With South Africa’s heritage tourism sector under strain from the threat of rhino extinction, Kruger National Park is inviting bids to move 500 of the endangered species to counter the wave of poaching for their highly-prized horns.

South African National Parks – the country’s national body for park management – has invited potential buyers to “make a written offer to purchase white rhinos in batches of 20 or more”.

At present, private ranchers own around 5,000 of the 20,000 rhinos in South Africa, with the private sector catering to both eco-tourism and hunting.

The government, which recently said rhino poachers were endangering South Africa's heritage sector, has turned to the private ranchers because Kruger has become the main poaching ground for the animals.

More than 1,000 were poached in South Africa last year alone – a record number – while this year’s tally stands at 800 “and rising”. Demand for rhino’s horn is soaring, mainly because it is coveted as an ingredient in traditional medicine in fast-growing economies such as China and Vietnam.

Any rhinos purchased would be used as a tourist attraction for safaris or, rather controversially, for trophy hunting – a specific and selective legal form of wildlife hunting regulated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Because the white rhino's population is larger than the black rhino’s, private landowners can hunt selectively so long as removal does not adversely affect the property’s overall rhino population. Though controversial, trophy hunting has played a key role in the recovery of the white rhino population in South Africa and helped the species recover from the brink of extinction.

“In an ideal world, rhinos wouldn’t be under such extreme threat and there would be no need for trophy hunting,“ a spokesperson for conservation body Save The Rhino told AM2.

“The reality is that rhino conservation is incredibly expensive and there are huge pressures for land and protective measures; field programmes that use trophy hunting as a conservation tool, can use funds raised to provide a real difference for the protection of rhino populations.”

The government’s strategy to combat poaching also includes awareness campaigns, both locally and in user countries, as well as creating new economic opportunities in communities adjoining rhino areas.

South Africa has earmarked tourism – which supports one in every 12 jobs in the country – as a key sector with excellent potential for growth. The government is planning to increase tourism’s contribution, both directly and indirectly, to the economy from the 2009 baseline of R189.4bn (US$17.7bn, €17.7bn, £10.7bn) (7.9 per cent of GDP) to R499bn (US$46.6bn, €35.4bn, £28.3bn) by 2020, according to the National Department of Tourism.