Thanks a lot for your thoughts, Alan!
Just a minor quibble:
Quote:
Equally, penalties for the killing of elephants must be as Draconian as it is possible to make them. The penalties must deter any prospective elephant killer. I would envisage something along the lines of the death penalty, not only for the killer, but for his entire extended family, and for any person who had any involvement in the killing, both before and after the fact.
If my attitude seems just a little too harsh, then perhaps we should take a long step back and ask exactly what is important to us.
If it is the preservation of The Elephant, then no measures taken to ensure this can be considered to be unreasonable
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Here again it is important to establish and continue to monitor which measures really work and which don't. For example, the death penalty has a bad track record to avoid murder - I rather doubt it will work any better in this context (actually, rangers already need to shoot encountered poachers to avoid being killed themselves).
Also keep in mind that poaching nowadays often takes place in the form of raids/operations by militia forces (including forced conscription of kids and teens).
Regards,
Kai