U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently pledged to bring the United States to the forefront of the battle on the illegal wildlife trade.  She will be speaking at an international summit on the issue.  Regardless of political associations, we can all agree that this is a step in the right direction towards protecting our world's natural resources!  Let's thank Clinton for her leadership on this issue! The illegal wildlife trade now rivals that of illicit drugs and weapons, in fact, many cartels dealing in wildlife also trade in these contraband as well. In recent years, criminals have put more dangerous weapons to use than ever before and the illegal wildlife trade has become a threat not just to wildlife, but to people as well. As you read this, endangered animals are being slaughtered, shipped, and sold around the world and locals are being killed and injured trying to protect these valuable resources. The wildlife trade monitoring organization TRAFFIC estimates the value of the illegal wildlife trade to be around 10 billion dollars per year.  It is more important than ever for governments to come together and combat the illegal wildlife trade -before it is too late.    Learn more about the illegal wildlife trade here: http://www.traffic.org/trade/.