Earlier today, as I was going through my Facebook feed, I came across a post about how there are elephants being used to track down the scent of TNT. So I clicked on it and it took me to a page by the Huffington Post where the subtitle was “scientists are attempting to study and produce a smelling machine comparable with the smelling ability of an elephant.” It was an intriguing title and so I read the article and at the end, I noticed pictures of elephant body parts with the title, “Scaling up war on Elephant Poaching.” Being a guy, the dismemberment of anything is a curious and requires further investigation so I clicked on the link where I was then shown a more subtle photo of a baby elephant and its mother together. The article at first glance was filled with pictures of elephants that drew me in at the beginning. After looking at all the pictures, It was then that I began to read the article.
The article was about how WCS, or Wildlife Conservation Society and their conservation partners who were pushing to begin to end the poaching of wild elephants. It presented some pretty staggering statistics concerning the 60 – 70% population decline in almost all the elephant species due to the illegal organized crime networks and their kingpins who are profiting from the illegal trade of ivory that is harvested from elephants. No matter how much they try to scale up the security, the poaching of elephants will continue as long as the crime syndicates are able to work through corrupt officials of the countries law enforcement. Just in the time span of 3 years, from 2009 – 20012, over 100,000 elephants were killed illegally. A meeting was held between the representatives of 20 governments – including U.S., UK, France, China, Vietnam and more in order to make plans and carry out the passing of laws in order to save the elephants. No decision or discussion was actually made about the issue due to the other issues discussed during the meeting. Feeling the angst and frustration of the author of the article, he then makes known what would have happened if they did;
1) Governments would begin to train new and old rangers more efficiently through increased anti-poaching work on-the-ground, by means of increased funding through governments and agencies.
2) A greater emphasis in the search for and conviction of the crime syndicates, their king pins, and the corrupt law enforcement or government leaders who permit it.
3) The demand for ivory must be reduced in countries where it is sold, that way the supply demanded will decrease as well as close the illegal ivory markets for good.
It was very disappointing to me that when I read that a meeting was held to discuss the issue but nothing was done. What did they do, run out of time to talk about the issue that has a time stamp on it already? I’m in total agreement with the author of the article when he says that “the shortsightedness with which corruption is tolerated will, if left unabated, result over time in the loss of one of Africa’s most revered and iconic species” (Lieberman). It is time now to implement the plans to reduce the poaching now and not wait till later. By acting now, it will only improve the chance of
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