Wildlife Trade And Its Threats

What is wildlife trade? Wildlife trade is the illegal trading and hunting of rare (sometimes endangered) wild animals and plant resources. Most cases of wildlife trade are in benefit for money, souvenirs, medicines, skins, or foods. For instance, tiger pelts are usually hung up on walls, or to make furniture cloths and patterns. Others might be a special plant that holds good cures for diseases.

Wildlife Trade vs. Biodiversity If plants and animals are continued to be wrenched away from their habitat and ecosystems, there are a number of things that would happen: The food chain would be disrupted The animal/plant would die The ecosystem would also be disrupted All animals and plants depend on one another for food, and energy – if one small link in the food chain is taken away, then the whole thing collapses, as seen in the diagram on the bottom, because the lion can’t eat grass—it needs the deer to live, just as well as the deer can’t eat the lion, because it needs the grass. Also, just as humans need their environment, other organisms need to live in comfort as well, or lose their lives. And of course if the food chain collapsed, then the ecosystem would too.

Benefits of Wildlife Trade Wild food like nuts, mushrooms, leaves, starch and meat can all be gained through wild animals and plants. Wildlife trees and plants can be used for fuel when cooking or heating things. Many wild animals are used as components for medicine. People buy wild animals, with a LOT of money.

When is wildlife trade a problem? It harms human lives It harms nature It provokes aggressive species So stop it! Wildlife trade isn’t always a problem; some of it is actually legal. But times come when a certain species is targeted too much, and the population decreases alarmingly. Because of the fact that our human population increases every second of the day, the need for wildlife resources becomes larger and larger – for food, shelter and medicine as we become more reliant on wildlife to support us. To poor people, wildlife is simply a fast and easy way to get cash and food, while to the rich, wildlife is nothing but amusing artifacts and money.

Make a difference today! Help the wildlife out there by: Campaigning (ads and posters) Fundraising (sales, -athons) Making an impact by yourself (write a letter, make something) Help stop wildlife trade!

If your class donates the most ‘pennies’ (spare change), then you all win a prize! Our Idea To Help We want to try and raise money to give to a wildlife center to help them stop wildlife trade. How do we raise money? We need YOU to donate all the spare change you have! It’s for a good cause and the winner who donates the most gets a prize, so why not? The activity is called ‘The Penny Challenge’.

What we need: Teacher/parent permission (To visit classes) Jars to collect money (For classes to put change) Prizes (any ideas?) (For the winning class) A loan (maybe) (To get the supplies we need) Posters and Markers (To advertise our activity) YOU!

The Schedule Find a sponsor and Rescue Center to send the money to. Get permission from teachers and parents. Go to classes and explain about the Penny. Challenge, and distribute jars. After a week, go back and collect the jars. Count up the money, and send it to the chosen Rescue Center. Award and announce the prizes and winners.

YOU CAN STOP WILDLIFE TRADE! If we can do it, so can you! It’s bad for humans, bad for plants, and bad for animals. Even the smallest donation makes a huge difference! Remember that wildlife is sustainable, but not retainable – there’s only so much in the world, and there’ll only ever be that much, so let’s help preserve wildlife for the coming generations! IT’S IMPORTANT FOR US ALL!

THANKS FOR WATCHING

Credits PowerPoint and text created by: Tiffany J. Chen Introductory and Concluding Rights by: Julia Wang Speeches and Commentary Written by: Jennifer Wang Financial and Manufacturing Campaigns by: Lauren Pan Research and Information by: Mai Shirogawa