Pressure from growth in human population and the desire to improve the quality of life of families by exploiting native natural resources have reduced the fauna and flora of industrialized wealthy nations. And now that developing countries seek to follow the same path, is the west really entitled to say “Sorry, we care more about your tigers and pandas than about your poor families striving to make a living and give a better opportunity to their children”?

It is my belief that social programs aimed to improve the lives of villagers in the 3rd world will in the end also help to preserve these endangered species. That’s why you now see Jane Goddall more interested in finding solutions to empower and educate women in Africa, than studying her beloved chimpanzees: because she knows that if the quality of life of those villages doesn’t increase, it translated to the extinction of indigenous species.

The preserving of those beautiful animals should never come at the expense of human poverty and multi-generational suffering. Poverty is the worst kind of tyranny that exists.