The legal trade in endangered species

Highlighting the ethical and conservation issues associated with the horrific and brutal industry of captive breeding and canned hunting, garnering public and political support for the ban. The publicity around this campaign also informed Australia’s volunteers who unwittingly are secuded by these unscrupulous operators, paying thousands of dollars a week to hand rear lion cubs being told they’re part of a conservation project. Shocked to discover they’re part of the supply chain for captive breeders, the cubs they raised sent to the death camps to be shot in a small enclosure by an unskilled hunter.

Our work exemplifies the power of grassroots activism in effecting change at national and international levels. We recognise that legal trade alone cannot ensure the survival of endangered species. It requires a holistic approach that includes habitat preservation, community engagement, and global cooperation.

Australia’s domestic trade elephant ivory and rhino horn, poses a significant threat to wildlife conservation and makes Australia complicit in the current poaching crisis. 30% of Africa’s savannah elephants have been killed in just seven years. Despite international regulations, domestic markets often provide loopholes that allow these products to continue circulating, exacerbating the decline of endangered species. For the Love of Wildlife has been instrumental in effecting a landmark change: the domestic trade ban on elephant ivory and rhino horn in Australia announced by Environment Minister Sussan Ley in 2019.

Whlst a ban was announced at CITES CoP 19 in Geneva by the Australian delegation, Australia’s states and territories are yet to enact a ban.

One would expect that the global pandemic which took hold in early 2020 would wake us up, responding to climate and biodiversity loss with global co-operation we’ve witnessed in finding a vaccine to combat Covid. As the world returns to normal, to “business as usual”, we continue to drive wildlife to extinction and destroy natural habitats as if there have been no reports published over the decades that scientifically prove we’re in a desperate crisis. And a man-made one at that! The level of urgency required to turn the tide on extinction and habitat loss is still not fully being addressed by governments, both in Australia and globally, to the extent that it desperately needs, continuing to be glacially slow despite the increase in catastrophic weather events and more and more shocking scientific reports.

Biodiversity loss affects our very survival; impacting food and water security, and the quality of the air we breathe.

The focus of our work continues to be on wildlife and the accelerated number of decreasing species. Progressing the development of the autonomous rover to mimic marsupials digging pits, a very real solution to counter habitat loss and land clearing, investing in regenerating vast amounts of degraded landscapes. Without halting biodiversity loss and targeting depleted areas we lack the capacity to not only reach net zero emissions, but counter the CO2 that’s already in the atmosphere.

With Indigenous partners, science, engineering and nature all coming together, automating micropitting offers multi-layered objectives so that ultimately nature can all thrive. A healthy environment helps us live healthier lives.