11

Naomi Prevo, Mae Felkner, Davis Howland, and Luke Harrington

Wildlife Crime – A Threat to our Health, Courtesy of UN Environment Programme, Terms & Conditions

Animal trafficking and poaching are two illegal methods in which humans capture and often kill exotic animals in return for animal products or the economic status that comes along with owning these animals. In this chapter, we will look at animal trafficking/poaching from a general and economic point of view, learn how animal trafficking and poaching negatively affects the ecosystems they occur in, and finally, we will show how to use this information to help contribute towards the battle against illegal wildlife trade.

Animal trafficking is in the top five most lucrative global crime enterprises. It is estimated that this trade accrues between $7-20 billion a year (Goyenechea & Indenbaum, 2015). In total, it is estimated that over 350 million animals are bought and sold on the black market each year (Carrington, 2013). There are many reasons why animal trafficking is still so prevalent, but one of the largest reasons is poverty. This industry provides some stability, and due to the high demand for these luxury goods, the hunters are expected to be well compensated. Another aspect that allows this industry to continue is the demand for specific “animal-based” products. The people who are supplying poachers with income are looking to purchase luxury items like animal skins, ivory, or even medicine obtained from certain animals. As mentioned earlier, over 350 million animals are estimated to be trafficked per year globally, but of that number, we decided the three most interesting animal species to research were the tiger, elephant, and rhino. Each of these species is sought after for their own specific product or attribute: tigers being sold for their pelts or as exotic pets, elephants being killed for their ivory or being sold as pets, and rhinos being killed for their ivory and sold as pets. All three of these species are constantly in danger in their natural environments due to poachers, and the decline in their populations severely affects not only them but every animal in their ecosystem. Locationally, these animals reside mainly in Southeast Asia, China, and Mexico. 

With Asia being such a large continent, it has an extremely high amount of illegal trafficking. So much that researchers are now looking into Asia’s recent exponential economic growth and whether it is due to the economic increase in animal trafficking which is raking in billions of dollars annually. It has also recently been revealed that Asia has played a huge part in the production and distribution of luxury goods obtained from these exotic animals. For example, in Indonesia, there are around 17,000 islands containing a large portion of the world’s environmental biodiversity96; because of this biodiversity and the animal trafficking that occurs there, Indonesia has become one of the largest suppliers of these illegal products and has been recorded transferring up to $2 million worth of product annually (Linkie et al., 2018). 

As well as Indonesia, China and Vietnam are other major countries that have made a significant impact on the global animal trafficking market. China has become well known for the distribution of elephants and their ivory as ornaments (Carrington, 2013), whereas Vietnam is well known for distributing mainly rhino ivory. Unfortunately, both of these species are facing extinction, and in fact, the Javan Rhino population is currently at 74 members globally due to poaching over time (Martin, 2019). Although this paper is focusing on the tiger, elephant, and rhino populations, there are thousands of other well-known species going into extinction due to animal trafficking and poaching annually. In Thailand, animals like frogs, snakes, leopards, and other animal species are all on the brink of endangerment or extinction due to human involvement (Carrington, 2013). Many of them are sold for their fur, medicinal purposes, or luxury goods, but as stated earlier, the removal of animals from their natural habitat on the large scale is not only detrimental to that species but to every other species in that ecosystem. 

Although Asia is commonly accepted as the center of animal trafficking and poaching, it is not the only continent that is involved in this trade. North America, or more specifically the USA, has played a huge role as a consumer of animal-based goods. The estimated value of illegal trade within the U.S annually is currently $6 billion which is approximately 30% of the global income due to animal trafficking per year (Goyenechea & Indenbaum, 2015). People of higher income in the US have a high demand for luxury goods that come from small creatures like caiman, sea turtles, and exotic birds, whether that be as pets or clothing items. Although the rate at which people in the US purchase these animal products is high, it isn’t necessarily the country’s fault. At this point in time, the US is lacking financial support from the government to properly secure and enforce its borders to halt the flow of animal trafficking. One of the first main steps in solving this issue is obtaining the funds and support from governments around the world to help stop this issue from getting any worse.

At the moment, we as humans are constantly updated through the local news of our collective negative impact on the environment through things like littering, the burning of fossil fuels, and the use of pesticides; however, what most people don’t understand is that animal trafficking is the most concerning problem to the health of our planet and our species. As mentioned earlier, when animal trafficking occurs in specific locations over long periods of time like with the tiger, elephant, and rhino, the ecosystems that they live in are negatively affected through a chain reaction of events. When an animal like an elephant is removed from its natural environment, its source of food (plantation) is allowed to overgrow. Although the slight increase in plantations in an environment may not seem like a significant problem, this new plant life often provides effective cover for smaller prey animals which are often food to predators like tigers. With the ability to catch prey becoming harder, the tiger and other predator populations suffer greatly and in extreme cases, they grow closer to extinction themselves. Although this still has no obvious negative effect on humans, the overall increase in loss of biodiversity across the planet is detrimental to the health of our planet, and the more we harm our planet, the less time we have to survive on it. When animals are shot in the wild for their produce, the bullets are often made of lead which is a metal that is known to be extremely poisonous. Keeping this in mind, it is estimated that over 4,000 tons of lead are shot into the environment per year due to poachers (Animal Matters, n.d.) . This lead not only kills the animal that has been shot, but it is estimated that 20 million animals each year die from lead poisoning due to the introduction of the metal into their habitat (Animal Matters, n.d.). This is just another example of how the effect of animal trafficking damages ecosystems in a “trickle-down” effect. 

On top of the environmental issues that animal trafficking brings up, the industry has been heavily linked to the mass spread of infectious diseases. Currently, the world is in the middle of a global pandemic which is accepted to have originated out of Wuhan, China. The origins of the Covid-19 outbreak are still unknown, however on March 24, 2019, nearly 8 months before the first reported case of the outbreak, 21 live Sunda pangolins were taken into the Guangdong Wildlife Rescue Center, in Guangzhou. Although these 21 pangolins seem insignificant to the current global pandemic, when 11 of these creatures were tested for infectious diseases, fragments of coronavirus strains were found that were considered “a family high on the watch list of viruses potentially dangerous to humans” (Quammen, 2020). Although this doesn’t directly tie the connection between pangolins and the Covid-19 outbreak, it isn’t unlikely that illegal animal markets in Asian countries may have played a role at the beginning of this pandemic. It is also well known that many viruses like SARS, Nipah, and even Ebola were all found in groups of bats which are commonly distributed animals globally (Kessler, 2018). Reports from EcoHealth Alliance show that thousands of bats are transported from Asia to the Americas yearly. Additionally, back in 2002-2003, the SARS pandemic was a huge disaster that affected more than 8,000 people globally (Kessler, 2018). The virus was later traced back to a live animal market and proved that one animal being transported illegally around the world has a serious potential of doing serious harm to humans. On top of the detrimental effect that animal trafficking has on the environment, it is more than clear to see that it has the potential to harm the well-being of humans which should encourage people to support the battle against it.

The first interview that was conducted was with Dr. Samantha Russak of the Department of Education at Southwick Zoo. We asked her a variety of questions about the wildlife trade and her zoo’s involvement in educating the community about this problem. She told us about the programs the zoo offered to visitors and about the animals they protected at the zoo. Russak informed us that sometimes preserves from other countries would send their animals to the US to protect them. For example, the rhinos at the Southwick Zoo were imported from Africa from a preserve. This seemed odd because the whole purpose of a preserve was so that the animals were protected, but she told us that sometimes these organizations cannot keep poachers off the whole preserve so it’s safer in those cases for the animals to be sent to the United States where they can be looked after more closely. 

Our interview with Joe Fontain, professor of ecology at Murdoch University in Australia, brought about many insights into the impact trafficking and poaching have on various ecosystems. Fontain spoke of the destructive chain effect brought about by the removal of animals from their ecosystem. He explained how every animal has its purpose in balancing the ecosystem and this balance as we know it has been refined over millions of years. But we are actively disrupting this balance. Another important topic brought up in the interview was how most animals that are being trafficked or poached have long pregnancy periods compared to many rapidly reproducing animals that can easily recover from population change. The example he used was elephants, which have an 18-22 month pregnancy period, and it is estimated that 70 elephants are poached per day, therefore making it impossible to repopulate at the rate that they are being removed (National Geographic Television, 2013). This goes for all of the animals that are most commonly being poached and traded towards extinction. Once extinct, these great creatures will become things of the past, lost forever in history. Joe Fontain believes the fact that for whatever reason, selfish motives or not, we must come together to save this planet from the current path of ecological destruction.

As humanity continues to both combat and feed the changing climate’s earthly wrath, we often hyper-focus on day-to-day life. The most effective way to open your mind to the scale of destruction going on every day around us is to educate and be educated. There is no end-all answer to this oncoming cataclysm, the answer lies in numerous plans set in motion to rebuild our planet. Constant efforts are made to increase the use of alternate energy, as it is equally as important we learn to protect the wildlife we share the planet with. The removal of animals through poaching or trafficking can rapidly lead to ecological imbalances that will aid the path of climate disaster coming our way. Removing even a single animal from its local habitat can have a remarkably dangerous effect on the ecosystem, but what often goes unsaid is how even one conscious act towards protection can make a difference far greater than you may think. Knowing the potentially positive impacts of our often effortless actions should be enough incentive for even the most unmotivated people. This project, alongside many organizations and programs, aims to raise awareness of the severity of our often-overlooked consequences. Passing time while combined with an awareness of behavior will gradually lead to a decrease in the negative qualities of that behavior. It is our duty as humans to become aware of our impacts so the necessary changes can be made. It is time for us to take these steps, as no amount of guilt can change the past and no amount of anxiety can change the future—the time for change is now.

Ways that we would recommend helping this global issue are, most importantly, educating yourself and others. Through research and interviews, we have found that by educating yourself you can help spread the word about animal trafficking and poaching even when it does not seem to directly affect you. For example, if you have free time you could read more about this topic from reputable sources or if you see something on social media trying to spread awareness you can send that information to your friends or even post it yourself. There are so many other ways you can educate yourself and others too. If you are not a casual reader, you can take a trip to a zoo with your family or even watch an informative documentary. Donating to foundations is a wonderful way to support this cause, but it is important to do your research to ensure that the money you are donating is providing service directly to the communities and wildlife in need. Oftentimes you will find some larger organizations working with larger overhead costs, so less of your money will go directly towards the cause. The active foundations are ever-expanding and new ones are appearing all the time, but a few that we have found to be effective uses of money are places like the International Anti-Poaching Foundation and the Southwick Zoo.

The Southwick Zoo has many charities on their website for people to browse that are verified through the zoo as places that effectively use the money towards the cause. The possibilities and opportunities for change are seemingly endless if you’re willing to put in just a fraction of your time and money. The scope of possibilities on how to help spans far past ecological needs. Looking at the economic instabilities of countries harboring this precious wildlife could be the origin of these issues. Actions to help these countries with alternative sources of work, or acquiring essential needs can, in turn, save the lives of numerous wildlife species that sustain our global ecosystems. Humans have constructed a culture based on material value, and to restore balance to the natural world we have to understand that killing animals is never worth the fur coat or ivory jewelry often sought after. Pursuing alternate materials such as synthetic versions of products like ivory, reptile skin, or even fur coats, will prevent much of the active poaching. These eco-friendly solutions will protect wildlife, and in turn, protect the very world we live in.

Works Cited

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