One article in particular caught my attention. It was called "Tanzania losing 10,000 elephants to poaching annually" and it talked about the statistics of elephant poaching in Tanzania. The article stated that Tanzania loses 30 elephants a day and 10,000 elephants a year to poaching. The population of the country is less than 150,000 and the population of the continent is 470,000. This is down from the elephant population of more than 1.3 million in 1977.
The article also explains how it is hard to get rid of poaching because no countries have the funding necessary for it. Equipment would have to be bought and people would have to be trained in order to fight poaching. Tanzania has decided to sell their legally collected ivory in order to fund the protection of elephants.
I agree with the fact that people need to put an end to poaching. If things keep going the way they are, there will be no elephants left. More than half-a-million elephants have died in the past 35 years. Which means that all the wild elephants will be extinct in less than 35 years.
This reminds me of how we learned that every organism in an environment depends on each other to survive. If there are no more elephants left, lions, hyenas and vultures could lose a huge food source.
There is very little tension in the article. Most of the world agrees on the fact that someone needs to put an end to poaching, aside from the poachers of course. This is a huge problem and it doesn't apply to only elephant poachers. It also applies to people who kill animals for their fur or teeth or other items that are on the black market.
Tanzania, a country with just 553 dollars GDP per capita, does not have the resources necessary to fight the growing issue of poaching. The issue will never get solved unless other countries step in, thereby making a conscious effort to eradicate the problem in all of Africa. Although, Tanzania does have an interesting approach to funding elephant protection. How ironic is it that they sell ivory in order to pay for the protection of elephants? I find that almost counterproductive. Overall, I think you make a decent argument based on your article, and it gets me thinking about environmental issues I might not have considered before reading this.
ReplyDeleteExactly, I feel like by selling ivory to raise the funds, they will bring up other issues among poachers like, "Why do you have this ivory? How did you get it?"
DeleteIt's very upsetting to think that there is still poaching going on today. What is even worse is that the countries affected don't have the resources to stop it. Tanzania has decided to sell legally collected ivory to pay for elephant protection. While a bit ironic, it makes sense. If you want ivory, buying it legally helps the elephants in a drastic way. Anything and everything on this planet is a resource if you think about it. We've nearly used up and of our planet's oil. We can just as easily use up the world's supply of ivory. If elephants do become extinct, what will happen to the food chain?
ReplyDeleteYou're right. I'm not sure why so many people choose to sell ivory on the black market. I'd be interested to look it up and see what the benefits are.
DeleteThank you for mentioning oil! People take so many things for granted and when realize how much of the resource we have lost, it's often too late. People need to start thinking before they act and come up with alternative solutions to problems that could help the planet rather than harm it.
With all of the other world problems like global warming and terrorists nobody seems to pay any attention to poaching anymore. I find this very upsetting because maybe not in the short-term but in the long-term we could suffer severe environmental effects, like the lion population could take a hit if elephants were to be killed. Also, the fact that none of the countries that have this problem cannot stop the poachers because of their economical states. I feel that the countries that have money to spare should offer help to these countries so that they enforce anti-poaching laws.
ReplyDeleteMultiple people have commented and said that Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world and they don't have the resources to put a stop to this problem. This goes for many other African countries as well. Not to mention, because of poverty, these countries face other problems such as starvation and people like Kony who cause even more problems that require their time and energy.
DeleteI agree that other countries need to pitch in and help. But, the problem with this is that not many countries have the excess money. Take America, we owe trillions of dollars in debt. We are in an economic crisis and other countries are like this as well. Although we are better off than the third world countries, we don't have the money we would need to help fund putting a stop to poaching. If we hand out money to everyone who needs it, we could potentially become a third world country as well. It is a vicious circle and it's very sad that economic problems aren't easier to solve. If they were, there would be a lot less turmoil in the world.
I personally think that poaching is a big problem and needs to be stopped. I think that one of the ways that we could significantly help the elephant poaching problem is to get the issue out there. I'm sure that many people in this country don't realize how bad of a problem poaching is, and I think that if the problem was put even more in the public eye, than people would be more willing to donate to the cause, and we could therefore raise money for countries like Tanzania so that they could better combat the problem of poaching.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree! The number of people who have said that they didn't know poaching was still a huge problem proves your point.
DeleteI also think poaching needs to be stopped. I didnt know that 10,000 elephants were killed each year. I thought it was much less. I also didnt realize that the lions and other animals would be hurt if elephants were extinct.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Mary Beth. It is really awful that people would even consider killing these beautiful animals for money. It is completely not worth it. Also, this relates to the food web because removing an animals from it's habitat throws off the entire system that has been going on. And we have learned that the environment is very specific with which animals eat which. The extinction of elephant would not only effect the elephant, but the entire ecosystem.
ReplyDeleteTanzania is ranked 22nd in poorest countries in the world. I agree with what Sean said, "this issue will never get solved unless other countries step in". Being the 22nd poorest country in the world, the endangerment of elephants is most likely not one of Tanzania's top priorities.
ReplyDeleteThis is why people with a little extra money and a caring heart should step up and take action quick before it is too late because this will cause a chain reaction to other animals and one day, possibly affect us. The question is, "How long will it be before we are negatively effected by this beautiful animal going extinct?"
You're so right. Eventually, the extinction of elephants will not only effect any animals that depend on the elephants, it will effect us as well. I'm not sure how, but every organism depends on each other to survive.
DeleteI had no idea that people were still poaching that much. That needs to be stopped. 10,000 is a big number. Poachers are so selfish to kill elephants for money. It was a good point you brought up that other animals would be affected if the elephant became extinct. That is what we have learned about in out class.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your facts, but when you said “There is no tension in the article. Most of the world agrees”. If this was true we would not have this issue in the world. I think that you brought up good points about how 30 elephants die every day. This means by 2020 there will be 390,000 elephants left in the world. By the number of elephants decreasing by the amount it will affect other organisms that depend on them for food. But this article states that the number or elephants is less than 250,000.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/html/debate.html
That's true. But, the number of poachers is far less compared to the amount of people in the world who want to put a stop to this crime. Also, it's interesting, I was looking at another article that said the number of elephants is between 250,000 and 470,000. I can't remember the exact number or find the article but it is probably difficult to get an accurate number on the amount of animals left in a species.
DeleteI had no idea that poaching was still even an issue with African Elephants. It is wrong for the poachers to kill such innocent animals. This should be stopped, and if it can't than we have to at least reduce the killings. Losing half of the population in 35 years is to much. I know the poachers think it is alright because it is their job, its their source of money, but if they continue on this track then their income will go to zero instead of decreasing by a some every month. This has to be stopped!
ReplyDeleteThat's another area where we run into a problem. The majority of people in Africa are very poor and this is probably the only source of income to many poachers. If they don't do their "job" how will they get money? The starvation that Africa faces will get even worse. Like I mentioned in another comment, our economic problems go around in a vicious circle. If Group A is happy and fed, Group B isn't and visa versa.
DeleteIt's rather ironic that Tanzania is selling ivory to fund the prevention of poaching. Also, if people are paying enough attention to the poaching to write an article about it, than why aren't they trying to do something that will actually stop it from happening? We have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. Although poaching has been going on for a while, we can't just forget about it and focus on more recent issues.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article I was surprised at how bad poaching still is for African Elephants. When reading the numbers that 30 elephants are killed a day I was shocked. I never knew that poaching was so bad as poachers killing 30 elephants a day. I agree with you that poaching needs to stop because if it doesn’t African Elephants will be extinct. Overall I feel that poaching is a horrible thing and we must find a stop to this problem soon to save animals that are being killed.
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