RAPTOR ANTI-POACHING UNIT

Effects of poaching in Africa

 

Poaching is a worldwide catastrophe that not only affects the animals being poached but also the environment and the people around them. Poaching is the illegal over-exploitation of animals and the illegal trading and selling of them wither it be killing them for a part or selling them whole. Africa for example is a continent in which its animals and people that have been strongly affected by poaching. Poaching has deeply affected Africa by changing its economy, the biodiversity of its animals and morphed by CITES reaction to help prevent it.

All throughout Africa the economy is slowly and rapidly by the effects of poaching. Poaching is decreasing the number of animals that roam the plains of Africa and also affecting the villages in the plains as well. The African fish hatcheries are some of the places that are economically impacted by poaching. Poaching is one of four exploitation factors that affect the fish hatcheries but poaching is one of the main problems in the system. The poaching over the years has greatly affects the yield of aquatic animals that the hatcheries have been receiving. This problem could lead to hardships in the economic markets “increasing competition for the legitimate industry” which will lead to drastic price changes. In which causes more problems for the people in Africa whom some already have problems in money management. The low yield comes to another negative consequence in which how long hatchery will be open for. But the hatcheries around Africa are too important to close down. So if the yield of the hatchery continues to decrease every year sooner or later the hatchery will have a change in management. Not only is the fish hatcheries are being affected by poaching the sale of ivory in Africa has also been affected. . “In Kenya, uncarved ivory was worth $2.50 a pound in 1969, $34 a pound in 1978, and more than $90 a pound in 1989”. Poachers realized that there was big money in ivory so elephants were the main target for these outlaws. Over the years as the price of ivory increased the population of the African elephants decreased. Due to the decreasing numbers of elephants the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) decided to put a ban on selling and trading of ivory in order to stop the poaching of these elephants. In doing so led to no money for the government for ivory. Doing so greatly impacted the market flow within the African economy.   

The biodiversity of Africa is in great danger due to the effects of poaching. If poaching continues and expands throughout Africa then there will be an abundance of animals that will go extinct. One animal group that has been majorly affected by poaching in Africa is the African Elephants. Poachers went after the African elephants because of their ivory and the prices that ivory could fetch. In the 1980s the elephant’s population was over a healthy one million when poaching was barely a concern. As time passed there was an increase of poaching activity. As the poachers began to poach more and more and then the 1990s came around and the elephant’s population greatly decreased from approximately “1.3 million to 600,000 individuals”. This is making the African elephants go to dangerously low population, low to where they could be endangered.  Another animal group that was being affect by poaching are the African Rhinos. The valuable appendage that the poachers wanted was the black rhino’s horn. One way to utilize rhino’s horn is to be used for medicine such as recovery from fevers. Even though that would be a very beneficial use for the rhino’s horn the real profit and main use for the horn is using it for the handles of knifes. In the 1960s the Black Rhino’s population was at a whopping 65,000 but today the population is around 3,000. Two majorly low populated African Rhino species that have really suffered the devastating effects of poaching are the Hooked-lip (Black) Rhinoceros and the Square-lipped (White) Rhinoceros.  

As the decline of each animal groups such as the African Elephants and the African Rhinos started to increase the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) group took action and decided to post bans in order to help save the remaining population for these animal groups. In fear of endangerment and extinction CITES decided to help the African Rhinos by posted a ban 1987 which prohibits the selling and trading of rhino horns in African and in 1989 posted an ivory ban which prohibits the trade of ivory (elephant tusks) within Africa in order to help out the African Elephants. The effectiveness of these bans has been hit or miss depending on where in Africa you are. In some places the population of the rhinos and elephants has greatly increased where in other parts the results haven’t changed or have gotten worse. This is due to mostly to the condition of the country was in before the bans. Some countries were heavily poached while others were just susceptible   to poaching. Basically the ones that were susceptible to poaching were stopped and the populations increased where the ones that were heavily poached didn’t change or even got worse. Some would think that the bans would completely stop the poaching in their tracks but again it was another miss and fire. They continued to happen regardless of the bans posted and this was mainly due to the loophole in the poachers having found in the bans. The ban says that the trade and selling of ivory and/or rhino’s horn is illegal in Africa but not illegal in other countries outside of Africa such as Asian countries like China, Taiwan and North Korea who will gladly pay money in order to get rare supplies such as horns and tusks. Although these bans are a good idea there are still many flaws that need to be corrected in order to achieve the maximum recovery that the elephants and rhinos need. But since there is always someone in the world who is always look around to make money off of other peoples (in this case animal) expense this will probably never happen.    

All of these problems and attempted solutions are all because of inhuman action of poaching and also the people’s greedy desire to become filthy rich form the selling for these two booming and expensive items that come from lowly populated exotic animals in the African land. The people’s greed has led to an over- exploitation of African Elephants and the Black Rhino which could possibly lead to their extinction. This greed has also created more chaos and destruction in Africa because of the bans that were needed to be posted. Doing so also led to the change in the African economy which also led to more hostility in Africa. If they were to go extinct sooner or later the poachers will find an animal that will closely resemble the old animals and also over exploit them as well. These would keep continuing until there is nothing left valuable to exploit and rare species are extinct. As long as greed continues to poison the human heart and mind there may be no way to get rid of poaching. But there is always a small percent that can be abolished just a little.