How can we stop the Illegal Wildlife Trade?

The only way to stop the trade is to attack the four levels at which it occurs.

Reduce Demand

It seems that there will always be people who put gratifying their own desires before anything else. The only approach is to try to use the values of their culture to dissuade them from buying these products. 

• Teach consumers where the items come from, and the effect of procuring them on biodiversity and the environment
• Shame people into seeing themselves as dishonourable for buying these items
• Create moral stigma around ownership of these items.  This is fairly successful in the UK with regard to furs, such as mink coats, which are socially disapproved of and hence there is far less demand today than there was 50 years ago, when fur ownership was seen as desirable. 
• Link participation in the trade to national dishonour in the eyes of the world

Catching the Middlemen

• Many south-east Asian countries are strengthening their attempts to intercept illegal shipments and arrest the traders. 
• The geography of countries, especially along borders, can make it physically impossible to seal borders against trade, so targetting markets and individual traders is more effective.
• Customs and law enforcement officials should be educated to recognise all illegally traded wildlife, rather than just the 'big species'.
• Courts must be encouraged by national government to take these crimes seriously and pass exemplary sentences.

Alleviating Poverty

• Most of the people who do the actual hunting are just trying to make a living and feed their families.  If another, easier way to make a living can be devised, especially one where local wildlife are an asset alive rather than dead, or a pest, then most people will prefer the easier option.   If that living is better than they had before, this will naturally be attractive. 
• Provision of education to allow people to improve their opportunities, especially for their children, is a key thing.

Tackle Ignorance

• Educate local people about the animals they are taking from the wild, and how the interactions between species can lead to their own environment being degraded, can help them to see their local wildlife as part of their own world, not something to be sold to foreigners.
• Often, people have only seen the animals as corpses.  When they are introduced to the living animal, and taught about its life and behaviour, it can create a different perception altogether
• Tourists should be made aware that the souvenirs they buy may have been made from wildlife, and also to consider whether their "ecotourism" is actually benefitting local inhabitants and protecting the environment, or simply a label enriching tourism companies based outside the country.