Poaching's impact on environment

How many of you have seen a real elephant in person? Can you please raise your hand? I can see many of you. Then, how many people do you think would raise their hands if I asked the same question to the following generation 20 years later? The rate of poaching ivory tusk from elephants is increasing sharply these days. Therefore, today I'd want to raise awareness regarding the seriousness of the ongoing problem of "poaching" by offering reasons, examples, and solutions.

Elephant tusk is very popular in various countries, such as China and Vietnam. It would be ideal elephants would not race for extinction, elephants are imperiled because of humans. This is because of the high demand for ivory tusk in different countries. As a result of this hot attention from poachers, according to the World Wild Fund (WWF), poachers kill around 20,000 elephants each year for their tusks, which are then illegally transferred on the worldwide market and finally end up as ivory ornaments. In fact, elephants are killed every year to feed this trade—which is equivalent to one death every 26 minutes. Consequently, only 40000 of them are left in the wild these days. Then think about it. At this rate, wild elephants will disappear soon.

But the truth is even I was culpable of not giving much attention to elephant poaching, I’m simply one of the students in Korea who goes to the international school and I have no idea who buys elephant tusks. So when I got this project about Ted Talk, I think it wasn’t relevant to me. I didn’t think that this was a problem happening near me and elephants are not living in Korea. I mean the majority of elephants are living on other continents. Why do I have to care about animals so far away from me when I could care about the endangered animals in Korea?

To begin with, elephants are keystone animals that contribute significantly to the biodiversity of the ecosystems in which they inhabit. So, what are their environmental consequences? As forest elephants eat, they made gaps in the plants. These areas allow for the growth of new plants and, as a result, the development of pathways for other smaller organisms to use. They're also one of the earliest ways for trees to disperse their seeds; certain species, though, rely entirely on elephants for seed dissemination.

In addition, elephants eating on tree seedlings and bushes on the savannah serve to maintain the plains open and able to support the plains wildlife that occupies these environments.

Other than the environment, humans can also suffer from this problem. For instance, according to national geographic.com, between 2009 and 2016, approximately 600 rangers tasked with preserving wildlife in Africa were killed in the line of duty by poachers. At least 170 rangers have been slain in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Virunga National Park, one of the continent's most hazardous, over the last two decades. In addition, Congo also has been running out of natural resources after it was intimidated by poaching. Therefore Congo couldn’t earn economic benefits even though it has national advantages such as stellar nature, since poachers have started to ruin the natural resources and eco-system. Not only would this harm the environment, it would also harm the potential and the future of Congo. Not until poaching is stopped, could Congo become a better country economically and socially.

Let’s go back to the first question that I asked you. 20 years later from now, how many people do you think would raise their hands if they have seen a real elephant? Maybe no one. How about rhinos? And how about tigers? Poaching threatens natural ecosystems at all scales, from the tiniest bacterium to the biggest creature. Wouldn't converting the red section of this pie graph into blue be vital for a brighter future?