The Invisible Harvest
Carole Baskin Carole Baskin

The Invisible Harvest

This report examines the increasing threat of targeted lion poaching for the illegal trade of body parts across Africa and Asia. While traditional factors like habitat loss still exist, lions are now specifically hunted for their claws, teeth, and bones to satisfy demands for traditional medicine and luxury ornaments. The author identifies three primary supply chains, including wild poaching, thefts from wildlife parks, and illegal exports from captive breeding farms. Detailed case studies from Mozambique and South Africa illustrate how organized criminal networks coordinate these activities, often using poisoning as a primary killing method. Despite international enforcement efforts and major arrests, the text concludes that this underreported black market continues to evolve through sophisticated smuggling routes. Overall, the source emphasizes that current data may underestimate the true scale of this transnational wildlife crime.

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