THBT Wildlife Trade is the Most Critical Issue Primarily Involving Non-human Animals

Critical: Most important, most significant, most influential

Two-thirds of global forest cover loss is occuring mainly in the tropics and sub-tropics, where vast clusters of deforestation hotspots are destroying the important ecosystem services forests provide. 

Over 43 million hectares, an area roughly the size of Morocco, was lost in these 'deforestation fronts' between 2004 and 2017.

Deforestation puts human health and the health of our planet at risk. From policymakers to companies to consumers, urgent action is needed to halt forest loss.

But forests around the world are under threat, jeopardizing these benefits. The threats manifest themselves in the form of deforestation and forest degradation. The main cause of deforestation is agriculture (poorly planned infrastructure is emerging as a big threat too) and the main cause of forest degradation is illegal logging. In 2019, the tropics lost close to 30 soccer fields' worth of trees every single minute.
Deforestation is a particular concern in tropical rain forests because these forests are home to much of the world’s biodiversity. For example, in the Amazon around 17% of the forest has been lost in the last 50 years, mostly due to forest conversion for cattle ranching. Deforestation in this region is particularly rampant near more populated areas, roads and rivers, but even remote areas have been encroached upon when valuable mahogany, gold, and oil are discovered.

Changes in temperature, and the other impacts of climate change, are becoming more apparent, and we’re already seeing the effects all over the world. For example:

• Some islands no longer exist because of rising sea levels.
  
• Natural disasters – like floods, hurricanes and tornadoes –are occurring more frequently.
  
• More animal species are going extinct every year due to the effects of climate change on the ecosystems and habitats they live in. 
  

And, climate change affects animal species in some specific ways too. These are some of the impacts it has on them:

• They have to adapt to the changing climate – which has made their habitats less comfortable, and sometimes even inhospitable.
  
• They’re dealing with increases in water, air and solid waste pollution that affects the food they eat and the habitats they live in. 
  
• Some animals have to alter their breeding and feeding patterns in order to survive the impacts of climate change.
  

If these animal species can’t migrate to areas with a more favourable climate, it makes it much more likely that they will become extinct. 

Climate change and habitat destruction are two of the greatest threats to global biodiversity. Lattice models have been used to investigate how hypothetical species with different characteristics respond to habitat loss. The main result shows that a sharp threshold in habitat availability exists below which a species rapidly becomes extinct. Here, a similar modelling approach is taken to establish what determines how species respond to climate change. A similar threshold exists for the rate of climate change as has been observed for habitat loss—patch occupancy remains high up to a critical rate of climate change, beyond which species extinction becomes likely. Habitat specialists, especially those of relatively poor colonizing ability are least able to keep pace with climate change. The interaction between climate change and habitat loss might be disastrous. During climate change, the habitat threshold occurs sooner. Similarly, species suffer more from climate change in a fragmented habitat.

• Natural disasters – like floods, hurricanes and tornadoes –are occurring more frequently.
  
• More animal species are going extinct every year due to the effects of climate change on the ecosystems and habitats they live in. 
  

And, climate change affects animal species in some specific ways too. These are some of the impacts it has on them:

• They have to adapt to the changing climate – which has made their habitats less comfortable, and sometimes even inhospitable.
  
• They’re dealing with increases in water, air and solid waste pollution that affects the food they eat and the habitats they live in. 
  
• Some animals have to alter their breeding and feeding patterns in order to survive the impacts of climate change.
  

• Wild animals adopted by people suffer and tend to die in the wild, in a way far more certain than Con's ambiguous studies.
  
• Emissions have been cut by more than 73% and the particle quality has improved 30~40%.
  
• Resolving global warming benefits businesses by billions of dollars, and hence companies are encouraged to help out (in contrast to wildlife trade)
  

 An area of unspoiled land larger than North America is likely to be damaged by human activity in the next 30 years.


 The spread of human activity threatens ¼ of the world's mammals with extinction.


 Logging affects approximately 14-17% of endangered species, grazing affects 19-22%, water development affects 29-33%, recreation affects 23-26%, and mining impacts on 14-21%.


 Habitat destruction from human activity is the primary cause of risk for 83% of endangered plant species.


 For migrant bird populations, a decline of close to 40% is directly linked to habitat destruction.


 For amphibians, declining populations are linked to habitat destruction, introduction of exotic species, water pollution and ozone depletion.


 Habitat destruction was also a contributing factor in the extinction of at least 73% of freshwater fish in North America and the leading threat to fish species considered threatened, endangered or of special concern.

1. Wild Vertebrate Populations Are Declining

Earth's population of wild vertebrates — all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish — experienced an overall decline of 60 percent from 1970 to 2014, the most recent year with available data. (By comparison, the 2016 and 2014 editions reported a 58 percent and 52 percent decline since 1970, respectively.)

2. Many Researchers Worked on the Report

More than 50 researchers from around the world contributed to the 2018 report, analyzing a total of 16,704 animal populations from 4,005 species.

3. Habitat Loss Is the Biggest Threat to Vertebrates

The No. 1 cause of the decline is habitat loss and degradation, which accounts for nearly half of all threats within each taxonomic group, except fish (28 percent). Common threats to wildlife habitat include "unsustainable agriculture, logging, transportation, residential or commercial development, energy production and mining," the report notes, adding that "fragmentation of rivers and streams and abstraction of water" are also prevalent causes in freshwater ecosystems.

4. Ecosystems Are Being Destroyed

This phenomenon is shrinking some of Earth's most iconic ecosystems — roughly 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest has disappeared in just 50 years, for example, while about half of all shallow-water corals have been lost in the last 30 years. Yet it also threatens many other, less famous habitats such as wetlands, which have lost 87 percent of their extent in the modern era, according to the report.

5. Overexploitation Is Another Serious Threat to Vertebrates

The No. 2 overall cause is overexploitation, which refers not only to the deliberate hunting, poaching and harvesting of wildlife, but also to the unintentional killing of non-target species, commonly known as bycatch. Overexploitation is a particularly big problem for fish, accounting for 55 percent of threats facing fish populations.

6. Other Human Activities Also Pose Major Threats

Other top threats include invasive species, disease, pollution and climate change. The latter is most commonly reported as a threat for bird and fish populations, the report notes, accounting for 12 percent and 8 percent of threats, respectively.

7. Freshwater Habitats Have Been Especially Hit Hard

The fastest wildlife decline is in freshwater habitats, which lost 83 percent of their vertebrate populations between 1970 and 2014. The total number of freshwater vertebrates drops by about 4 percent each year.

8. Tropical Regions Are Also Particularly Vulnerable

The planet's tropical regions are losing vertebrate species at an especially dramatic rate, with South and Central America suffering an 89 percent decline since 1970. That's the most pronounced decline of any "biogeographic realm," according to the report, followed by the Indo-Pacific (64 percent), Afrotropical (56 percent), Palearctic (31 percent) and Nearctic (23 percent).

9. Habitat Availability for Vertebrates Is Also Declining

On top of tracking population declines, the 2018 report also looks at additional indicators related to species distribution, extinction risk and biodiversity. The Species Habitat Index (SHI), for example, offers "an aggregate measure of the extent of suitable habitat available for each species." Overall trends in the SHI for mammals fell by 22 percent since 1970, with the steepest regional decrease reported in the Caribbean at 60 percent. Other regions with declines greater than 25 percent were Central America, Northeast Asia and North Africa.

10. Biodiversity Is Declining Too

The report also provides a Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII) that ranges from 100 to 0 percent, with 100 representing "an undisturbed or pristine natural environment with little to no human footprint." The most recent global estimates suggest the BII fell from 81.6 percent in 1970 to 78.6 percent in 2014.

11. Biodiversity Is Vital to Human Civilization

Biodiversity is not merely a luxury that's "nice to have," as the report puts it, but a linchpin of human civilization that gives us vital resources. Globally, these ecosystem services are worth an estimated $125 trillion per year. As one example, the report examines how much we rely on the planet's pollinators — which are responsible for $235 billion to $577 billion in crop production per year — and how their abundance, diversity and health are affected by climate change, intensive agriculture, invasive species and emerging diseases.

Resolving global warming benefits businesses by billions of dollars, and hence companies are encouraged to help out

  There's little unique ideas separating this from the other. After all, humans versus animals, you could say both become the same when you are being traded. Truly, as a study explains in its abstract alone, it is "is commonly positioned alongside the illegal drugs, arms, and human trafficking trades in regard to the economic values involved.". [9] If this wasn't enough, it also explains that our inherent standards and expectations drive forth this illegal trade.

" The market for IWT ‘goods’ is linked to cultural and social norms—such as religious practice, health benefits, or status symbols—which influence different types of offenders (e.g. trophy hunters, traditional medicine users)".

As you can see, in contrast to global warming based off of lack of knowledge, the animal trade market is associated with malicious men and similarly wrong ideas. Hence, Animal Trading is still yet more critical to address, because we must reshape the basic ideology and assumptions of people. Otherwise, Con must also fight against drug trafficking, human trafficking, and other issues in similar vein.