2014: The conservation dilemma.

With the end of the year fast approching, its now time to take stock on what we have gained – and lost – in the world of wildlife conservation. Almost one year ago today, I published a similar ‘stocktake’ of wildlife news, titled “2013: A Loss For Conservation”, unfortunately, in the year since posting, conservation biology still has little to celebrate.

Across Africa, our land giants are still facing extreme pressure from highly organised poaching. 2013 saw an average of 2.6 Rhino being poached daily in South Africa, with the total for the year falling at 1004. To see now that – for the 8^th consecutive year – poaching levels have now exceeded the previous year, is truly heart breaking. The total for 2014 is already around 1150 Rhino, with an average of 3.2 Rhino falling per day. This figure is now above the average natural rate of reproduction and is expected to continue its unsustinable increase.

Elephants have also been hit by a similar poaching surge. Across central Africa approximately 35,000 elephants have been lost to poaching this year, equating to one elephant every 15 minutes. This high level poaching seems to be largely restricted to eastern Africa, with Tanzania itself losing roughly 10,000 of these Elephants. Furthermore, wildlife tracking of ivory has once again been linked to the terrorist organisation Al-Shabab, who are responsible for a series of attacks across Somalia. Al-Shabab has a loose alliance with Al-Qaeda – also believed to benefit from illegal ivory trafficking.

For 2014, one of the most troubling statistics produced, was that of total biomass loss. In a report produced by the WWF incorporating 10,000 wildlife populations (representing 3000 species), researchers found a 52% average loss of wildlife globally. This figure is not a measure of the number of species, but total number of wildlife, indicating that since 1970, half of the worlds wildlife has been loss. Individual examples support this contention, with many species losing upwards of 90% of natural homeranges – due to human expansion.

The IUCN – responsible for assessment and categorising of species – have released figures relating to species ‘changing red list status 2013-2014’. Redlisted species are re-assessed often to observe any increase/decrease in their conservation status. Unfortunately, the majority of status changes between 2013-2014 were species moving up the red list, becoming more endangered. To view this report yourself, please follow: http://cmsdocs.s3.amazonaws.com/summarystats/2014_3_Summary_Stats_Page_Documents/2014_3_RL_Stats_Table_7.pdf .

So what is a species worth? Wildlife trafficking is now the third most lucrative illegal product, following weapons and drugs. At an estimated US $19 Billion annually, this has become a huge, highly organised industry with by far greater funds and support than the conservationists trying to fight it. Havoscope is an online source of black market prices, providing the average price of illegal products sold. Through the collection of public information and government reports, black market prices of trafficked wildlife can now be examined. For instance, the endangered Tiger (with an estimated 3200 left in the wild) has a market price of $50,000 alive, or $5000 dead. The pangolin, which recently has been labeled as the highest trafficked animal is worth $300 per kg of meat or $1000 alive. The most valuable wildlife commodity apppears to be the gorilla, fetching an average $400,000 US dollars on the black market. For the full gruesome run down of wildlife prices: http://www.havocscope.com/exotic-animals-for-sale/

The figures seen above are just a small example of what wildlife conservationists are now facing. It has become clear that global wildlife trafficking was largely under valued and has been allowed to thrive for far to long. The threat from this highly organised system is now acknowledged and since been labeled as the greatest issue in wildlife conservation of our time. Wildlife trafficking is now being fought on every level, from anti-poaching units across wild Africa, to trafficking kingpins in the high court. Unfortunately however, the war for wildlife is far from over, and many species will reach extinction before human greed is put to rest.

Statistics used in this blog have been collected from a series of sources. Ive tried to avoid in-text references to ease the flow. However, if you wish to follow up these statistics, you can find them here:

IUCN: http://www.iucnredlist.org/about/summary-statistics#Tables_5_6

WWF: http://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/living-planet-report-2014

Pangolin/Tiger: http://www.unitedforwildlife.org/#!/the-facts

Rhino: http://stoprhinopoaching.com

Elephant: http://www.wcs.org

Attached also, is a link to our charity page, RidingForWildlife. For up to date information regarding the world of wildlife conservation, please follow the link and like our Facebook.

Thank you and Merry Christmas.

Turner.

https://www.facebook.com/ridingforwildlife7?ref=bookmarks

A Thin Green Line for a Thick Red List

“Urgent Action needed to protect wildlife as global populations halve in 40 years”

The living planet report, published this week by the WWF and ZSL, may be one of the most disturbingly significant figures released in the wildlife conservation field to date. A study spanning decades, including 10,000 populations from 3,000 species has seen an overall mean decline of 52% of total wildlife. This figure, although only a sample from our global biomass, is a good indication of the way our wildlife is moving, with every one positive conservation story being replaced by a dozen negative. Entire species populations are now lost weekly, while new species are finding their way to the infamous Red list by the IUCN, now boasting an impressive 22,176 endangered species – and yes, this number is also increasing.

But what is this red list?

IUCN is the International union for the conservation of nature. This organisation is responsible for the global monitoring and listing of wildlife species. If a species is declared either endangered or critically endangered (defined by the percentage probability of their near extinction), they make the IUCN red list. As mentioned above, currently over 22’000 species are red listed, and by rights will receive government funding and protection for their conservation. Do they? No.

Within Australia, environmental legislation requires an action plan for each species be developed once red listed, these plans highlight how the species will be monitored, protected and conserved by our government bodies – you can find these online from DEPI. Once these action plans are established however, nothing is done, as required law for their protection ends at the establishment of these action plans, not their enactment. Action plans from endangered species can now be found for decades past, none of which served any purpose other than to watch these species reach extinction. The irony of which, is in most cases, they can still be found on the DEPI website.

The Thin Green Line, and the wildlife rangers they support, are doing as much as possible to stop new species reaching endangered listing, as well as protect those already listed. Without the support of our governments, these rangers go underpaid, ill equipped and inadequately trained. For those reading this, who are yet to see my charity – Riding for Wildlife – I will be cycling across central Australia, from Adelaide to Darwin, raising funds for the Thin Green Line Foundation. Please help me in supporting these wildlife rangers protecting our wildlife globally. Riding For Wildlife relies on your continued support in both fund raising and sharing fro awareness.

Thank you.

https://donateplanet.com/fundraisers/read/78002/riding-for-wildife/