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The business case for wildlife conservation continues to get stronger, although the economic benefits are yet to be tapped fully. The latest study points out that if Africa stops the killing of pachyderms for their tusks, it could increase the continent’s annual tourism income by $25 million. Tourists prefer visiting
national parks which have more elephants and each extra animal could boost visits by 371 percent, the study underlines. Considering the tourism revenue they generate, it is wise economics to protect the population of not just elephants, but other flora and fauna as well — including tigers, pangolins, rhinos and whales.
However, rampant poaching and wildlife trade is exacerbating the difficulties of conservation. Three rhinos are poached every day. Trade in rhino horns, despite being banned four decades back, is still booming. Today’s elephant’s population has declined by more than 30 percent in the last 7 years, largely because of poaching. The estimated value of the ivory trade is almost $600 million a year. Ivory’s demand is soaring as it is increasingly being used for decorative and medicinal purposes. In Vietnam, nearly one tonne of ivory hidden in a timber shipment from Kenya was seized recently.
There are only 3,890 tigers left in the wild. In Indonesia, three smugglers were caught red-handed while trading in tiger skin and pangolin scales. The men were looking to sell tiger skin for $5,350 each and the 3kg of scales for around $2,750.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. An alarming report a few days back indicated that nearly three-fifths of all animals with a backbone have been exterminated since1970 by humans — most of it can be attributed to poaching. Although the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) at a recent conference hailed the progress on tightening rules on animal trafficking, the loopholes are just too many and are being pounced upon by the illegal traders. Today, the thriving illegal wildlife trade is valued at $20 billion a year.
While anti-poaching measures are stepped up and laws made more stringent, public awareness about the economic benefits of conservation should be taken up on a war-footing. World bodies like CITES and WWF have to raise a campaign for conservation highlighting the commercial advantages of protecting not just the endangered species, but also those which are not on the red list. Because it is a very thin line that divides the two.
Wildlife conservation rings positive not just for the country’s GDP, but also for the local community. In Zimbabwe, a farming community has been instrumental in protecting wildlife — essentially rhinos. They have gained economically by practicing agriculture in a sustainable way and farming in the appropriate places that doesn’t encroach on the habitat of the rhinos. Awareness about ecotourism is producing overwhelming results across the world. Conservation is part of this awareness. When more and more people become aware about wildlife conservation and its economics, those in the tourism, agriculture and other key sectors will have to match their policies according to the changing attitudes. And conservation will become the cornerstone of all plans.