Written Assignment Unit 5 BUS 1103 (MICROECONOMICS)

Microeconomics BUS 1103 Unit 5

Written Assignment

Prof. Alka (Instructor)

(UoPeople).
Written Assignment Unit 5 BUS 1103 (MICROECONOMICS)

Introduction:

B. The National parks for Elephants

1) According to African park organization, poaching of elephant in African countries with high

population of elephants in some of the location have over the years drastically decrease the

population of elephants. This in turn has drawn the attention of the organization to fight and

advocate against the illegal poaching of elephants in Africa. Poaching racketeers have

greatly undermined the extinction of African elephants in continent.

One of such advocacies in partnership with government involvements is narrated below by

African park organization:

To protect wildlife, we have created Law Enforcement units in each of the parks under our

management which are composed of highly trained and equipped rangers operating on foot,

horseback, boats, and in vehicles, helicopters and airplanes. Some teams even have K9 units. The

overall goal of these teams is to uphold the country’s wildlife laws, safeguard wildlife

Poaching, habitat loss, and human conflict have led to the devastating loss of millions of

elephants across Africa in the last 100 years. In Zakouma National Park in Chad, the population

plummeted from 4,300 elephants to just 450 in just eight short years due to poaching. But since

2010 when we entered into a long-term agreement with the Chadian Government, we overhauled

law enforcement, provided expert training to rangers, involved the local community, and we

addressed the challenges of poaching head on. In creating a safe haven, elephants began to breed

and for the first time in decades, their population is finally on the rise. In 2011 we counted only
Written Assignment Unit 5 BUS 1103 (MICROECONOMICS)

one calf under the age of five years old, but in 2018 we counted 127. Zakouma is just one

success story (African Park, 2021).

2) Investing In Local Community.

African Parks employs local community members, invests in education, provides health care

and attracts tourism to parks which benefits local communities. In 2020 alone we created 3,219

jobs, generated $3.07M in tourism revenue and received over 43,000 tourists in the 19 parks

under our management. Further, we built and supported 105 schools and provided more than

108,000 people with access to healthcare. The future of protected areas hinges on whether the

people who live in and around these areas value them, and to truly value them they must benefit

from them. Thanks to the efforts of our Rangers and in collaboration with local communities,

we’re also seeing a reduction in poaching and elephant numbers rising in Akagera National

Park in Rwanda, Majete Wildlife Reserve, Liwonde National Park and Nkhotakota Wildlife

Reserve in Malawi, and Garamba National Park in Democratic Republic of the Congo (African

Park, 2021).

According to Greenlaw et al. (2017), “externality” is a word used to describe the effect of a

market exchange on a third party who is external to the change, and it can be negative if they

create a cost, or positive if they create a profit.

3) The approach I will suggest that will or may be suitable for the elephant population is that

the national parks management should introduce strict laws to penalize offenders. In fact, the

national parks should be forbidden for anyone to enter without proper guides and

verification, orientation by the management of the park. The national parks should be
Written Assignment Unit 5 BUS 1103 (MICROECONOMICS)

protected from poachers and the publics. An example should be made of any poachers

caught under minding the habitation of elephants with severe punishment.

4)

Across the continent of Africa, the poaching of elephants is an industrial scale business. It is

estimated to record over 100 African elephants killed every day by poachers searching for

ivory, meat, and body parts. From 2010 to 2014, the price of ivory in China tripled. It is

important to set strict environmental rule that protect elephant and endanger wildlife from

their habitat by the illegal poaching in the continent ( The Economics, 2015).

5) Explain how the practice of poaching elephant is a negative externality

This practice is not only harmful to elephants, but it can be considered as negative

externality, as has effects on the local community and it on the environment. Most local

communities depend on wildlife life elephants due to tourism attraction boost the economy

of communities. The poaching of elephants is destroying their economy. According to

Bouchard (2016), stated that the externalities of the environment would be catastrophic if we

do not find a way to stop this practice, as the lack of elephants will cause major changes in

tree-species composition and structure of about 96 percent of central Africa’s forests

(Bouchard, 2016).
Written Assignment Unit 5 BUS 1103 (MICROECONOMICS)

Word count: 800

References:

African Parks Organization. (2021).

African Parks. https://www.africanparks.org/save-elephant-next

Bouchard, A. (2018 March 12). Elephant poaching impacts the entire ecosystem.

LabRoots. https://www.labroots.com/trending/plants-and-animals/8258/elephant-poaching-

impacts-entire-ecosystem

The Economics. (2015, November 21). The elephant fights back.

https://www.economics.com/china/2015/21/the-elephants-fight-back

Greenlaw, S.A., Shapiro, D., Taylor, T. (2017). Principles of Microeconomics 2e.

OpenStax. https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/1103490/mod

page/content/4/Microeconomics-CH11-20.pdf
Written Assignment Unit 5 BUS 1103 (MICROECONOMICS)