Week 3: Encounters with the Illegal Wildlife Trade

This week we set out to learn about conservation law, policy, and enforcement. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plays a large role in enforcing law and policy as well as educating the public. This week we were lucky enough to get to visit their National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. After getting to see the arrangement of displays throughout the museum (my favorite was the polar bear, I had no idea they were that big) we went into a classroom where we got to hear from different professionals currently working in different areas of the U.S. fish and wildlife.

When walking into the classroom the first thing that caught my eye were the two tables filled with an assortment of illegal items that had been intercepted and removed from the illegal wildlife trade via their inspection officers from various places. There was everything from carved elephant tusks to ties made from bird feathers to a coin purse made of a frog. The vision of the frog coin purse is what has stuck with me the longest, they took the whole body of the frog and placed the zipper along the length of the abdomen. None of the items placed on the table are what most would consider “stylish” or “fashionable”, so I am curious how there is a market for such items.

Further, in preparation for an upcoming assignment, I watched the Netflix documentary “The Ivory Game”, which I highly recommend. It was another reality check for me and cut straight to my heart that the illegal wildlife trade is a huge problem for a vast number of countries all over the world. The complexity of the ivory trade and the poaching of elephants will be extremely difficult to solve. Every individual sees the elephant differently. In the documentary alone there were people who saw no value in them at all other than their ivory, those who wished to kill them to protect their livelihood, and those who saw them as a symbol of wealth. Though I know I will never have to watch an elephant destroy my livelihood I do know that we need to come up with a way to continue to conserve so that they will be around for generations to come.

In summary, this week’s exploration into conservation law, policy, and enforcement, including a visit to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center, has not only revealed the crucial role played by dedicated professionals but has also underscored the urgent need for global awareness and collaborative efforts to address the challenges posed by the illegal wildlife trade as highlighted through the impactful documentary “The Ivory Game”.