Until recently, Central African hunters killed only enough wildlife to feed their own families. Now heavily armed gangs head into forests to make mass kills and sell the meat in markets. Conservation groups fear that the rise in poaching is a result of a UN decision to allow the first ivory auction in a decade in 2008, an event that yielded more than a million U.S. dollars from Chinese and Japanese bidders. Poachers are even getting more strategic about their kills. Poachers on the hunt for ivory have stepped up their use of poison arrows and spears to kill elephants in southern Kenya, according to conservationists who say the techniques are harder to trace than gun attacks.

African countries have banded together with the help of international organizations to combat the militarization of poaching. Small scale efforts are no longer effective. Countries must work together to combat this growing problem.

Although malaria is a deadly disease, there are ways to limit your exposure. The United States Center for Disease Control lists the following strategies for Americans traveling to Africa:

HIV and AIDS continue to be a pressing public health problem in Africa. HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) are now being tackled on a global scale. In 1998, HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa account for 70 percent of infections worldwide. In the past decade, the United States and other international organizations have made an incredible effort to combat the AIDS epidemic and the problems stemming from AIDS, such as AIDS orphans and the growing number of children with AIDS. The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, also known as PEPFAR, is America's initiative to combat the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. Although PEPFAR has made great strides combating AIDS in Africa, it is not without its critics. The requirement that at least half of all money directed towards preventing sexual HIV transmission should be for activities promoting abstinence, monogamy and partner reduction is sometimes seen as a major downfall of PEPFAR funding. Critics say the required focus on monogamy has actually caused the numbers of AIDS cases to increase in many countries.

What can be done to combat the spread of these diseases? Education and international funding is not enough. Africa simply does not have enough health workers! Africa faces a crisis in terms of health care delivery. Although Africa has 14 percent of the world population and 25 percent of the global disease burden - it has only 1.3 percent of global health workers. This is a problem that remains to be addressed in the region.

Historically, the gold and salt trade was incredibly important to the people of Northern Africa. The people in the southern Niger River area demanded a greater supply of salt to flavor food and stay healthy, so they were happy to trade their large supply of gold found in gold fields with people across the Sahara Desert in northern Africa who had a large supply of salt. An elaborate trade system was developed that used the Niger River as a highway to transport goods. A large trans-Saharan trade route grew, transporting salt to the people of Western Africa and gold to the Mediterranean area.

Even countries that did not actually have gold and salt mines still benefited from the resources in the region. The Ghana empire, for example, controlled the trade routes and facilitated the trade between North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Gold was the main commodity of the trans-Saharan trade. These Saharan trade routes were instrumental to the success of many empires of the region. Other countries such as Angola, Botswana, and South Africa flourished due to the presence of diamond mines. In more recent times, countries such as Nigeria have garnered attention and money due to the discovery of oil.

It is due to this rich history of valuable natural resources that many people are perplexed about how this vast continent remains so underdeveloped with some of the worst health statistics in the world. On the next page, we will explore the downside to foreign intervention and look at international aid itself as a possible cause for the continued underdevelopment of the region.

 "Just stop this terrible aid," says the Kenyan economic expert James Shikwati.

On the next page, you will have the opportunity to voice your opinion on this topic. What do you think? Can international aid be doing more harm than good?