Help Stop Wildlife Trafficking
Wildlife trafficking is the poaching and sale of live animals or plants or parts of them, like horns, wood, fur, bones, and ivory. Poachers collect animals or plants, and smugglers export and import them into countries that can be far from home. People who buy these products may use them for jewelry, home décor, or curiosities. Sometimes people purchase these items as souvenirs of a vacation, without knowing how they were collected or what it means to wildlife.
Wildlife trafficking has contributed to the decline—and sometimes, devastation—of many wildlife populations. Wildlife trafficking also has devastating consequences to human health. Seventy-five percent of emerging infectious diseases, such as bird flu, Ebola, and COVID19, are zoonotic – they are transmitted from wildlife to humans when we encroach on natural habitats and engage in activities that disrupt ecosystems, such as wildlife trafficking.