Cause Of Illegal Wildlife Trade

Topic 1: Illegal Wildlife Trade

Background:

In 2013, 1004 Rhinos were killed. In 2013, at least 20000 elephants were killed.

Illegal wildlife trade is estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars every year. Second only to narcotics for being the largest illegal trade and the fourth most profitable illegal business, illegal wildlife trade is becoming too large an issue to ignore. Being one of the main causes towards the threat of survival of different wildlife species, actions must be taken in order to prevent the aggravation of this issue.

Wildlife trade is the exchange or sale of wild animal and plant resources, involving both live animals as well as the after products. It is considered illegal when there is overexploitation – where

However, there are some who are too blinded by the revenue earned from illegal wildlife trade to do the same. The question now is whether the rest of the world are willing to make an effort to save the endangered species.

There have been attempts to reduce and eradicate the issue of illegal wildlife trade, but can the world co-operate to put an end to the ongoing problem?

Key Definitions:

Illegal: Contrary to or forbidden by law, especially criminal law

Wildlife: Wild animals collectively; the native fauna (and sometimes flora) of a region

Trade: The action of buying and selling goods and services:

Causes of illegal wildlife trade:

1) Higher demand leads to more

Yet, people see this scenario as the opportunity to increase prices of animal parts due to the rarity of the species survival. This furthers pushes a species to extinction as people are driven by high profits to continue killing and poaching animals.

3) Low level of consequences

The law is generally lenient when it comes to the penalty of illegal wildlife trading. Thus, many poachers continue to carry out poaching as there is no serious consequence that deters them from committing their actions. The main leaders of the poaching companies are often left uncaught as only those working on the fields are arrested and charge, allowing the businesses to continue to prosper with the killing of more animals.

4) Corruption in the government

Due to huge amounts of profits and how lucrative the illegal wildlife trade is, government officials accept bribes and may act as middlemen to benefit from the trade. Corruption in the government thus renders any environmental policies put in place useless and is the basis of the failure of many policies and initiatives. It is the one of the main target areas countries should look into when trying to make policies more effective.

Impacts of illegal wildlife trade:

1) Change in