Sustainability

Ecosystems

Rain forest

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Trade of tropical animals

The cause of the decline of one half of all vertebrates at risk of extinction is man. The disappearance of these animals has very often to do with the trade of their bodies or parts of them. Young monkeys, for instance, especially small South-American monkeys, are sold as pets in the West and their capture often involves the killing of their mothers or both parents. Bizarre fashions boost the trade of large reptiles, such as pythons and boas, crocodiles and felines. Less evident but equally disastrous is the trade of tropical birds, especially parrots, imported in dozens of thousands every year and often dying during transportation, which is often surreptitious and illegal.