How to Stop Poaching: Can You Make a Difference?
Can you stop poaching?
We’re not talking about the royal you. This isn’t a question denoted to the entirety of mankind. We’re talking about you. Sat, stood or laying wherever you are. Can you, behind the screen, help put a stop to poaching?
It’s easy to feel like we really can’t contribute to the bigger picture when we’re not directly involved in the fight against poaching. It’s also easy to feel like our lone contribution would mean nothing given the size and scale of the problem. When thousands of animals are killed by poachers every year, what difference can we ourselves make sitting at home on our phones.
The simple truth is, a lot.
You really can help stop poaching.
How We Stop Poaching
As with everything in life, stopping poaching comes down to one thing: money.
Money is the root of poaching. Poaching is rife because animal products like ivory are sold on black markets. Yet, as money creates the problem, it also can solve it.
Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, African elephant poaching had seen small but nonetheless significant declines. 2019 saw the “just” 11,000 African elephants poached, down from 40,000 a few years prior.
Following the Coronavirus outbreak, conservation trends sadly reversed. In South Africa, poaching is on the rise again. More animals are being killed than in 2019 due to the pandemic affecting the local area.
But how has COVID-19 changed things to the point that poaching has become more prevalent again? It’s all about the lack of economic activity in regions reliant on tourism.
It is no coincidence that as poaching numbers declined, tourism figures went up.
Conservation projects in low-income nations, the kind that educate communities, provide employment opportunities for locals, and staff game reserve with rangers to protect animals, are funded by three types of organisations:
Governments
Non-profits
Private tour business
All of these types of organisations are heavily reliant on tourism to launch and maintain conversation projects. Governments obtain public funding through taxation of businesses that earn money through tourism, as well as making money through national game reserve entry fees. Conservation non-profits obtain donations from visitors and paid volunteer experiences. Private tour businesses make money on selling holidays.
With travel restrictions, the financial stimulus of travellers becomes non-existent. Neither governments, tour business, nor non-profits have the income to adequately sustain conservation projects, and thus poaching can once again take a foothold. It’s also true that people take up poaching to make a living when their job is lost, which means loss of jobs in the tourism and hospitality industry can lead to a rise in poachers, and therefore poaching.
To summarise, with money pouring into the region, animal populations can be protected (to a certain extent) but as finances disappear, there is nowhere else for this money to come from. It’s a sad truth that in times of hardship, where human welfare is threatened, that ecological conservation often becomes a burden to be ignored.
How You Stop Poaching
The simple answer here is by giving money, right? You fund conservation projects through donations, and that helps stop poaching.
The short answer to this simple question is yes. If you donate your money to conservation projects, you’ll be directly helping to fund wildlife-saving campaigns that are in desperate need of financial support right now.
But while that contribution is important, unless you are Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, it’s not a complete resolution. Conservation projects run on thousands to millions of dollars. Your monthly donation is nothing to be scoffed at, and it counts towards a vital grand total, but that’s what it is, a piece in the puzzle, not a completed jigsaw.
Conservation projects are essentially like crowdfunding. Your little contribution matters, but without all the other little contributions, the funding goes nowhere. You alone don’t solve the problem, you are just part of the solution.
So, if you want to really help stop poaching, what can you do?
How can you make a big impact?
You can use your voice.
It has long been touted that the best way to stop poaching is not with 24/7 guard duties on wild animals or aggressive tactics used to deter poachers, but through education. Teaching communities the value of nature and the harms of poaching. Helping people understand how they can affect change. Making noise and reaching people. Using our voices to spread the word.
It is this idea that we can use to help curb poaching now.
How to Help Stop Poaching by Spreading the Word
Conservation projects need money and a lot of it. You can do your part financially, but to really make a difference, you’ll need to get others involved too. If you can build a collective, spread the word and educate others on the importance of contributing, you go from a small impact to a substantial impact.
Let’s go back to that example of a crowdfunding scheme. Alone, your contribution does little, but if you get all your friends, family, colleagues, and network to also contribute, that crowdfunding platform starts to become a genuinely viable prospect.
But how do you reach people, and reach them in a meaningful way so that they feel the emotion of your plight and help to support you?
Step 1 - Find a Great Cause
The best way to give an impassioned pitch that gains the support of others is to have a worthy cause that makes a case that’s tough to refuse. A general fight against poaching isn’t as powerful as being able to talk about a specific problem, in a specific place, with animals that can be identified, and people that are involved. It’s why when you sign up to help an animal charity you often sponsor an animal rather than donate to a broad cause. It builds a connection and makes you feel involved.
Step 2 - Know Your Cause Inside & Out
Finding a cause is one thing, but if you want to stop poaching, you have to go a step further. You have to be able to ‘make the sale.’ There are a lot of problems in the world, a lot of causes that demand attention, and people have their own issues. Why should they care about the cause you are championing?
“Poaching is bad” is not a powerful message because while it’s a big problem, it’s something that everyone already knows about and thus, if they already know about it, why does your repetition of the problem encourage them to act on the information? Gaining a deeper understanding of a cause, learning the ins and outs, and being able to explain the problems and harm it causes on a very granular level makes it easier to get people to feel the emotional tug on the heartstrings, and that’s what drives them to make those all-important donations. Make it real, and people will feel.
Step 3 - Find Your Platform to Spread the Word
You’ve got your cause, you understand the problems, now you need an audience. There are plenty of ways you can grab attention. Social media is a popular choice and for good reason. This networking channel gives you access to millions of people around the world, allowing you to connect with others with similar interests and join together to make things happen! But there are other ways to find your audience, too. If you’re in a large workforce, you can rely on colleagues, or if you’re in a job that brings you into contact with lots of strangers, then talking to them about your goals to help stop poaching can be a great way of gaining conservation support.
Then there are other, less direct ways, like blogging, creating online video channels and podcasts. The entire point of this step is to locate a channel that allows you to vocalise your concerns about poaching to as many people as possible, attempting to get them to engage with the problem. Pick whichever works for you, including your goals and your personality. If you’re not comfortable asking people to give money face-to-face, a blog might be a good option. If you’re proud and passionate and want to shout about how to stop poaching, getting an Instagram or TikTok following could be the answer.
Xplore Our Planet uses our own platform to try and build awareness for how to stop poaching. We support IAPF - The International Anti-Poaching Foundation. If you want to help stop poaching, a donation to IAPF goes a long way.
