Many species of animals and plants are becoming extinct because of human activity. What are the causes of this problem and what solutions can you suggest?

The first cause is the loss of the places where wild creatures live.

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, as cities, farms and roads expand, forests are cleared and wetlands drained, leaving animals with nowhere to feed or breed. In Morocco,

for instance

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, the Barbary macaque has lost much of its cedar forest in the Middle Atlas to logging and grazing, and,

as a result

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, its numbers have fallen sharply within a single generation. Closely linked to

this

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is the problem of poaching, since rare species fetch high prices on the black market. Birds of prey and tortoises are still taken from the Rif mountains to be sold in city markets, and,

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, populations that took centuries to establish are being emptied in a few decades.

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, these trends can be reversed. The most practical solution is to create and properly guard national parks where wildlife can recover undisturbed. Souss-Massa near Agadir,

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, has allowed the bald ibis, once almost extinct, to rebuild a stable colony simply because its nesting cliffs are now protected. Equally important is the role of law and local people.

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, heavy fines for trading in endangered creatures will only work if villagers near the reserves benefit from conservation, so governments should employ them as rangers and guides, turning hunters into protectors. When a community earns more from tourists photographing an animal than from selling it, the incentive to kill disappears.