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The trade in wildlife threatens more than one third of birds and mammals worldwide, and has driven close to extinction more than 1000 species of trees for timber. Trade bans implemented locally or internationally are intended to curb the loss of these species so that conservation strategies can be implemented that allow the species to recover to viable and robust population levels.  

 

Despite international agreements to ban the trade in numerous species at threat of extinction, in the last five years, illegal trade in highly threatened and endangered iconic species such as elephants, rhinoceros and tigers has risen exponentially questioning the effectiveness of trade bans and sparking heated debate about whether bans are a viable conservation strategy. Strong evidence exists suggesting that bans may actually fuel illegal trade by inflating retail prices and making poaching the only way to acquire the species. For example, at prices of up to $65,000 per kilo of rhino horn, the stakes for poachers are high and protecting of endangered species has become increasingly more difficult and dangerous.  Unwavering demand by consumers for the parts or whole of threatened species despite awareness raising and education campaigns suggest that neither these are viable strategies or that they do not work at the scale or speed required. 

Participants

Are trade and hunting bans on endangered tropical species a "perfect storm" for poaching or an effective conservation strategy?

Debate

Dr. Annecos Wiersema

Prof. Dr. Annecoos Wiersema, SJD, Harvard Law School; LLB (Hons), The London School of Economics and Political Science, is a Professor of Law at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Prof. Wiersema’s research focuses on international environmental law, with particular emphasis on international wildlife law. She is the former Director of the International Legal Studies Program at the Sturm College of Law from 2013-2015 and former Ved P. Nanda Chair. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Denver, she was an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law and worked in the Denver office of Arnold and Porter LLP as a litigation associate. Prof. Wiersema is a member of the World Commission on Environmental Law of the IUCN, a member of the Board of Editors of the Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy, and a member of the Accountability Panel for the Wildlife Justice Commission.

Dr. Duan Biggs

Duan was born in Namibia and grew up in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. He completed his PhD in 2011 on the resilience of coral reef tourism to global change and crises.  Subsequent to his PhD, Duan worked as a Scientist for South African National Parks and as a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland where his research focussed on the socio-economic complexities of tackling the illegal wildlife trade. He is active in international policy discussions on the illegal wildlife trade through his work with the International Institute for Environment and Development and the IUCN’s Sustainable Use and Livelihood’s Specialist Group and the World Commission for Protected Areas.  In 2015 he was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow at the Environmental Futures Research Institute at Griffith University in Brisbane Australia. 

To date, the trade or not to trade debate has largely focused on the illegal trade of ivory, tigers and rhino horns. We will ask out debaters to venture beyond trade bans on 'luxury' items, however, so as to explore a highly linked but less-explored discussion - on whether the ban on consumption and trade of bushmeat and wildfoods of threatened species is 'correct' given the importance of this food source and income to impoverished rural families in the tropics. These are delicate and controversial discussions that tropical biologists, conservation scientists and practitioners must have if we are to identify viable conservation solutions that take into consideration the highly complex and intertwined dimensions of ecology and society. 

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