The number of poaching and overhunting of wildlife in Africa is so overwhelming that the U.S. is now taking the issue into account. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set to enforce and bolster some law enforcements against wildlife trafficking by creating harsher penalties and providing resources in order to limit these hunters. According to National Geographic, rhinos and elephants are specifically the main emphasis, as about 100 elephants are killed on a daily basis, while rhinos share a similar decline in population. In certain parts of Asia, the demand for tusks and horns have been valued greater than gold.

A place to begin is in the ivory market field. Specifically, China and even the U.S. have great demands for ivory, so cleaning the ivory market will be the first step in sending a message to marketers. By the end of July, President Obama is expected to announce the prohibition of trading ivory. As America ends the domestic ivory market by the end of the month, an example will be set will for other countries such as China.

China had announced their intention to end imports in May. However, China already has an overload of supply that allows the market to survive without any imports for several more years. Luckily, some celebrities of Asian descent are creating public service announcements and holding educational campaigns to start limiting and to eventually end this market.

The end of this epidemic can be extremely time-consuming, so immediately enforcing stiffer punishment and security is vital. Stiffening the security and sharing such information will eventually force many poachers to turn to other lines of work. The government needs to go after the financial middlemen while also limiting the actual poachers who take the lives of these iconic species.