If a famous artist's painting is one-of-a-kind and drug trafficking cartels prosper, what will people do? Some will be in the market buying and selling. Others will steal, kill, risk their lives, and try to hide their actions.
Since those who do things like smuggle slaves in cargo containers and poach rhinoceros horns at night, like it or not young people need to learn to be suspicious and vigilant, to look for abuses, and to ask authorities to undertake the often dangerous security measures needed to regulate or stop these activities. The challenges presented by lumber/wood harvesting, diamond and gold mining in Africa, and the trade in elephant ivory and exotic birds were discussed in earlier posts. Here, let's look at what is involved in regulating the mining of and trade in jade and in protecting an endangered species: the gray wolf.
In Myanmar (formerly knows as Burma), earning a living by finding and selling jade gems shares the same drawbacks as searching for diamonds and gold in Africa. Big Chinese companies connected with the Burmese military hold mining concessions in the jade fields of northern Myanmar's Kachin state, where the Christian Kachin Independence Army and the Buddhist Burmese military are engaged in a civil war. Despite the threat of deadly landslides, TIME magazine reports up to 300,000 unemployed migrants forage on unstable rubble piles looking to find a fortune among the less valuable stones companies dump.
The U.S. in 2016 sought to reward Myanmar for solving one problem, replacing military rule with the National League of Democracy party, by ending sanctions banning jade and ruby imports. But Myanmar's democratic reforms, moratorium on new mining licenses and freeze on renewal of existing mining licenses, safety standards, and anticorruption regulations have not closed mines operating without government certification; captured the tax money lost from jade smuggled to neighboring China; ended deaths from jade mining accidents; stopped the military from banning foreigners, except Chinese buyers, from reaching jade fields; financing the civil war with jade sales and taxes collected by Kachins from freelance miners on their lands; or stopping the heroin trafficking that thrives on sales to local migrants and a worldwide trade. Discuss: what can the U.S. or any country, including Myanmar, do to solve these problems?
Now, let's look at the challenges of placing grey wolves on the U.S. Endangered Species Act or delisting them and authorizing a grey wolf hunting season. Stories like Little Red Riding Hood and Peter and the Wolf have given wolves a bad reputation. But if you've ever tried to see wolves at a zoo, you know they don't come up to look at visitors. You have to really search hard to see them in the shadows of wooded areas.
How many wolves are too many? No humans have been harmed by the State of Wisconsin's estimated 900 wolves. Farmers in the state, who have sheep, goats, and cattle and live near waterways where wolves follow their wildlife prey, report no problems. They say wolves are smart and, if you have barking guard dogs that warn wolves are present, the wolves move on. Of Wisconsin's 70,000 farms, 47 reported a loss from wolves, and of the state's 3.5 million cattle, wolves were believed to have killed 75 animals. Wisconsin manages this situation by compensating farmers for livestock lost to wolves and by allowing landowners to get permits to kill wolves endangering their livestock.
Surveys show 65% of the people who live in what is considered wolf range and 80% outside wolf range consider wolves members of the ecological community that have a right to exist. If wolves are delisted from the U.S. Endangered Species Act and a hunt is authorized, the State does not disclose maps showing where wolf packs are located.Your thoughts?
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