Species justice and harm to animals - Environmental Harm: An Eco-justice Perspective - page 116

endangered species directly but, as well, to the economic viability of
industries such as agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
Illegal exports of wildlife and wildlife products from
Australia pose a threat to the protection of endangered
species. Illegal imports are accompanied by the potential
for the introduction of pests and diseases which could
have a dramatic impact on agriculture, conservation of the
environment, and specialist industries, such as aviculture.
(Halstead, 1992: 1)
Thus, the smuggling of wildlife across national borders has the potential
to threaten the viability of endangered species, whether flora or fauna,
as well as to provide a potential vehicle for the introduction of pests
and diseases into formerly unaffected areas (Herbig, 2010; Ferrier, 2010;
Rosen and Smith, 2010).
Illegal trade is not the only threat to particular 'wild' animal species.
Very often it is the legal trade that provides the basis for species decline.
The intense competition for food worldwide, for example, is having
major impacts on the ways in which commercial fishing takes place. The
issue here is not only that of biodiversity, but of wholesale destruction
of major breeding grounds and fishing beds.
The greatest negative impact to the long-term sustainable
management of global fisheries is a combination of illegal, unreported
and unregulated fishing (see Wilson and Tomkins, 2007). IUU (illegal,
unreported and unregulated) fishing may involve huge factory-ships
that operate on the high seas, and which process thousands of tons of
fish at any one time. Alternatively, it may be organised around dozens
of smaller vessels, each of which is contracted to provide a catch that
ultimately brings reward to the originating contractor. In other words,
such production can be organised according to the economies of scale
(for example, factory ships) or the economies of scope (for example,
small independent fishers). In each case, however, there is a link to
legitimate markets (for example, for abalone, for lobsters, for Patagonian
toothfish) for the value of the commodity to be realised in dollar terms.
Regardless of whether the activity is legal or illegal, or a combination
of the two, it is the overall scale of fishing that is the problem.
The other major threat to animals besides over-use by humans is the
demise of their habitats. Here, too, profit-making is at the fore. The
conversion of land for commercial purposes is directly relevant to the
wellbeing and survival of animals. For example, the native woodlands
demolished for cash crops such as GMO soybeans in Argentina have a