Chapter 2 opened by discussing incentives involved in poaching (or not poaching) endangered species. If residents of a country are able to make money from tourism involving wildlife, they are more likely to protect those attractions (endangered species, rainforests, etc.) from threats such as poachers or loggers who wish to kill the wildlife for their own profits. Thus, people typically need incentives so that keeping the wildlife around is more beneficial to them than destroying it.
However, people don't want to protect species that are considered pests or threats. When I lived in Kenya, it was pretty common to see poisonous snakes that would be considered attractions at American zoos: green and black mambas, cobras, and pythons all roamed freely through the college campus where my family and I were staying. One day, a large cobra was slithering around the building where my family and other guest teachers lived. I spotted it, some campus guards beat it with a stick until it was "probably" dead, and my neighbor beheaded it with his machete. This was not a tragedy from our perspective— it was ridding ourselves of a pest.
No comments:
Post a Comment