What did you buy on holiday?

I was recently reading an article on how the poaching of wild animals such as elephants, rhinos, monkeys, apes and tigers to name just a few,  in Africa and Asia is on the increase. 

Live animals, body parts and skins are openly sold in markets and shops in the towns and cities although in many countries their killing and sale are banned but the authorities ignore such illegal activities often due to a financial agreement.

Today many people travel to exotic locations and may be unwittingly or knowingly buying animal skins or parts, ivory for example, that is from animals poached and killed illegally. There is also a growing trade in what is commonly known as the “Bush Meat” market where protected endangered species are killed for food often eaten as a delicacy and for prestige.

Often people think of this as a distant trade that occurs in far off places. The market is very large in Europe, and the U.S.A. is one of the largest markets in the area of illegal wildlife trade and products. Many Americans now travel to Asia and Africa and ignorantly buy skins and souvenirs from this illegal trade in protected and endangered animals.

The Global Financial Integrity, a non-profit organisation that looks at transnational crime, reports that the trade in the wildlife black market is estimated at $7.8 billion to $10 billion annually not far behind the black market arms trade and drugs. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/seizure-highlights-widespread-illegal-wildlife-trading/?_r=0

So the next time you travel to an exotic location such as Thailand be watchful what is on sale and what you buy at the Chatuchak Market, Bangkok.

McTaggart