CITES: CoP-OUT with Chris Mercer

Our Wild World

As the dust just begins to settle from CITES, the veil lifts and the shock waves of the decisions ripple across the world- through the conservation communities and the ‘industry’. The other side altruism is business, and philanthropy and conservation today has become very big business indeed, when model base is ‘utilization’, ‘consumptive’ and a flip definition of ‘sustainable use’. There is a disturbing trend with far reaching consequences when wild life becomes, as my guest Chris Mercer calls it, Alternative Livestock. Domestication of once wild animals as commodity, spin it into something appealing and call it conservation. The general public is being misled. In shiny halls and cafes back room deals political favor and alliances are being made, and at this level it’s about trade, and trade is about money. New boundaries are being crossed, losses expanding, and the last frontier, wild life, is under siege.