President Theodore Roosevelt began his advocacy of wildlife protection as a means to preserve animals as a resource for hunting. Although Roosevelt was an avid hunter, he also respected wildlife for its intrinsic value. After leaving office in 1909, Roosevelt traveled to Africa and South America. He was injured and contracted malaria during an expedition to Brazil’s Amazon region in 1913–14, which led to his death in 1919. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
Lone poachers often hunt animals for food or for income by selling them on the illegal exotic animal market. Many endangered animals lose their lives so hunters can remove
a single body part: pelts, teeth, bones, whiskers, tails, tusks, or reproductive organs. Lone poachers represent a serious but small facet of the illegal animal trade, but poaching has also grown into a worldwide organized crime. Poachers make lucrative earnings on the black market, the system of buying and selling items that are illegal to sell in conventional
markets. Many of the animals or animal parts traded on the black market have become valuable for an ironic reason: laws against the hunting, killing, and selling of endangered and exotic species. The more poaching removes endangered animals from the environment, the more they become endangered. As a result, the animal’s selling price goes up and the animal becomes even more sought by poachers.
a single body part: pelts, teeth, bones, whiskers, tails, tusks, or reproductive organs. Lone poachers represent a serious but small facet of the illegal animal trade, but poaching has also grown into a worldwide organized crime. Poachers make lucrative earnings on the black market, the system of buying and selling items that are illegal to sell in conventional
markets. Many of the animals or animal parts traded on the black market have become valuable for an ironic reason: laws against the hunting, killing, and selling of endangered and exotic species. The more poaching removes endangered animals from the environment, the more they become endangered. As a result, the animal’s selling price goes up and the animal becomes even more sought by poachers.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) prohibits international buying or selling of any endangered plant or animal or parts. Poachers remain bold and vicious hunters, but since the CITES treaty was signed in 1975, it
has reduced losses of elephants, crocodiles, and chimpanzees, among other endangered animals. CITES additionally restricts trade in almost 30,000 species classified on the Red List as near threatened. Enforcement of antipoaching laws falls to individual countries that recruit national park officials and hired guards to stand watch over endangered animals.
The Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC) is an international organization that monitors global trade in wildlife. TRAFFIC also publishes the trends it uncovers in wildlife trade; it was one of the first organizations to alert the world of an enormous market that sells sharks and shark parts. TRAFFIC also monitors trade in endangered plants and trees. International groups like CITES and TRAFFIC will probably never end poaching unless they can enforce stiff penalties against illegal trade. Currently poachers pay only small fines or slip through legal loopholes from one country to another. Meanwhile endangered animals live as targets.
The case study “Protecting Palau’s Biodiversity” describes another troubling threat to species: tourists who take animals or plants as souvenirs.
