African Elephant Summit

World Governments Make a Stand Against Ivory Trading

Have you heard about the African Elephant Summit? 

Read more about it at
https://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/african_elephant_summit_final_urgent_measures_3_dec_2013.pdf

To summarise the summit, there are "14 Urgent Measures" in the African Elephant Summit to halt and reverse the trend in illegal killing of elephants and the illegal ivory trade.

I would like to pick out a few of the Urgent Measures which, in my opinion, are slightly more interesting.

Urgent Measure 9
"Design and carry out national studies and public awareness programs, aimed at all 
sectors, which include information on the ramifications of illegal killing of elephants and 
the illegal ivory trade on the economy, national security, public safety and the ecosystem 
services elephants provide."

Urgent Measure 11
"Develop and implement strategies to eliminate the illegal trade in ivory and use
evidence-based campaigns for supply and demand reduction that use targeted strategies
including, where appropriate, government-led approaches, to influence consumer 
behaviour. "

These two "Urgent Measures" targets the consumer, and they are the measures that I agree the most with! Indeed, education and awareness campaign targetted at the public would definitely help against illicit wildlife trafficking! As the saying goes, "Knowledge is Power". With knowledge, perhaps more people will understand the need for protecting wildlife and their environment. In my opinion, awareness and education are likely to curb the demand for such illegal wildlife products.

Urgent Measure 12
"In African elephant range States, engage communities living with elephants as active 
partners in their conservation by supporting community efforts to advance their rights 
and capacity to manage and benefit from wildlife and wilderness."

Besides targetting the consumers, the next most important player to target will be the people living nearest to the wildlife, since they are the ones could are directly affect the animals. As mentioned in the previous post, many people tend to blame the poor for the overexploitation of natural resources. However, we have to take into account their underlying reasons for the exploitation. Hence, by engaging the communities, we could potentially curb one of the root cause of the illegal hunting of elephants.    

Additional News~

More reasons to rejoice! 
Additional Hope for the Wildlife! 

A reason for Hope (:

Last year, 5 African Nations, Gabon, Botswana, Chad, Tanzania, and Ethiopia, signed up for the Elephant Protection Initiative in London in February! 

Read more about it at Elephant Protection Initiative.

References

Anon, (2014). [online] Available at: https://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/african_elephant_summit_final_urgent_measures_3_dec_2013.pdf [Accessed 2 Nov. 2014].

Killer Looks?

It is not difficult to find videos of cute animals like this online, especially with an increasing use of social media. In my opinion, such videos could potentially exacerbate the current situation of illegal wildlife trafficking. On the other hand, these videos could help with illegal trafficking, by drawing attention and creating awareness for themselves.

For such videos to be helpful against illegal wildlife trafficking, the mindset of the audience must change. Instead of "Oooo this is so cute I wish I had one as a pet!", to "Oooo this is is cute I wish I could do something to help protect this animal!".  This boils down to the need for proper education and awareness of wildlife trading against illegal wildlife trading.

Its not all gloom and doom for these cute endangered wildlife though!

GOOD NEWS!

Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring network, reported that "Nine of the leading online retail sites in China, including Alibaba, Tencent, Sina, Airmedia, SMG and arton.net agreed earlier this month not to provide opportunities for promotion or trade of illegal wildlife products on their platforms."

One small step for man, a giant leap for Wildlife~

It is exactly 1 month since my first post. Hence, today's blogpost shall be a summary of what I have learnt about illegal wildlife trafficking. 

Drivers of Illegal Wildlife Trade

1. Medicinal Purposes

2. Culture and Tradition

3. Livelihood of Poor

    - High profit, Low Risk

4. Luxurious Items; Indicator of Wealth

    - Creation of demand by the Affluent  

5. Corrupted Personnel

    - Trafficking of animals requires the movement of the organisms across countries. Corrupted personnel increases the ease to move the organisms across.

6. Banning of wildlife trade

   - Illegalisation of wildlife products led to a surge in prices for such products, increasing incentives for poachers.

Explanation for ecological deterioration tends to blame the poor. 

Even though majority of the poaching and hunting of wildlife are done by the poor, I feel that it is not right to blame the poor at all for the rise in illegal wildlife trafficking! In most places where illegal wildlife poaching is very prevelant, jobs are scarce, and even if you have a job, most people are not paid enough. Given this situation, it is hard to blame the people for turning to the environment to supplement their income to provide for their family. 

For example, when a family member falls sick, it is hard for people living in poverty to afford for medical bills. However, by hunting in the forest, say for a rhinoceros horn, the person could easily sell their kill, which would then be used to pay for their medical bills. 

Hence, instead of always blaming the poor for the exploitation of wildlife, one should consider what is the underlying reasons for their exploitations.

Commodification of wildlife could help protect or destroy nature.

A change in perception in human will change what is considered as a resource. Its the resourcefulness of humans that decides what is a resource. When wildlife ceases to be part of our human resources, wildlife trafficking would naturally disappear.

How Beauty killed the Beast

Instead of the normal discussions I have on my blog, the blogpost today will be showing a list of a few animals that are classified as near extinction, as a result of illegal poaching.

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An excellent exmaple of how beauty killed the beast. Famed for their beautiful fur coat, the Amur Leopards were poached extensively. There are now  fewer than 30 of them left in the wild.

Hawksbill turtle are classified as crictically endangered. There is a large amount of illegal trade in their shells and the products derived from it.

There are fewer than 5000 of these black rhinoceros left in the wild. They are poached for their horns as a trophy, or for "remedies" for several illnesses.

There are fewer than 400 Sumatran Tigers left in the wild. According to Traffic, illegal poaching is responsible for over 78% of Tiger deaths!

A common ingredient for Traditional Chinese Medicince. Over the last 10 years, the population of Saiga Antelopes declined by over 90%, mainly due to poaching for the trade of horns.

Sahafary Sportive Lemur

Hunted extensively for wild bush meat and traded illegally as pets.
Wild population of the Lemur numbers no more than 50.


















Beautiful creatures. Is it too late to start saving them?