By David Okul
April 29, 2020
Wildlife trade hotspots, issues, and methods are pertinent conservation issues. By definition, wildlife trade refers to a lucrative business that entails killing wild animals and selling products and parts derived from them. It has adverse effects on wildlife populations, local communities, and the environment at large.
Although most nations have banned wildlife trade, the illegal trade is still fueled by a market with a massive appetite for animal parts. As this article expounds, wildlife trade is still a common occurrence across the globe because the demand for it is widespread.
Where does wildlife trade occur?
The latest data released by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) shows that wildlife trafficking takes place in almost 30% of the world’s wildlife-inhabited areas. These areas include some of the most ecologically important places in the world.
World heritage sites have also become an easy target for wildlife trade. These sites support vast populations of unique animal and plant species. The illegal, multi-billion-dollar business is prevalent in Asia, where the continent houses over 3,890 tigers.
Africa has also become a haven for wildlife trading. After all, it has a large number of commonly traded species such as elephants, rhinos, crocodiles, big cats, pangolins, primates, and birds. For instance, illegal trading of ivory has become a typical vice in the continent. In oriental countries like China, there is a belief that rhino horns are a cure for a variety of ailments. This belief has led to an increased rhino poaching in Africa. The trade of wildlife trade is also local within the continent. Markets for bushmeats are ubiquitous in West Africa, while trade in antelopes occurs illegally in East and South Africa.
Pangolins are the most trafficked animals in the world. Like the case with rhinos, some people believe that their scales have remarkable medicinal values.
While wildlife trade is rampant globally, they are some well-known wildlife trade hotspots. These hotspots include Chinese international borders. China is a leading market for illegal wildlife trade because most of its vast population have weird superstition on wildlife. There are also wildlife trade hubs in Southern Asia and Southern/ Eastern Africa. Other hotspots include the EU’s eastern borders, Mexico, and some Caribbean nations. In recent years, countries such as Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire) have also emerged as hotspots for illegal wildlife trade.
How trade of wildlife happens
It is virtually impossible to list all the ways that wildlife trade occurs because they are so many, and illegal wildlife traffickers would often change the styles. However, most of the business of wildlife has at least one of these elements.
- Legal means as perpetrators attempt to follow the rules. However, in most cases, legal means only involves paperwork. Many countries in the world cannot assess the source and quantity of wildlife traded.
- Even in the cases where wildlife is legally traded, a scrutiny of the supply chain often shows some illegality along the way. For instance, traders can steal wildlife and present it as legally obtained.
- Wet markets offer a trading haven for wildlife trade. Wet markets provide a marketplace for selling live wildlife and other products. Wet markets are common throughout Asia. In these markets, throngs of customers come to shop for live animals. Poachers supply wet markets with live animals and their parts. Wet markets occur in Africa, as well. Like the first two points, wet markets may be legal, but the sourcing of the wildlife may have questionable supply chains.
Generally, most wildlife trade is illegal and involves organized gangs. The illegal trade takes place in nations where there is a huge demand for animal parts. The vice is rife in almost every region with an abundant number of endangered species such as elephants, tigers, rhinos, and other marine animals.
Why is wildlife trade occurring?
The entire globe faces the plight of wildlife trade. Even in nations that have enacted strict poaching laws and punishments, the illegal trade continues to thrive. To address the problem of wildlife trade, we must understand why the business is booming. Silvica identifies three pertinent issues among the various reasons why wildlife trade is occurring.
Availability of a ready marketplace
The demand for wild animals and their parts has frustrated the efforts taken to curb illegal wildlife trade globally. For instance, the Asian continent has the biggest marketplace for wildlife. From skins, ivory, snake skins, animal claws, shells to horns, the wildlife market in Asia is so diverse.
International markets are often the destination for illegal wildlife trade. The wildlife and their parts may not be in high demand in their place of origin. Instead, there are highly on-demand in international markets. In many cases, people at the source experience widespread poverty that wildlife trade is a viable economic activity. Unless governments take proactive action to eliminate the existing wildlife marketplaces, wildlife trade will continue thriving. Wildlife stakeholders must ensure that custodians of wildlife get a competitive value for keeping wildlife.
Absence of adequate laws to combat wildlife trade
In places where wildlife trade is rampant, there aren’t appropriate laws to curb illegal wildlife trading. Even if the law is present, the implementation may be weak. As such, orchestrators of this trade eventually get away with the vice. Some nations hadn’t given priority to wildlife trading until recently. Moreover, the punishment for illegal wildlife trading is too lenient in comparison to the crime committed by the masterminds of illegal wildlife trading.
Big money on offer
Illegal wildlife trading fetches enormous returns in the international markets. These returns encourage poachers to conduct this trade in pursuit of wealth. The greed for money has continuously been fueling the poaching industry for years. In 2014, for instance, the cost of a rhino horn was about US$ 70,000 per kilogram. As long as big money is on offer, wildlife trading will continue flourishing.
The issues with wildlife trade
Wildlife trade has been identified as a significant threat to wildlife today. Illegal wildlife trading has several implications not just on wildlife populations, but also on the environment as well. We have identified five major issues that arise from the trade.
Endangering species
Wildlife trading is known to diminish populations of wildlife species, consequently causing global and local wildlife extinction. When this illegal trade involves endangered species, the resulting poaching of these species can subject them to the risk of extinction. In any case, sustainability considerations are rare in wildlife trade. As such, it fuels the endangering of species that were previously not threatened. For instance, bushmeat poaching in Africa has significantly reduced the population of previously common species such as zebras and giraffes. Consequently, IUCN has placed the species under the endangered group.
Biosecurity risks
Wildlife trade can pose serious health threats to human beings. For instance, it can introduce deadly bacteria and viruses to humans who aren’t resistant to these disease-causing viruses and bacteria. Parasites and other disease-causing microorganisms often infest wildlife species in transit. Trafficking of these wildlife species can thus pose a severe biosecurity threat to humans as they may cause deadly zoonotic diseases. The latest zoonotic disease that has put the globe on a standstill is the novel coronavirus. As of April 29th, 2020, the virus had infected over 3 million people.
Violence
Poachers with guns alongside other crude weapons fuel violence in wildlife areas. These weapons kill not only wildlife populations, but also wildlife officials, rangers, police, and other people who may try to protect the wildlife. Wildlife rangers in the world over have been killed and maimed by poaches while in line of duty. Violence can escalate in cases where poachers are organized and heavily armed.
- Derails wildlife conservation efforts
Apart from the apparent negative biological implications of illegal wildlife trading, this trade has adverse effects on wildlife conservation efforts. Even with sound conservation policies in place, all the wildlife conservation efforts will become futile as long as the business persists. Because of this reason, most conservationists are calling for a global ban on wildlife trade
- Threat to wildlife
The reduction of wildlife species is ultimately the biggest issue with wildlife trade. The key reason why nations are spending a fortune on fighting illegal wildlife trading is that it poses the biggest threat to wildlife. When wildlife threatened, the world’s heritage is in jeopardy. If unlawful poaching isn’t addressed effectively, there will be no wildlife roaming on the planet in the coming decades.
Conclusion
Wildlife trade is undoubtedly a vice that governments must confront head-on. This lucrative yet illegal trade has far-reaching implications that can affect vast populations of wildlife and the environment at large. Worse still, the business is proving challenging to fight. The international community must stop this illegal wildlife trading to protect global wildlife populations. You should also take note that not all wildlife trade is illegal. Organizations and governments should work at communicating the legal wildlife trade as well.
References
AWF. (2020). Mayo Clinic. Retrieved from https://www.awf.org/stop-demand
IUCN (2020). Retrieved from https://www.iucn.org/regions/europe/our-work/wildlife-trafficking
David Okul is an environmental management professional with over 10 years experience on donor projects, forestry, and community-based natural resources management. Views expressed in this blog post are personal and do not represent the organizations associated with the author.
