When the world opens, people will be itching to travel again, such as the Tropics who will see people flooding the beaches. With the lack of tourism worldwide, locals will double down on the efforts to sell you trinkets to remember your trip by. The question is: what exactly are you bringing home? And where does it come from?
Who doesn’t love looking at a large conch shell to remember that exotic trip to Borneo? Or the shark tooth necklace from on that trip to Fiji? Not only does it make you nostalgic, but it makes you feel good to support the locals you bought it from. Though with the state of the world’s ecosystems these days we must start asking where products come from. We have started to ask questions about our food, our clothing, our cars, but why not our souvenirs?
Unfortunately, many animal souvenirs come from harvesting the actual animal, such as ivory. Due consumerism, locals will collect conch shells in large numbers, to sell the beautiful shells to tourists. However, like most things in the natural world, conch shells fill an environmental niche. Remove the conch shells, and their prey, the Crown of Thorns starfish will thrive. Coral reef are the prey to the Crown of Thorns starfish, so an explosion of those starfishes means the decimation of that beautiful coral reef you wanted to remember in the first place.
Likewise with the shark teeth being sold. Most of the time they come from live sharks that were killed for their body parts. Or that shell pendant that are harvested from Abalone. While it may support locals temporarily, the long-term effects may hurt locals more than it helps; for when the pristine coral reefs that brought all the tourists are decimated, the tourists will disappear and thereby the local’s source of income. There are lots of things you can do to support the locals on your vacation – animal souvenirs just may not be the most responsible. So, before you purchase your souvenir, please take a minute to consider its origin.