POACHING
by Wichicah Son
WHAT IS POACHING?
Poaching is the illegal act of removing wildlife from its environment to trade, sell, or their parts, such as fur, teeth, and bones. Often times it is done as a hobby or for profit. It is often done in areas with great wildlife, such as Africa and Asia. Poached wildlife is often taken into illegal wildlife trade, where they are trafficked, taken illegally, in exchange for profit.
Poaching started in 18th century Europe in the desperate act of getting food, then the act grew outside of the need for food and became an activity for profit.
Poaching has grown outside of Europe, many illegal wildlife trade occurring in Africa and Asia. Within Asia, the illegal trade between Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar has been named The Golden Triangle, its neighboring countries also participating in the trade.
Popular items that are achieved through poaching include ivory (tusks), skin, fur, and bones.
While the most popular form of poaching takes the shape of hunting animals, plants are also victims of poaching. Plant poaching is the removal of plants, usually rare or endangered, from their natural environment.
IMPACT OF POACHING
While laws have been implemented to limit poaching, it is still being done illegally. The lack of protection by governments have exposed animals and plants to become vulnerable to hunters. Unregulated poaching has led to many species becoming endangered and even extinct.
As poaching only aims to get only one aspect of an animal, it is extremely wasteful for the rest of the animal's corpse to be thrown away without usage in comparison to using all aspects of the animal.
Examples of Animals and Plants Affected by Poaching
| Animals | Plants |
|---|---|
| Ploughshare Tortoise | Rosette Succulent |
| Addax | Ginseng |
| Asian Elephant | Venus Flytrap |
| Black Rhino | Saguaro Cacti |
| Vaquita | Galax |
Through unrestricted poaching, both populations of plants and animals are significantly decreased.
When these species are hunted to extremes, this affects the food chain present in the environment. Preys of poached animals do not face predation as heavily, growing their population. Predators of the poached plants and animals would have one less food source for them, which puts heavy competition on its other food sources.
RESTRICTING POACHING
In many countries, laws have been implemented to make unrestricted hunting illegal, but still some acts of poaching is legal and the trafficking of wildlife still thrives.
In the United States, the Endangered Species Act protects endangered animals from poaching and illegal hunting. The Department of Justice is said to be working with people around the world where poaching takes place in order to stop the illegal wildlife trade.
Operation Crash is an American undercover operation aimed to stop the illegal smuggling, trafficking, and trade of rhinoceros horns. Since its establishment, they have caught and convicted multiple criminals on multiple charges due to being caught with rhinoceros horns in their possessions.
To protect wildlife, park rangers are deployed in highly poached areas in order to catch poachers.
As many African countries are home to many poached animals, harsh laws are implemented to reduce the amount of poaching.
Even with given laws and people protecting wildlife, poaching still occurs, whether by force or through corruption. As the goal is to have wildlife remain protected in safe in the wild, relocating poached wildlife outside of their habitat and putting them into places, such as zoos, would be harmful as they are removed from their natural habitat.
A safer approach in relocating wildlife would be putting them into nature reserves or wildlife sanctuaries. Instead of zoos, in which some of which profit off of animals while mistreating them, reserves and sanctuaries are dedicated into caring for wildlife while still being natural in the process. Zoos are aimed to please people, while reserves and sanctuaries prioritize wildlife first.
