The international trafficking of baby gorillas is fueled by social media where advertisements for sale are found. Traffickers then use untraceable methods to get paid
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@ARTE/YouTube
International trade of endangered wildlife is considered one of the most serious threats to global biodiversity. In a documentary investigation on Arte.tv, more than 400 baby gorillas are being taken from the Central African forests and sold to the black market annually.
The seizure of these baby gorillas often comes with a price of the killing of the adult family members by the poachers. The kidnapped baby gorillas are mostly transported in inhumane conditions without access to food or water and many of them do not survive such harsh treatment.
Gorilla trade – A lucrative business
For a baby gorilla, it can run as high as 370,000 dollars. It is estimated that the annual economic value of illegal trade of wildlife products sits at about 21.5 billion dollars, placing it the fourth most profitable black market in the world, following the drug and arms trades.
Traffickers transport the animals by untraceable means, such as the hawala money transfer system, which allows large amounts to be moved with no digital trails. Animals are also hidden on fishing vessels for intercontinental transport. Major buyers can be found in Asian countries like China and in the Middle East, where zoos and pseudo-conservation facilities take these animals with hardly any concern for their origin.
Social media fuels wildlife trafficking
Social media has turned into a conduit and facilitator of this trade, whereby the traffickers have advertised the sale of animals and communicated quickly and with relative anonymity with potential buyers of such animals. Platforms commonly publishing photos and sale details of animals include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram, including primates, tigers, and parts of protected species such as elephant ivory and rhino horns.
While Facebook and other social media companies have policies against the sale of protected species, the enforcement remains very inadequate. Even with major technology companies’ involvement in the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online, posts of illegal wildlife trade remain everywhere, algorithms possibly even suggesting related content to users.
The fight against wildlife trafficking
Per the WWF, the coalition has taken down millions of posts related to wildlife trade, but it is still difficult to eradicate the phenomenon. Despite conservation from organizations such as the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, illegal wildlife trafficking continues to worsen and is increasingly threatening not only the survival of species but the very stability of local ecosystems. This is a grim example of how human activities can affect biodiversity around the world.