Monday, July 28, 2014

How Protecting Wildlife Helps Stop Child Labor And Slavery : Goats and Soda : NPR

How Protecting Wildlife Helps Stop Child Labor And Slavery : Goats and Soda : NPR: When scientists talk about the destruction of rain forests or the acidification of oceans, we often hear about the tragic loss of plants and animals.

But ecologists at the University of California, Berkeley say there's also a human tragedy that frequently goes unnoticed: As fish and fauna are wiped out, more children around the world are forced to work, and more people are forced into indentured servitude, scientists wrote Thursday in the journal Science.

"My students, postdocs and I spent a year stepping back and trying to connect the dots between wildlife decline and human exploitation," says ecologist Justin Brashares, who led the study. "We found about 50 examples around the world."

One of those examples made international headlines in June when the Guardian published a report about slavery in the Thai shrimping industry.