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Animal Poaching Research Paper

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Forests cover 31% of the land area on our planet. A tree can absorb as much as 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year and according to the Arbor Day Foundation, “a mature leafy tree produces as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year”(Helmenstine). Many of the world’s most threatened and endangered animals live in forests, but not only animals rely on the forests, but 1.6 billion people rely on the benefits forests offer, including food, fresh water, clothing, traditional medicine and shelter. With our population growing more and more each second the world is threatening these forests and jeopardizing the benefits given. According to worldwildlife.org, 46-58 thousand square miles of forest are lost each year-equivalent to 36 football …show more content…
Population growth and economic development are major factors in endangering animals, but when it comes to threatening animals close to extinction that’s where illegal poaching comes in. Poaching occurs all over the world. It can be something as big as a elephant to fishing illegally. There are three types of poaching; subsistence, commercial and trophy. Subsistence poaching is when somebody poaches for survival and eats the animal killed. Commercial poaching is when somebody poaches for money. They don’t kill to eat, but they kill for selfishness. Lastly is trophy poaching which is focused on killing endangered animals for large amounts of money. Trophy and commercial poaching is the biggest growing problem out of all three types. Most poachers kill for profit for example, elephants are killed for their tusks or a white tiger is killed for it’s fur. On a On Earth article it was said that poachers killed over 30,000 elephants in 2013 (Nuwer). If this number continues to grow elephants will be extinct in a decade. Just in 2011, the IUNC declared the Western Black Rhinoceros extinct due to it being poaching for it’s horns. 2 The extinction of a animal, even an endangered animal, can be very dangerous to the environment. According to Orietta Estrada, animal rights advocate and environmental enthusiast, when the North …show more content…
One of the first things that WWF is doing is educating the public. Although this is a major problem in our society many people don’t know much about it. WWF educates the public on what is going on and how important it is to help stop these problems before it’s to late. Secondly, they support strong regulation groups like the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flores (CITES). By doing this they help stop illegal trade routes and help strength wildlife trade laws. Poaching is a growing problem and WWF believes that with others supporting them together we can put a end to this problem once and for all. This leads us to our next source that discusses how WWF is helping the impacts of exploration of oil and

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