World Wildlife Crime Report 2024

The CITES and UNODC databases together recorded 140,000 seizures in 162 countries between 2015 and 2021. These included illegal trade in around 4,000 wildlife species of which 3,250 are listed in the CITES appendices.

Illegal fisheries trading is also a concern, the report notes. Globally, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 60 million tonnes of fisheries products were traded in 2020, accounting to around 150 billion US dollars. However, measuring the proportion of illegally acquired fisheries products within the overall trade is extremely difficult.

Commercial trade of certain species is outlawed throughout the international market chain from source to end. Traffickers use gaps in the implementation of laws to reach out to the buyers who are not interested in the legality of the sources or are unable to verify. Illegal wildlife products are also sold as legal goods in the end markets taking advantage of such verification difficulties. Many participants engaged in wildlife trafficking can fall under the definition of ‘organised crime groups’, where various participants play connected roles along the trade chain with different degrees of criminality.

Corals, crocodilians and elephants made up the largest numbers of individual seizures recorded between 2015 and 2021. The same data analysed using the standardised seizure index (employing import and export values of the items) showed that timber dominated the seizures made with cedars and other sapindales accounting for 24 per cent of the overall value. They were followed by rosewoods (18 per cent), rhinoceros (14 per cent), pangolins (14 per cent), elephants (seven per cent), agarwood and other myrtles (seven per cent), and others (16 per cent).

Wildlife crime causes three main kinds of harms.  Environmental harm includes overexploitation of species, adverse ecosystem impact, climate impact and dispersal of invasive species. Governance harm displays itself through the undermining of role of governments, the loss of government revenue and enforcement expenditures. Economic and social harms include business losses, health risks, and adverse effects to livelihood and wellbeing.

As many as 73 per cent of mammal species, 31 per cent of bird species, 59 per cent of reptilian and 62 per cent of amphibian species, seized between 2015 and 2021, could be found in the IUCN red list. They were listed as being subject to ongoing threat from international harvest. Reduction in wildlife species populations also reduces carbon storage capacities of ecosystems and increases emissions, disrupting ecosystems and hampering climate change adaptation, the report states.

A 2020 report highlighted links between illegal wildlife trade and money laundering ventures, but incomplete research and knowledge in this area has largely prevented action against this. Losses in government revenue are also caused by illicit trade in marine fish, for example, a 2020 study found 2-4 billion US dollars’ worth of global losses on tax revenues affecting maritime economies especially in Asia and Africa.

Big cat species like the lion, leopard, snow leopard, tiger and jaguar are being targeted in Latin America, Africa and Asia for their valuable body parts like bones, skins, claws and teeth, the report notes. The processing of acquired bones has traditionally happened in end market countries but may be shifting to the source countries for trafficking ease.

Some of the drivers of illegal trading are – food (shark fins, eels, pangolins, sturgeons, abalone, orchid tubers), medicine (pangolins, seahorses, big cat bones), mass market pets and ornamental plants (African grey parrots, iguanas, orchids, cacti), specialist markets for live animals and plants (succulents, orchids, amphibians, reptiles), exclusive markets for status goods (ivory, horn, shahtoosh, rosewood).

Better funding for initiatives to combat wildlife crime is an important step. In Nagaland, Amur falcon trapping was stopped by installing reservoir guards and supporting hunters’ transition to becoming tourist guides and falcon protectors. Involving local leaders into the implementation process also aided in discouraging people from hunting.

The report notes that wildlife crime is often interconnected with the activities of powerful and large organised crime groups working in vulnerable ecosystems like the Amazon and the Golden Triangle. Reducing wildlife crime requires efforts to address organised crime as a whole.

Focus and Factoids by Moumita Rakshit.