Elephant is at risk

In this article, “United States, Canada and Africa; alarming rise in elephant ivory trafficking,” the author states that illegal trading is still prevalent in some part of the world and that it endangers some species, for example, the elephant ivory is still sold in the black market; however, many departments and organizations are trying to change the bad situation and protect elephants from being poached and trafficked. Elephant tusks are mostly smuggled to Asia from Africa. Even though some countries like Namibia planned to sell a limited quantity for some areas, it is not a good idea to protect the elephant’s population. Then, IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) strongly opposed any activities about elephant tusk trafficking, because it helped to grow the poaching and smuggling. Selling ivory is not the only way to earn money; we can find other ways such as developing tourism about wildlife.

Illegal contraband of elephant tusks is still circulated between Asia and Africa. Actually, this black market encourages smugglers to slaughter elephants, which sinks elephants quantity into crisis and affects the wildlife. Then, some nature conservation departments like CITES and USFWS had to take action to stop the illicit trade and protect the elephants population by strengthening the regulation and law. Besides, Asian and African prosper their businesses that depend on poaching and illegal selling of their own beneficial resource, elephants; however, it is not a long-term benefit. According to the article, money they lose in tourism is much greater than money they gain from ivory. In this case, wildlife tourism shows the foresight to develop the nation’s economy with a limited resource. By the way, relevant agencies should seek better solutions to keep endangered species from extinction and maintain the wildlife by international cooperation. Also, I believe improving people’s consciousness for nature protection is the basic and effective way to solve the problem.

Providing and enhancing the law and regulation documents is always an efficient way to limit the illegal trade; however, undergirding of people’s legal consciousness is the basic things that most countries should do. People should be told strongly that their behavior is running against the law and has imperiled the balance of nature. Besides, these Asians and Africans mostly put their commercial interests first, and maybe most of them don’t know too much about the environmental problem. So they should be taught what has happened to nature and what the right way to take benefits from natured resource is. If people’s nature protection consciousness was changed, the environment problem and the even endangered species problem would have declined.

Developing the foresighted economy is the best way to keep a sustainable environment. Elephant is not the only endangered species that we should be concerned about; the number of other animals, such as tiger, panda, rhinoceros, whale and so on, are also decreasing. Keeping the balance of nature is very important for the future of life on the earth. Whatever species is destroyed, it will impact the whole biosphere chain. In the case of Asia and Africa, it is gainful to sell the ivory by massacring elephants, but this kind of commercial interest is not lucrative. Pueschel, the manager of IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare), maintains that tourism provide one of the biggest incomes in Africa and tourists are interested in seeing the wildlife. For this reason, keeping people from poaching wildlife and promoting the improvement of tourism business is a clear and good solution. It is beneficial for the current economy and even for a future.

Protection of endangered species is not a local problem; we should mobilize international action. Economic development is global; nature protection also require global thinking. Working together is always the best way to collect ideas and solve the problems. All countries should pay more attention to current endangered species by measuring their own countries’ situations. Then, they need to find the solution for their local problem first and help other countries. The evidence shows that many countries have already taken action. There are almost 171 countries that joined into “Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species Conference of the Parties,” which is an international protocol. If every country can take action to concentrate on nature protection, solving the problem will not be very difficult.

In conclusion, in the case of elephants, they are at risk because of commercial interests like trafficking of ivory; all the countries should be mobilized to protect endangered species. Any illicit trades that are harmful to nature must be banned as soon as possible. With the economy developing, we have to have foresight. It is important improve to the people’s consciousness of nature protection. All in all, we should be responsible for any kinds of disturbances of nature.

Reference:

United States Department of State. (2007, May 31). Unite States, Canada and Africa; Alarming rise in elephant ivory trafficking. Africa News. Retrieved May 26, 2009, from LexisNexis database.