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Business Insider

By Jeremy Berke
The world’s last male northern white rhinoceros, a male named Sudan, died on March 19 after being euthanized due to age-related illness.
There are only two members of the species left in the world, and both are female, so they’re unable to continue the population.
It’s yet another sign that rhino populations around the world are in serious trouble.
 ​
Rhinos are among the hardest hit by the illegal wildlife trade. The horns fetch high prices on the black market — around to US$3,000 per pound, down from a high of over US$60,000 per pound a few years ago.
They’re used to make elaborate carvings across East Asia and are also believed to have curative properties in some traditional Eastern medicine practices. Consumers pay thousands of dollars for these products.
Pembient, a two-year-old Seattle-based biotech startup, is trying to solve the rhino poaching crisis with a 3D printer and some clever economics. The idea is to “bio-fabricate” rhino horns out of keratin — the same material that fingernails and hair are made of — using 3D printing to undercut the horn market.
The horns are genetically identical to real ones on the “macroscopic, microscopic, and molecular” level, Matthew Markus, Pembient’s CEO and co-founder, told Business Insider. The fabricated horns, once perfected and market-ready, will look and feel so real that distinguishing them from the natural ones will be impossible.
People won’t know whether they’re buying real horns or fake ones
Rhino poaching in South Africa, a global hotspot, has declined in recent months, but the problem is still dire: 1,028 rhinos were killed in the country in 2017, up from just 13 in 2007, according to the non-profit Save the Rhino. That’s equivalent to three rhinos illegally slaughtered each day. 
The art and antiques market in China largely drives the problem, according to a paper published in the journal Biological Conservation. Most buyers in China purchase high-value rhino-horn carvings as investments and collectible items, the study’s lead author Yufang Gao wrote.
Pembient’s fabricated horns will eventually be sold as raw material to traditional carvers in Asia, and used to produce high-value goods like bracelets and combs that fetch exorbitant prices on the black market.
By pushing fabricated horns into the supply-chain at various points, Markus explained, people won’t know whether they’re buying real rhino horns or fake one.

Because the fake horns are much cheaper to produce, they could be sold at a lower cost and push prices down across the board. (Because Pembient is still in its early stages, however, exact prices for the fabricated horns aren’t set yet.) Ideally, the market will end up charging less for every horn, since there won’t be a reliable way to tell the difference.
Pembient borrowed this idea from a concept in economics called Gresham’s Law, according to Markus, which states that if a low-value good, like a fake rhino horn, is passed off as the real thing, it drives down the value of all such items on the market.
“If you cordon rhino horn off, you create this prohibition mindset,” Markus said. “And that engenders crime, corruption, and everything else that comes with a black market.”
Markus hopes his plan will eventually lower incentives for poachers to slaughter rhinos.
A different approach to conservation 
Pembient’s strategy is a radical departure from the traditional demand-reduction approach espoused by conservationists. Reducing demand for rhino horns is “infeasible,” Markus said. “And it’s not really ethical either.”
“These practices are based on thousands of years of cultural tradition — they’re a lot older than Thanksgiving,” he added. “We can’t just tell them to stop.”

Some conservationists, however, don’t agree.
The International Rhino Foundation and Save The Rhino International, two NGOs dedicated to rhino conservation, have pointed out that many rhino horns fetching astronomical prices on the black market are already fake. 
“More than 90 per cent of ‘rhino horns’ in circulation are fake (mostly carved from buffalo horn or wood), but poaching rates continue to rise annually,” the organisations wrote in a joint statement.
The statement also argued that developing and marketing synthetic horns diverts attention from efforts to end rhino poaching, which is the “real problem.”
But other groups are more open to the novel approach.
“It would be rash to rule out the possibility that trade in synthetic rhinoceros horn could play a role in future conservation strategies,” TRAFFIC, a non-profit that monitors the wildlife trade, wrote in a 2015 paper.
Another anti-poaching strategy involves park rangers and veterinarians surgically removing rhino horns (they grow back) to protect the animals from being hunted. But that also brings up ethical issues.
The path ahead for rhino conservation 
Markus has attended conservation conferences around the world, and readily acknowledges the stark difference between his approach and that of most traditional conservationists.
“While we both have the same goals,” he said. “There’s been a lot of friction.”

Pembient is now pursuing some novel funding strategies to get its horns on the market.
In August 2017, the company introduced a cryptocurrency via an initial coin offering, called Pembicoin. The coin offering is an effort fund research into the bio-fabricated horns and gauge consumer demand, according to the company’s website.
For every coin purchased now earns the buyer one gramme of bio-fabricated rhino horn once they become available in 2022.
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Russia, Assad, and Iran combined don’t stand a chance against US troops in Syria
Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth just plunged by US$5 billion

 
Read the original article at Business Insider


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Start-ups

An American biotech start-up is trying to end poaching by flooding the market with fake rhino horns

A police officer looks at a northern white rhino, only three of its kind left in the world, as it moves in an enclosed and constantly protected perimeter ahead of the Giants Club Summit of African leaders and others on tackling poaching of elephants and rhinos, Ol Pejeta conservancy near the town of Nanyuki, Laikipia County, Kenya, April 28, 2016. Photo: REUTERS/Siegfried Modola

Matthew Markus, CEO and co-founder of Pembient. Photo: Matthew Markus

A Thai customs officer displays seized rhino horns, coming from Ethiopia, during a news conference at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand March 14, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

Fire burns part of an estimated 105 tonnes of ivory and a tonne of rhino horn confiscated from smugglers and poachers at the Nairobi National Park near Nairobi, Kenya. Photo: Thomson Reuters

Pembient's bio-fabricated rhino horns. Photo: Matthew Markus

White rhinoceros Bruno (R) and Gracie are seen in their enclosure at Thoiry zoo and wildlife park, about 50 km (30 miles) west of Paris, France, March 7, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

‘A great ambassador for his species’: world’s last male northern white rhino dies

Sudan, the last surviving male northern white rhino, has died. Photo: EPA

FILE PHOTO: Sudan, the last surviving male northern white rhino, is fed by a warden at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia national park, Kenya May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo

Last male northern white rhino Sudan falls ill as species edges closer to extinction

Sudan, the last male northern white rhino, feeds inside his enclosure at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Photo: Xinhua/TNS

FILE - In this Friday, July 28, 2017 file photo, wildlife ranger Zachariah Mutai takes care of Sudan, the world's last male northern white rhino, at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia county in Kenya. The health of 45-year-old Sudan is deteriorating and his minders said Thursday, March 1, 2018 that his "future is not looking bright." (AP Photo/Joe Mwihia, File)

FILE - In this March 14, 2017, file photo, customs officers display seized rhino horns during a press conference at the Suvarnabhumi airport, Bangkok, Thailand. With wildlife trafficking escalating worldwide, some countries are starting to "follow the money" in an effort to track down the kingpins financing crime rings. The United Nations urged the world's countries to adopt laws that allow wildlife crimes to be investigated by money laundering agents who can have assets seized. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)

Smuggled ivory tusks seized by Hong Kong customs officers. Hong Kong Customs have seized HK$120 million in illegal endangered wildlife products, such as ivory and rhino horn in the first eight months of this year. 14SEP17 SCMP / Christy Leung

In this photo taken Wednesday, May 3, 2017, a ranger takes care of Sudan, the world's last male northern white rhino, at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia county in Kenya. The health of 45-year old Sudan is reported to be deteriorating and his minders said Thursday, March 1, 2018 that his "future is not looking bright." (AP Photo)

In this photo taken Wednesday, May 3, 2017, a ranger takes care of Sudan, the world's last male northern white rhino, at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia county in Kenya. The health of 45-year old Sudan is deteriorating and his minders said Thursday, March 1, 2018, that his "future is not looking bright." (AP Photo)

Tech

A start-up called Pembient is 3D printing rhino horns to flood the market and undercut black-market business


Conservation

An American biotech start-up is trying to end poaching by flooding the market with fake rhino horns

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A start-up called Pembient is 3D printing rhino horns to flood the market and undercut black-market business

A start-up called Pembient is 3D printing rhino horns to flood the market and undercut black-market business