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The con­nec­tion between species extinc­tion, organ­ised crime and spread of disease

201204Dec22:52

The con­nec­tion between species extinc­tion, organ­ised crime and spread of disease

Infor­ma­tion
pub­lished 04 Decem­ber 2012 | mod­i­fied 04 Decem­ber 2012
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Ille­gal wildlife traf­fick­ing may prove to be the demise of many of our Earth’s species. Fur­ther, this activ­ity — which is snuff­ing out the last pop­u­la­tions of ele­phants, tigers and other ani­mals — finances organ­ised crime and aug­ments the spread of zoonotic dis­eases. There is no lack of rea­sons to join efforts to stop wildlife traf­fick­ing. Together, we need to pro­tect the source, break the chain and stop demand.
At a recent event in Wash­ing­ton, DC, U.S. Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton empha­sised for the world to clearly hear:

…wildlife traf­fick­ing has become more organ­ised, more lucra­tive, more wide­spread, and more dan­ger­ous than ever before…Wildlife traf­fick­ing threat­ens secu­rity and the rule of law, under­mines con­ser­va­tion efforts, robs local com­mu­ni­ties of their eco­nomic base, and con­tributes to the emer­gence and spread of disease.


Poaching tuskstailsgunsThere are already many organ­i­sa­tions and agen­cies seek­ing to stop these crim­i­nal activ­i­ties but hav­ing the U.S. Sec­re­tary of State join the effort will go a long way to ensur­ing that more of us pay atten­tion and more mem­bers of the global com­mu­nity take on the respon­si­bil­ity of stop­ping what is not a vic­tim­less crime.

This year alone, we antic­i­pate 30,000 African ele­phants will be killed for their ivory. It is esti­mated that 448 black rhi­nos were poached in 2012 in South Africa to meet the demand for their horns in South­east Asia and China. Today, only 3,200 tigers remain in the wild because so many have been killed for their parts. More than 25 mil­lion indi­vid­ual sharks will be killed this year for their fins, includ­ing many from endan­gered species.

The rev­enues gen­er­ated by the sale of these wild ani­mals flow into other ille­gal activ­i­ties and the domino effect spreads through­out soci­ety. This blood money sup­ports local insur­gen­cies and ter­ror­ist activ­i­ties and pro­motes polit­i­cal insta­bil­ity. The wildlife prod­ucts end up trav­el­ing through organ­ised crime net­works, espe­cially between Africa and high-​end mar­kets in East Asia. Smug­gling of wildlife across inter­na­tional bor­ders bypasses quar­an­tine and other health reg­u­la­tions which risk the spread of infec­tious dis­eases such as Ebola, SARS, mon­key pox and oth­ers. These viruses and dis­eases have the poten­tial of impact­ing human health includ­ing caus­ing death, harm­ing inter­na­tional com­merce and dis­rupt­ing local economies.

At the U.S. State Depart­ment event in Wash­ing­ton, Sec­re­tary Clin­ton called for peo­ple here in the United States and around the globe to unite to stop ille­gal wildlife traf­fick­ing. She has declared Tues­day, Dec. 4, as Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Day. On this day, we can all go to wildlife​pledge​.org to declare that we will learn more about wildlife traf­fick­ing, tell oth­ers about this crime, and be more respon­si­ble con­sumers to ensure we are not a part of the demand.

As a global con­ser­va­tion organ­i­sa­tion, Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety knows that the solu­tion to this urgent cri­sis is three-​pronged: We must increase enforce­ment to pro­tect threat­ened pop­u­la­tions on the ground; we must con­trol the ille­gal trans­port and trade of wildlife prod­ucts; and we must stem the demand for wildlife prod­ucts through edu­ca­tion and aware­ness. With­out a com­mit­ment to stop­ping all ele­ments of this crime, any effort to pro­tect our world’s iconic species is doomed to fail.


(Source: WCS press release, 03.12.2012)
Tags: extinc­tion | wildlife | ille­gal trade | organ­ised crime | dis­ease | poach­ing
UN Biodiversity decade
WWF Stop Wildlife Crime
Fight for Flight campaign
End Ivory-funded Terrorism
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NASA State of Flux

Goal: 7000 tigers in the wild

Tiger range countries map

“Tiger map” (CC BY 2.5) by Sander­son et al., 2006.

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