A legal rhino horn trade is suggested in order to reduce poaching. To examine the implications of this proposition, we conducted a choice experiment with 345 rhino horn consumers in Vietnam, investigating their preferences for legality, source, price and peer experience of medicinal efficacy as attributes in their decision to purchase rhino horn. We calculated consumers' willingness to pay for each attribute level. Consumers preferred and were willing to pay more for wild than semi-wild and farmed rhino horn but showed the strongest preference for legal horn, although higher-income consumers were less concerned about legality. The number of peers having used rhino horn without positive effect reduced preference for wild-sourced horn and increased preference for legality. Our results suggest that a legal trade in rhino horn would likely continue to face competition from a parallel black market. Whether poaching would be reduced depends on the legal supply of wild and semi-wild horns, campaigns ability to change consumer preferences, and regulation efforts.

建议进行合法的犀牛角贸易以减少偷猎。为了检验这一命题的含义，我们对越南的 345 名犀牛角消费者进行了一项选择实验，调查了他们对合法性、来源、价格和药效的同行体验的偏好作为他们决定购买犀角的属性。我们计算了消费者对每个属性级别的支付意愿。与半野生和养殖犀牛角相比，消费者更喜欢并愿意为野生犀牛角支付更多费用，但对合法犀牛角表现出最强烈的偏好，尽管高收入消费者不太关心合法性。使用犀牛角但没有积极影响的同龄人数量减少了对野生犀角的偏好，并增加了对合法性的偏好。我们的结果表明，犀牛角的合法交易可能会继续面临来自平行黑市的竞争。偷猎是否会减少取决于野生和半野生角的合法供应、运动改变消费者偏好的能力以及监管努力。