NRC 261 1st Edition Outline of Last Lecture II What are exotic species III How why did they get here IV Desirable vs Undesirable Exotics V Successful vs Unsuccessful introductions VI Characteristics of Successful Exotics VII Characteristics encouraging colonization of exotics VIII Example of Exotics Gone Awry New Zealand Outline of Current Lecture II Problems Concerning I Contributing Factors A Political Turmoil B Population explosion C Poor Economies D Greedy Consumers IV International Trade in Wildlife V International Regulation and Cooperation a CITES b Appendix I c Appendix II d Appendix III VI Delisting of a species VII Problems with CITES Lecture 19 Current Lecture How might you determine the trade status of a species such as the Northern hairy nosed wombat Problems concerning International Wildlife Conservation Destruction of tropical rain forests particularly a problem in the tropics because they re so biodiverse compared to other places the potential impacts are much higher because of that Increase in desertification depending on increasing human use of the landscapes areas that were not necessarily deserts became deserts because of overuse Persistence spread of chemicals herbicides much more use in other places around the world than there are here in the US insecticide DDT used through the 1960s but was the major reason why some birds of prey became endangered because those kinds of animals eat animals that eat insects with high DDT concentrations DDT not metabolized it is stored with fat cells was banned in the US when animals migrate to central south america they still come into contact with DDT expanding economies that are trying to catch up are still having the same kinds of chemical problems that we had Loss of habitat in general outside of the tropics due to increases populations for example Illegal trade traffic in protected or endangered species this has risen dramatically Contributing factors Political turmoil a result of this is negative impacts on natural and environmental things between the tigress and euphrates river used to be a huge wetland ecosytem got drained during the years of Sadam Hussein sometimes people want to affect people negatively by destroying resources they need these are political tactics Population explosion some countries are increasing in much faster than other countries Poor economies not very efficient in using the resources land that they have and this also leads to political turmoil and other things Greedy consumers Americans are 5 of the population of the world and use 25 of the resources not just us but other countries do this too in 3 years China used more concrete than the US used in the last century drive lots of the use of wildlife and wildlife trade International Trade in Wildlife What kinds of trade sometimes its products sometimes edible products like whale meat pet trade example macaws are one of the most desired and least maintained species there is plus they re rare and being harvested at an unsustainable rate handbag made out of cayman or crocodile Who are the consumers of wildlife the people who can afford it markup on products coming out of the wild is enormous huge inflation because it goes through many people and is highly illegal Who are the producers usually the local people who live on the land or they at least get employed by people up the production chain to harvest wildlife for a variety of reasons they can make a living out of doing this because there is demand for it International Regulation and Cooperation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species CITES first signed early in the environmental movement in 1973 today there are at least 169 countries that are signatories of this they agree to abide by these rules this convention is voluntary countries don t have to join signatories meet every 2 3 years to discuss whether the rules are working if they want to change them how the status of species should change how species regulation should change point is to ensure that if there is trade going on and there is that this trade is sustainable theoretically these natural organisms are renewable keep reproducing so there is the opportunity to utilize the resources in a sustainable way recognizes that trade can be important but it must be done correctly Appendix I species are endangered no matter what country its in we re really worried about this species if we don t do something it will go extinct if you want to do some sort of trade with it you need both import and export permits move it across some international border most severe restriction commercial trade is not going to happen supposedly scientific reasons possibly would be allowed pertains to pieces of those species too like blood or skulls or skin examples snow leopard gibbon species Appendix II species are considered threatened no matter what country if nothing is done they re on the path to be classified as endangered then extinct could be considered endangered in some countries but not all need a permit from the country of origin if there is a threatened species that can be hunted and for that someone might pay a lot of money we have enough that we think that one could be shot and exported but the permit might cost 200 000 dollars for example and ideally that 200 000 dollars could be used for conservation purposes pertaining to that specific animal doesn t mean necessarily that another country would allow it to be imported ex Dhole wolf of central and southeast Asia Pangolin scaly anteaters Appendix III considered threatened by exporting country but not necessarily other countries a way that a country has regulations in place that other countries recognize the exporting country regulates exports ex Honey badger ratel in Botswana Ghana Walrus Appendix 3 in Canada Delisting of a species requires moving them from a higher appendix to a lower one or taking them off completely this is the goal 1 Positive scientific evidence that a species can withstand exploitation the kind of mortality that will occur because of human exploitation is not so much that it will cause the population to go down have to be able to show scientifically that it can be harvested 2 Well documented population surveys or trend estimates that show increasing populations consecutive years in which comprehensive surveys have been done that show that the population is actually increasing without exploitation can t just be staying the same because with exploitation it will go