But like the drug trade, people don’t tend to engage in criminality if they have a decent standard of living. More so if alternatives, eg tourism provide better alternatives.
This would be true to a certain extent, but some people want far more than any normal even well paid job could provide.
“On the black market in South Africa, the horn of the white rhino sells for up to $3,000 a pound, according to Groenewald, but on Asian black markets it wholesales for five to 10 times that, and retail prices can go up ”
A Rhino horn can weigh 4lbs $12,000 per horn is a huge incentive, especially in Africa where average wages are a fraction of what they are in the West. My guess is as long as the demand exists there’ll always be poachers regardless of local economic conditions.