Combatting Wildlife Trafficking

            On February 11th, the White House announced the National Strategy for Combatting Wildlife trafficking. Illegal trade in wildlife is an urgent problem for many wildlife species and affecting the numbers of species around the world greatly. Millions of dollars every year come from major smugglers illegally selling rare animal parts. The most common animals that are killed for their parts are elephants (for their ivory), rhinos (for their horns) and tigers (for their skin). Illegal trade is one of the largest contributing factors to the danger in the survival of many wildlife species.

The United States targets for stopping illegal wildlife trading are as follows:

- Increasing strict regulations within and outside of the United States

- Diminish the need for illegally traded goods

- Reinforce alliances globally, domestically, with companies and non-profits to fight against poaching

              In addition to reaching these goals, the White House has announced principals within the United States that to support the new strategy. The action of banning the import and export of elephant ivory, significantly limit resales of elephant ivory, set strict and official guidelines as to what is "antique" in order to sell (requirements follows the Endangered Species Act), and reinforce limitations for wildlife sport hunting. In time government officials will strengthen the laws listed above and meet with international global alliances in hope they will join the movement. -The White House

                The World Wildlife Fund has been addressing this problem for years, and with the White House's support, we can save countless endangered species. The WWF have been working with wildlife trade monitoring network (TRAFFIC) to enforce regulations on hunting and smuggling animal parts globally. The largest problem that WWF and TRAFFIC have been working with is poaching in developing countries, where law enforcements and education on the topic are lacking. WWF

           The CEO of WWF Carter Roberts released a comment on President Obama's new regime to implement securing the safety of wildlife species:

“Today marks a significant milestone in the global fight against wildlife crime. President Obama has elevated illegal wildlife trafficking to a priority issue for more than a dozen federal agencies, reflecting the fact that it has grown into one of the most profitable criminal industries in the world, estimated at $10 billion annually.The President’s strategy is complemented by Congress’ recent, unprecedented  approval of$45 million in newly dedicated funding to combat illegal wildlife trafficking."

-worldwildlife