About Rhishja Cota-LarsonRhishja is the founder Annamiticus (fka Saving Rhinos), which publishes news and information about wildlife crime and endangered species. She is the Editor of the blogs Annamiticus, Rhino Horn is Not Medicine, and Project Pangolin, author of the book "Murder, Myths & Medicine", and host of "Behind the Schemes". When Rhishja is not blogging about the illegal wildlife trade, she enjoys rocking out to live music.
I am impressed by the various efforts aimed at conserving the threatened fauna of Africa, both at the level of government and private initiatives. Wildlife resources have found diverse applications in industries from food to fashion; to pharmaceutics.
We target the poachers all the time, bringing all available technology to hit at them. Why is the war against pouching taking so long to fight and win? We need to pay more attention to involving and including the actual custodians of biodiversity in the fight: the indigenous people, the rural people. They do know the poachers, the poachers too know them. Except the rural people lead this war it will be hard to fight and indeed, any victory can only be transient. Why can’t we, for example, have a Rhino Day or Wildlife Day, as the case may be, once every year? This special day can then be marked by special events during which each county/borough/local government explains the compelling need for human kinds to use wildlife sustainably, to meet our present needs without compromising the chances of the generations coming after us. The indigenous people are likely to tell us again that there are very slim alternatives to meeting their needs. If their basic needs are met, it will rekindle a sense of nationalism in them and, naturally, freely refuse to collaborate with any exploiter coming from China and other places to drive African wildlife to extinction. The introduction of bloodhounds is okay but not enough.