Lets assume that Zoos are bad for the animals and that the Kunming, green center city accessible, Zoo should be closed. What to do with this huge green open space in the center of the city that will benefit, the animals, the children who go there often, the environment and people of Kunming? I am not talking huge skyscraper real estate developments.
This was an official announcement years ago. Obviously nothing happened. Still a decent idea:
Why close it? It was one of the first public zoos in China I believe. It would just be a park otherwise.
I'm sure it's seen better days but the peacocks are popular with the locals and I thought the butterfly exhibit was good, also it's not expensive, one of the few entry tickets in Kunming that isn't.
Never mind what happens to the space if it closed down, what would happen to the animals? All be put down I would bet. Leave it be.
Now, no one in their right mind would argue that zoos are better than animals running around in the wild.
I'm lucky enough (in this one particular case) to come from a country where you can lions, elephants, rhinos in their natural habitats. Unless the people in Shanghai, New York or London are all going to come to Africa to see these animals then zoos are needed to educate people, to have people in other countries build an affinity with certain species which is what is needed for these endangered animals to survive.
Living just down the road from The Matobo national park, which outdoes ShiLin hands down if you like rocks, it is an excellent place to see animals. The reason they live in places like this is that countries like mine lack the infastructure, the people, the money to have made use of this land. Lacking all of these things in this day and age also means that we don't have the facilities to look after what we have (with maybe Namibia and Botswana the exception). Maybe it's even fair to say without European tourists we would have lost most of what we have already. The Americans we can do without, they line Mugabe's pockets and kill what they can't hunt back home.
If we can get Asians onside then things will look a lot brighter for big African animals and a step closer to having more of them running wild. To do this zoos will be needed. In my opinion the biggest threat to your Elephants and Rhinos is your Ivory trade embargo. Lift that and poaching would stop, farms would become legitimate and people would have no need to harm animals in reserves which would mean money could be spent in other areas.
Unfortunately as it stands zoos may be the future for some species.
How will lifting the ivory trade embargo help? Be really interested to hear your views on this.
Sounds obvious - same argument as legalizing drugs in developed nations. Make it legal (but controlled), so there is no need for illegal operations.
Without taking any sides at this time, "no need to harm animals in reserves" simply means they would be harmed in legitimate farms instead.
"To do this zoos will be needed. "
I don't quite agree with that. In Asia, China in particular, and especially in low tier cities like Kunming, social development stage is not yet there to consider things much further than putting a roof over your head and next few meals.
Consideration for other life-forms is not that high in average Chinese agenda. After all, they've only recently come out of poverty.
Sure there is some wealth to go around, and that's exactly what it is mostly used for - showing off.
So, in my opinion zoos in cities like Kunming cannot be defended as tools for education. They are more for entertainment, than they are in western countries.
Closing them, especially the ones like Kunming Zoo where monkeys and tigers are kept in small cages, and clearly stating the reasons for closure, would send a much bigger and better educative signal than keeping them operational.
How?
Well if ivory trade was legal then first, all the stockpiles of ivory in southern and eastern Africa would be sold, this would be enough to feed the ivory trade for the foreseeable future. Almost immediately the price of ivory would go down as it stands elephant ivory trades for $900 a KG (although come to Zim and you can probably find it for $200) and Rhino horn for 10 times that. Ivory would become commercial and instead of poaching from the wild elephants, the animals would be farmed,but most it would be rhinos more than elephants. There are already farms in SA stocked with Rhinos in the hope that this will happen in the near future. Ivory would be removed from the animals under anesthetic by traders who have licences to trade it, not hacked off by poachers. The animal would be left in tact on a farm, rather than in pieces in a wild life reserve.
Some years ago there was a UN vote on the issue. The countries in the know about the issue, those on the front line, SA, Zim, Namibia etc, voted for the ban to be lifted. It was voted down by European nations and the Americas to whom ivory is a taboo, thus in the eyes of many African leaders and conservationists, has worsened the problem. The problem with elephants and rhinos is people are killing them faster than they can breed, so numbers are going down, conservation of wild elephants can stem this but to improve the situation you'll have to legalise the trade and let business take it's course. Once it's all above board it will be much easier to police and wild animals will be left to their own devices.
One thing is for sure, once there are no more elephants the trade in new ivory will cease. Current owners of ivory will see the value of their ivory skyrocket.
Poachers and traders in ivory and rhino horns should be treated to the same fate as the original owners.
There's still plenty of ivory, perfectly legal ivory, buried beneath the Siberian tundra. Just by being legal it's a fraction of the price of African ivory. Why? as it is controlled. You can make more African elephants but you can't make any more Mammoths. It's the illegal part which is putting the price sky high and making Africans think about hunting down an elephant. Take that price down and they won't entertain the idea half as much, especially when in competition with SA farmers.
