Poaching is one leading cause of the extinction of numerous wild animals since there is a huge demand and greediness from mankind to make decorations and traditional medicine. This issue needs to be overcome before impacting in negative ways to society. Therefore, this requires a significant effort from varied parties, including governments and communities.
To commence, the trend of collecting decorations from wild animals must be removed. This tendency used to be popular in high economy society because of opinions that said it symbolizes social status. From the consumers’ perspectives, the government should make firm policies, prohibiting these buying and selling activities. On the other hand, from the sellers’ side, the governments have to support local communities by offering other economic opportunities that could delete their intention to engage in poaching. The government may give training on how to make decorations using affordable materials without destroying the ecosystem.
In addition, increasing awareness in public to deal with stigma and myths about the use of wild animals as an alternative cure, is needed, especially in remote areas. In the past, beliefs from a traditional healer that said the body parts of these wild animals would benefit in an illness treatment, like the bones tigers and the scales pangolins, are still widespread until the present. Consequently, poaching remains exist, particularly to supply the demand of the Asian market. Therefore, socializing about the unclear advantages of using wild animals as medicine and how cruel the hunters killed these animals should be the priorities. With the advance of technologies nowadays, people become easier to educate just by simply clicking on social media.
To sum up, poaching should be stopped as though it harms the ecosystem, including human life. Collaborating with the government in trading policies, solving from consumers’ and suppliers’ viewpoints, and raising awareness are some best ways that can be done to unravel this serious problem.