The Poaching Crisis Thousands of people are willing to risk their lives to kill an elephant or rhino every year. To many people, this seems morally wrong, but to environmentalists it seems like an atrocity against nature and a crime for which people should be convicted, but rarely are. This injustice plagues South Africa and Kenya along with many national parks and animal sanctuaries in Africa. The rangers in this area are in constant battle with warlords and gang members and are simply trying to save both their skin and the animal's tusks. Poaching of listed and endangered animals, combined with maintaining the current rate of trafficking of animal products, is causing drastic environmental effects, as well as the extinction of many animals, and the problem is said to increase in the coming decades. The illegal practice of entering to hunt or steal wild game has become a worldwide trend in which crime syndicates have taken part. Countries with high poaching rates include the United States and Africa, but animal parts taken from these countries are traded around the world. the world. There are many reasons why poaching has proven futile over the years, but the killing of rhinos and elephants for their horns and ivory has increased by more than 300% since 1989. (Odula 2) Many people who they are not so obviously affected by these changes wondering why this is relevant and how it affects their well-being. If the killing and trafficking of animals isn't enough reason to worry, terrorist groups in Africa, such as al-Shabab in Somalia, the Lord's Resistance Army and Janjaweed in Darfur are using profits from the sale of these items to arm yourself with animals. ...... middle of paper ...... The goal facing influential political leaders and passionate rangers is to stop the extinction of as many animals as possible so that the next generation can enjoy their beauty and their charm as the generations before them.Works CitedEllis, Richard. Tiger bone and rhino horn: the destruction of wildlife for traditional Chinese medicine. Washington: Island Press, 2005. Print.Duffy, Rosaleen. Crimes against nature: how we are doing conservation wrong. United States: Yale University Press, 2010. Print.Odula, Tom. News from the United States. Associated press. March 25, 2014. Web. April 10, 2014. Meryl Burgees. Stellenbosch University Center for Chinese Studies. Stellenbosch University. December 2012. Web. April 14, 2014. Harvey, Martin. “Stop poaching”. October 2013. Web. April 12, 2014: 2. Web.Kahumba, Paula and Ingber, Lisa. “Wild Africa”. The Guardian 16 March 2014: 3. Web.