Essay on Illegal Hunting & Trade of Endangered Species in Africa: Causes & Consequences

Introduction

Illegal hunting and trade of endangered species have been a big problem in Africa. Even today, most animals, including elephants, rhinos and pangolins are being poached despite significant efforts by African wildlife authorities and environmental groups to end the act. According to Ayling (2015), more than 1200 tusks were found in Tanzania earlier this year, indicating that the situation is becoming worse. Widespread poverty and unemployment in Africa are believed to among the causes of illegal poaching in the region.

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Baaniya (2018) noted that poaching provides income, and given the level of poverty and unemployment in the area, it is easy to find cheap labor for this industry.

Besides, gaps in protection such as corruption, weak judicial systems, toothless laws, and light sentences encourage illegal poaching (Gavin, Solomon, & Blank, 2010). These gaps allow criminals to continue hunting the endangered species with little concern for consequences. Bad governance is also a contributing factor to illegal poaching. For instance, National parks and wildlife agencies have high financial needs that the state does not remotely meet (Haenlein & Smith, 2017). Close to 90% of all secured areas cannot finance themselves (Gavin et al., 2010).

Due to insufficient government funding, they become protected areas that only exist on paper. Irresponsibly, some conservation organizations still construct national parks that operate under financial deficits while forcing out lucrative and sustainable hunting tourism for ideologies (Haenlein & Smith, 2017). Such organizations have failed to learn from abortive examples set by Botswana and Kenya in attempting to prohibit poaching. However, hunting bans have proven to be ineffective in Africa because illegal poaching and trade of Pangolins and other endangered species are still practiced (Heinrich et al., 2016). Therefore, it is understandable that conservation groups such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) should be irritated at the present recommendations being pushed by governments to limit legal trade in animal products.

Hypothesis and Current Situation

Pangolin, also known as the ''Scaly eaters,'' is the most illegally traded mammal-far in the world, exceeding the rates of poaching and trading rhinos, elephants, and other high profile species (Harrington, D'Cruze, and Macdonald, 2018). Estimates show that over one million pangolins have been hunted illegally in the past decade, making them the most trafficked wild mammal in the world (Kingdon, 2005). The illegal trade overexploits these animals in their keratin scales for exotic meat and medicine. Due to this overexploitation, conservationists have seen the need to take swift actions to save Pangolins (Rolf, 2014).

Over the last years, confiscations of scales and pangolins, both frozen and live, have increased. Seizures of products coming from African countries, including Cameroon, South Africa, Uganda, Sierra-Leone, and Nigeria show that Asian-markets are now sourcing African species to meet demands in Vietnam and China (Knapp, Peace, and Bechtel, 2017).

Evidence shows that the trafficking of Pangolins follows similar routes as that of rhino horn and elephant ivory (Wittemyer, Northrup, Blanc, Douglas-Hamilton, Omondi, & Burnham, 2014).

Some of the criminals benefiting from these trades are now transporting tones of pangolin to Asia. There are eight pangolin species of which are poached for trade. A survey in Assam, North East India, found that the scales from one pangolin captured in Assam might be equal to a four months' income of a rural hunter (Pires & Moreto, 2016). This research suggested that although Assam residents often use pangolins for traditional reasons, the commercial gain has substantially ousted low-level traditional use (Pires & Moreto, 2016).

Beliefs about the medical features of pangolin scales appeared to be restricted to the elderly in the community. However, it is worth noting that the local people preferred other types of meat, thus, increasing the demand for pangolins and their shipments from Africa (IUCN, 2014). Most African countries that supply pangolin trade it as bushmeat in local markets. Many West and Central African countries use bush meat as a source of protein and income during periods of lean agriculture (Lemieux and Clarke (2009). Pangolin scales are used for ornamental and medical purposes (Soewu, 2013) in Asia and Africa, where pangolins are found.

In Africa, these uses include food as a complementary source of protein (Wright and Priston, 2010), preparation of traditional medicines, and as ornaments (Soewu, 2013). Pangolin carcass is known as a delicacy of choice, while the animal is believed to possess a reservoir of medicinal, sometimes mystical properties (Soewu and Adekanola, 2011). With the increased rate of poaching, Africa needs to enact conservation laws and protection status of wild animals.

Poaching pangolins seemed to be primarily opportunistic, and apparent declining abundance of pangolins in Africa indicates that illegal hunting is unsustainable. As noted in the research conducted by the group, poverty and low levels of education are among the factors that lead to illicit poaching in Africa (Haenlein and Smith, 2017). To address this issue, there is a need to reduce the poverty level and enhance education in the continent. Challender (2011) outlined that Pangolins attract the attention not only for their unique morphological features but also for their high rank in the global trade. Four main pangolin species inhabit sub-Saharan Africa, namely: Temminck's Ground Pangolin Smutsia temminckii, White-bellied Pangolin Phataginus tricuspis, the Black-bellied Pangolin Phataginus tetradactyla and the Giant Ground Pangolin Smutsia gigantea (Kingdom, 2005).

In 2008, the International Union for Conservation Nature (IUCN) classified two of the eight pangolin species as endangered (IUCN, 2014). They include the Chinese pangolin M. pentadactyla and Sunda Pangolin Manis javanica (McDuff and Jacobson, 2000). Today, all the eight species, including the all four African species vulnerable as well as the Indian and Philippine endangered, are now threatened with extinction (Lemieux and Clarke, 2009). Studies show that Pangolins gained a significant boost in protection, prohibiting international commercial trade of these species.

According to the 2016 World Wildlife Crime Report, legal trade in Pangolins has virtually ended, while illegal trade has boomed (Pires & Moreto, 2016). Since big consumer nations are experiencing a decline of domestic pangolins, (Moreto and Clarke (2013) suggested that the continuous availability of these species should be subjected to scrutiny. An intense forensic investigation of pangolins in consumer markets is also necessary as it could help stop the smuggling of African pangolins.

Inasmuch as the need to prevent illegal poaching of African Pangolins is on the rise, very little is known about the size of the remaining populations. As nocturnal and solitary animals, they are known to spread in other geographic areas, making surveys difficult (Newman, Macdonald, and Zhou, 2014). After a long gestation, they give birth to a single offspring, so there is a good reason to worry about the sustainability of high off-take. Regardless of their real numbers, Seizure data indicate that increased levels of pangolins are being poached and traded illegally. Multi ton seizures of African pangolin scales have become common (Oxpeckers, 2019).

Current World WISE data show that about 190,000 live pangolin scales were seized in illegal trade between 1999 and 2016 (Petrossian, Pires, and van Uhm, 2016). Due to the growth of the illicit poaching in Africa, it is believed that this number has increased between 2017 and 2019 (Oxpeckers, 2019). Wright and Priston (2010) posited that it is common for pangolin scales to be discovered in mixed loads together with other species like rhino horn and ivory. This discovery shows that specialized wildlife traffickers operate the trade.

Many researchers have projected that unlawful demand for pangolins would soon drain the Asian supply (Weel et al., 2015). As a result, poachers would continue to target African pangolins. Unfortunately, it seems that this threat has been recognized. In Africa, Pangolin scales have traditional use, and some of the exports may involve buyers purchasing the remaining stocks (Wittemyer et al., 2014). Since much is not known about the size of these stocks, it is hard to point out the amount of the recent seizure involving poaching (Soewu and Adekanola, 2011). The figure below shows the live pangolin equivalents seized globally between 1999 and 2016.

A description of Surveys

Studies conducted by the United Nations (UN) and Interpol showed that the illegal trade of flora and fauna accounts for approximately $7-$23 billion per year (Ayling, 2015). Of this total, the sales of valuable products like rhino horn, ivory, and tiger amounted to approximately $75 million in 2010. In 2012, more than 35,000 elephants and 810 rhinos were poached illegally (Wittemyer et al., 2014). Today, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has declared that Pangolins are the most heavily trafficked mammals in the world alongside rhinos and elephants (Oxpeckers, 2019). African Pangolins are illegally hunted in most parts of Africa then shipped to Asia. According to Harrington et al. (2018), pangolin scales and other body parts are used in Chinese traditional medicine, and its meat is considered a delicacy in Asia.

A group study showed that animals that are illegally hunted in Africa include African elephants, pangolins, gorilla, cheetah, lions, wild dog, black rhino, Grevy's zebra, Ethiopian wolf and other wild animals (IUCN, 2014). More than 100, 000 elephants have died due to illegal poaching in Africa. From 2010 to 2012, the rate of unlawful poaching ever was about 7%. This implies that approximately 33,630 elephants were killed within this period. The latest statistics From African Wildlife Foundation (2018) indicates that the population of the African elephant is around 415,000, while that lion is approximately 23,000. Cheetah population is about 6,700, the wild is nearly 6,600, and the black rhino is almost 5,000 (African Wildlife Foundation, 2018). Many species in the region are also experiencing a decrease in population.

Other Findings

Africa is the center for illegal hunting of rhinoceros and elephants. In North Africa, Sudanese militants often work on poaching for ivory (Wittemyer et al., 2014). The Garamba national park situated on the border of Sudan sees rebels from the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) hunt elephants with grenades from rocket-propelled launchers (Pires & Moreto, 2016). Another Sudanese Militia known as the ''Janjaweed'' also traffics ivory for profit in Kenya and Chad (Oxpeckers, 2019). Monetary incentives mostly influence the trade of rhino horn and ivory in Susan. Poachers live and work in extreme poverty areas. As such, shipping these wildlife products is an economic opportunity (Baaniya, 2018).

In East Africa, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania account for around 80% of the major African seizures of ivory (Gavin et al., 2010). Kenya has one of the most prominent African tourism industries supported mainly by game reserves and safaris (Haenlein & Smith, 2017). Poaching of rhino horn and ivory threaten $1 every year since tourists encounter fewer animals and increased rates of crime in game parks and reserves (Wittemyer et al., 2014).