The Escalating International Wildlife Trafficking Crisis

Download or read book The Escalating International Wildlife Trafficking Crisis written by Subcommittee on African Affairs and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-01-25 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last decade, wildlife trafficking has grown into an international crisis. It is a multibillion-dollar industry driven by dangerous and sophisticated transnational criminal syndicates used by some terrorist groups to fund their operations. These poachers and traffickers are organized, well-financed, heavily armed, and extremely dangerous. The scale at which poachers are operating is threatening the very survival of some of the world's most iconic wildlife. Last year alone, roughly 35,000 elephants and 1,000 rhinos were killed in Africa. The loss of these wildlife populations, coupled with the security and stability threats of poachers and traffickers, is having a serious impact on the economic development of many African communities that rely on tourism for revenue, as well.