Wildlife Poaching And Legal Trade

Pressure is on to sell stockpiles of endangered species products taken before trade was banned. But that would make it easier for poachers to include illegal goods in sal

Those in favor of selling stockpiles claim that the money from these sales would go toward conservation of endangered species and threatened habitat. But it has been shown that legal trade in banned endangered species products fuels further poaching.

When the ivory trade was closed, poaching of elephants dropped. In India, poaching of tigers is increasing as China puts pressure on to sell tiger parts from farmed tigers. And rhinoceros in Africa and India are facing increased poaching pressure. In North America, poachers have begun taking bears to sell gall bladders as well.

But the problem lies in determining endangered animal parts taken legally from those obtained from poachers. As long as there is money to be made, poachers will try to slip illegally taken animal parts into shipments of stockpiled parts.

To separate out the illegal animal parts DNA testing must be done. Testing every batch of stockpiled animal parts would be prohibitively expensive and time consuming. And corruption in some of the range state countries is an additional concern.

Traditional Chinese Medicine is at the heart of the trade. But there are alternatives to each of the endangered species parts, many of them plants which are not endangered. Its time to stand tough and ensure that legal trade in endangered species parts is not reopened. The world’s wildlife depends on it.