Poaching

DEFINITION: Illegal or unauthorized hunting, capture, or killing of wild animals, or illegal harvest of protected plant species

Poaching has been responsible for dramatic declines in the populations of some animal species, leaving some without genetically viable populations in the wild. Growing awareness of the problem has led to international bans on products derived from endangered species and efforts to educate communities that have relied on poaching for survival.

Poaching occurs for many reasons, most of which are economic. Some species are taken as food, whether eaten by the poacher themselves or sold to other consumers. Others are hunted for specific body parts with commodity value, such as elephant ivory or rhinoceros horn (often, demand is driven by use in practices such as traditional Chinese medicine, or TCM). Many species of birds, monkeys, and other animals are captured and sold as pets. Predators that prey on livestock may be killed as pests. Various animal and plant species are collected as trophies, and some animals are hunted simply for sport.

The concept of poaching dates back to the Middle Ages, when the ruling classes increasingly imposed legal control over land and all it contained. Killing animals on these lands, even for the sole purpose of putting food on the table, was outlawed and punishable by death. Some peasants had little choice but to turn to poaching to survive when other food sources failed. This dynamic continued over the following centuries, especially as forests dwindled and once-communal lands were increasingly enclosed as private property throughout Europe. Even well into the twenty-first century, some poachers claimed the right to hunt out of season or over prescribed limits in order to subsist.

Nevertheless, in the modern era, people who poach to survive are a small minority; the rest are in it for profit. Experts liken the trade in illegal plants and animals to drug trafficking, with the profits rising dramatically each time the product changes hands. In India, a tiger carcass can bring a poacher hundreds of dollars, an enormous sum in regions where the average wage can be less than one dollar per day. However, the greater profits are often realized by traffickers who take the poached animals from local hunters. Experienced middlemen separate the carcass into a series of valuable by-products. In the case of tigers, almost the entire animal is used due to its value in TCM: potions made of tiger bone are thought to promote longevity and cure rheumatism, the whiskers are believed to provide strength, and pills made from the eyes are believed to calm convulsions. An adult tiger can yield up to 23 kilograms (50 pounds) of bones, which will, in turn, sell for hundreds of dollars per pound; its pelt could fetch tens of thousands of dollars. In other instances of poaching, however, only certain parts are deemed valuable. Many reports exist of slaughtered elephants left to rot, with only their ivory tusks taken by poachers.

Despite the claims of traditional medicine, science shows most products made from rare and endangered species have no health benefits. For example, highly valuable rhinoceros horn is simply made up of keratin, the same substance as human fingernails.

The threat of extinction caused by poaching is real, and the losses are staggering. For example, during the 1970s and 1980s, ivory poachers killed 93 percent of the elephants in Zambia’s North Luangwa National Park. In 1988 poachers slaughtered 145 giant pandas for their gallbladders, eliminating one-seventh of the worldwide population of the species in a single year. Studies have indicated that some species, such as orangutans and rhinoceroses, have been killed by poachers at rates two to three times the rates at which they are able to reproduce. As the number of remaining animals of a species drops, their value on the black market tends to rise dramatically, making poaching even more lucrative. This can create a vicious cycle with rapidly accelerating population depletion. For instance, in South Africa alone, the number of known poached rhinoceroses rose from a low of just thirteen in 2007 to over one thousand per year from 2013 to 2017.

As a result of poaching (as well as other pressures such as habitat loss), some species, such as the Bengal tiger and the northern white rhinoceros, no longer have genetically viable populations in the wild. Reduced numbers lead to inbreeding, which in turn leads to weaker, more disease-prone animals that are less likely to survive in a diminishing environment. In addition, trophy hunters typically seek the largest, healthiest animals. This not only reduces the quantity of wild animals in the gene pool but also reduces the quality of the remaining population. Similarly, when poachers target mature animals, the younger, inexperienced creatures are often left to fend for themselves before they have learned skills essential for survival. In turn, when these inexperienced animals breed, they may lack the skills they need to raise their offspring to maturity.

In a few cases, poaching has had a direct impact on the genetic makeup of a target species population. For example, researchers have found that more than 38 percent of the elephants in North Luangwa National Park are genetically tuskless, compared to just 3 to 4 percent in a natural elephant population, because poachers have consistently targeted the mature, tusk-bearing animals of breeding age.

Though less publicized than its land-based counterpart, marine poaching is also a serious ecological problem. In some cases, it also carries a hidden and dangerous side effect for seafood consumers. Many types of shellfish, mollusks, and other types of marine life have been declared off-limits not because of any danger of extinction, but because their environment has become contaminated by bacteria and other waste products. Shellfish, long a target of enterprising poachers who sell them to restaurants, are especially susceptible to contamination because they feed by filtering up to 38 liters (10 gallons) of water per hour. Poached catches are difficult to distinguish from legal harvests, but contamination can make them harmful to human consumers.

Anti-Poaching Efforts

Ironically, it is laws against the harvesting of certain species that, by definition, lead to poaching. As such legislation itself does not necessarily prevent the illegal killing or capture of animals and plants, other means have been employed in efforts to combat poaching. Standard methods include the use of wildlife patrols to discourage and potentially catch poachers and crackdowns on illegal wildlife trade. However, these can have limited effect, can be dangerous for law enforcement officials, and are often expensive and difficult to maintain, especially in developing nations where poaching is often most prevalent. Other methods include the use of genetic sampling to track threatened species and help convict poachers and traffickers. Many experts suggest that larger-scale legal regulations targeting the global trade in illegal wildlife are necessary to make a real impact.

An international ban on ivory in 1989, combined with increased law enforcement on Africa’s game preserves, led to a slow but steady increase in the wild elephant population. However, the illegal ivory trade continued, leading authorities around the world to explore other ways to curb poaching by reducing demand for illegal wildlife products. In 2013, the US Fish & Wildlife Service announced that elephant poaching was at its highest level in decades and had exceeded the reproductive potential of the species. In November of that year, the Fish & Wildlife Service destroyed six tons of confiscated ivory in an attempt to send a message to traffickers. A number of other countries conducted similar campaigns, including China, the world's biggest ivory market. These efforts showed some signs of success over the following decade. Poaching of African elephants overall declined into the 2020s. (Experts noted that part of this decline was connected to travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic that broke out in 2020, but they also warned that the pandemic could disrupt prevention and tracking of poaching activity). Several high-profile arrests of wildlife traffickers in 2022 were hailed by conservationists as demonstrating the effectiveness of tackling poaching as an international concern.

In addition to legal strictures, poaching is also being battled on the economic front. The rise of the ecotourism trade has shown many governments and their citizens that their indigenous wildlife populations may be more valuable alive. Education also plays an important role, as communities that formerly relied on poaching for survival are taught improved farming practices and methods of harvesting that do not endanger native plants and wildlife. However, some indigenous rights activists suggest that concerns over poaching can put an unfair burden on indigenous peoples who have long relied on hunting.

A more controversial approach to the conservation of wildlife is "sustainable use," or the limited harvest of threatened animals. The alleged benefits are twofold. First, local governments and communities gain economic benefits from the harvest and are therefore less likely to engage in large-scale poaching. Second, the availability of legally obtained animals and their by-products should theoretically drive down the value of these animals on the black market, so that poaching will no longer be worth the risk. Some countries have also begun "farming" endangered animals, not for eventual release into the wild but for slaughter and sale. However, critics claim that such use can in fact drive up demand and actually increase poaching activity, while also hindering educational efforts to delegitimize the use of endangered animal products.

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