the additional income derived from daily expenditure by visiting hunters, nor the impact of 400 000 hectares formerly used for rhino management now taken out of the conservation land pool.
