The Economics Of Poaching
Are poachers villains or victims of a bigger system?
Poaching has pushed dozens of species into extinction in recent decades and is threatening hundreds more with the same fate. Annually, 30,000 elephants are killed for their ivory. Rhino horns are used to make medicine in many Asian countries, as are tiger bones and pangolin scales.
What’s more, 600 rangers tasked with protecting these animals are killed annually across Africa. A great deal of attention is paid to the loss of these vulnerable animals, and rightly so, but the problem will never be solved until the individuals perpetrating these crimes are stopped, one way, or another.
Punishment
When looking at the shocking numbers it can be easy to jump to serve punishments as the solution to the problem. After all, if those killing the animals can be stopped, then all the subsequent people involved in turning an elephant’s tusk into an ivory trinket, are also stopped.
For decades this was the method used. In South Africa, the nation worst affected by poaching, fined poachers between $1,200 and $671,572, as well as jailing people for 5–10 years. The lower end of the scale may seem small, but keep in mind that the average annual salary in South Africa is only $17,000.
