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Costly Cats: Supply and Demand Drivers of the Black Market Trade
October 24, 2017, 7:00 PM
Free
Kristin Nowell, with the Cat Specialist Group, will discuss the illegal trade of big cats, i.e. tigers, lions, cheetahs, and snow leopards, which poses a grave threat, driven by financial motivations of those who poach, sell, and buy.
The black market for each species is driven to varying degrees by supply, both from the wild and from modern industrial captive breeding or “farming,” and by consumer demand. These drivers include potential and actual costs of rural people living near predators, which pose risks to life and livestock-based livelihoods, and perceived social status value on the part of relatively wealthy urban consumers, who are often motivated by sellers putting a modern spin on ancient traditions.
Regulatory and enforcement efforts undertaken by governments over the past 25 years through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) have achieved limited success, which could be undermined by one of the outcomes of negotiations at last year’s meeting.
Sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.
Contact: Lia Morris, escoordinator@colby.edu, 859-5356.
Location: Room 1, Olin Science Center, Colby College, Mayflower Hill Drive, Waterville.