When the authors visited Taiwan in 1988 they discovered that much of the rhino horn on sale there had come from South Africa. Since then action by the South African Government and Taiwanese Customs has stopped these illegal imports. A return visit in 1990 revealed that the same is not true of horn from Asian rhinos; demand for this is increasing and wealthy Taiwanese, aware that prices will rise even higher as rhinoceros numbers decline, are buying it as an investment. Although imports of rhino horn have been prohibited in Taiwan since 1985, the smuggling goes on, encouraged by the fact that domestic sales of horn still continue despite a total ban initiated in 1989.