A high court in South Africa's Northern Cape province has upheld a private game reserve owner's right to export more than 500 white rhino horns, rejecting a government appeal to block the authorisation. Wicus Diedericks, who owns a reserve of over 13,000 hectares, argued that regulated sales of horns harvested from living animals help undermine the black market and fund conservation efforts — a position disputed by environmentalists who warn it risks fuelling demand in Asia, where horns fetch enormous prices for their alleged medicinal properties. South Africa is home to the majority of the world's remaining rhinos and remains a major poaching hotspot; the international trade in rhino horn has been banned since 1977 under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), and the country's environment ministry says it reserves the right to pursue the matter before a higher court.