2011年7月11日星期一

非洲犀牛的眼泪African rhino tears:没有买卖就没有伤害

非洲犀牛的眼泪
非洲犀牛的眼泪
  There are two groups of people shooting rhinos in southern Africa today. The first are poachers, who shoot to kill, then hack off horns and gouge out eyes. The second are game wardens, who stun with tranquilizer darts, then insert tracker microchips into the horn. After a lull for more than a decade in which rhino numbers began to recover, in the past few years the poachers have gained ground once more: 333 rhinos died in southern Africa last year, and the kill rate has accelerated again this year。
在今天的非洲大陆南部,有两类人枪击犀牛。第一类人是偷猎者。他们用枪支猎杀犀牛后,拔去它们的犀牛角并挖掉它们的眼睛。第二类人是狩猎监督官。他们用麻醉枪将犀牛麻醉后,在它们的角内植入追踪芯片。十年的休养生息使得犀牛数量有所回升,然而近年来偷猎者又开始蠢蠢欲动:去年,非洲南部有333头犀牛遭到猎杀,而且被猎杀犀牛数量今年再次增长。


Why are rhinos dying again? Because globalization has lots to say about making billions of people richer, but nothing to say about what to do with the money. Rhino horn has been used in traditional medicine in China and Vietnam for centuries. Now that a new Asian elite can pay the earth for it, a new international poaching mafia is scouring the planet to satisfy that demand. The money on offer has persuaded more than a few game hands to turn poacher. It has persuaded others that, since a rhino does not have to die to give up its horn, and since only a live rhino can grow another one, legalizing horn sales and farming rhinos may be the only answer. Since a live animal would then be more valuable than a dead one, the thinking goes, it might even prompt a population increase。


为什么犀牛再一次相继死去?因为全球化浪潮能让亿万人取财有道,却不能让富裕的人们用财有方。在中国和越南,犀牛角被用作传统药物已长达几个世纪。如今,亚洲新贵们完全有能力进行这项买卖,因此,为了满足他们的需求,国际盗猎团伙正在洗劫整个世界。诱人的金钱诱惑甚至让部分保护者的双手都沾满了鲜血。而对于其他人,既然拿掉犀牛角后犀牛也不是非死不可,况且活着的犀牛还可以再长出新的角,犀牛角交易合法化以及圈养犀牛似乎成了不二选择。按照这样的逻辑,既然活着的犀牛价值反而高于被杀死的犀牛,上述做法应该反而会促进犀牛数量的增长。


For now, heavily armedrangers and poachers play a deadly game of cat and mouse across the bushlands of South Africa and Zimbabwe, frequently killing each other as they race from dawn to dusk to find the next unguarded rhino. The rangers are flat out. So are the poachers。


如今,全副武装的管理员和盗猎者正在南非和津巴布韦的非洲荒原上上演着惨烈的猫捉老鼠游戏。从日出到黄昏,两派人马追逐着毫无防备的犀牛,期间经常会让对方血溅当场。管理员已经筋疲力尽了。偷猎者也一样。

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