Wildlife Trafficking

This chapter provides up-to-date background information regarding the illegal wildlife trade and the green criminological perspective that sets the foundation for the entire text. First, the issue of definition is addressed detailing all of the aspects of the smuggling operation, i.e., poaching, harvesting, collecting, transporting, exporting, importing, selling, etc. The historical context of wildlife trade and illegal wildlife trade is explored to illustrate the engrained nature of this activity. An overview of what has been and is being trafficked is given as well as the estimated numbers that are trafficked. The list will include, but is not limited to, live animals and plants, and their products and derivatives. This leads to a discussion of the current challenges in estimating both the scale and profit of the illegal wildlife trade due to the differing value of the ‘commodity’ along the smuggling chain and the particular dynamics of the dark figure of this crime. The introduction concludes with a layout of the entire book with brief details of the contents of each chapter.

Contemporary Patterns—Wildlife trafficking is not isolated to the remote regions of the planet or specific to the areas with high biodiversity or a high number of endemic species. It is a ubiquitous activity that either through supply, transfer, or demand affects most nations of the globe. This chapter provides updated patterns of smuggling as well as gives estimates as to the extent of wildlife trafficking that is taking place in the different regions. This chapter also revisits the reasons for the demand for wildlife and wildlife products. Drawing on previous work, the demand is broken down into four categories: processed commodities, collectors’ items, traditional medicines, and food. For each of these categories, the parameters, which make them distinctive, are given and the global smuggling patterns for that category are detailed. The chapter then breaks down the supply side dynamics of wildlife trafficking, making a case for combating this crime particularly from the demand end rather than previous tactics, which have tended to only focus on curbing the supply.

Significance—The illegal wildlife trade presents a number of threats to a number of different aspects of societies and communities around the world. These aspects are environmental, economic, human well-being, and national security. Environmentally, wildlife trafficking threatens biodiversity through the extinction of the species that are trafficked; by the introduction of invasive species that can then outcompete native species, again leading to extinction; and through the introduction of diseases that might be transmitted to native wildlife, once again possibly leading to extinction. Extinction is problematic not only for the loss of life of that species, but also because the loss of one species can lead to the instability of the ecosystem and in the case of timber greatly impact upon climate change. Economically, wildlife trafficking can threaten natural resources and agricultural industries when invasive species and diseases are introduced that then damage the livelihoods of people in those sectors, profits of companies, and income from taxes of governments. Human well-being in addition to being damaged economically through the illegal wildlife trade can also be physically threatened through the introduction of zoonotic diseases from unregulated wildlife, such as the coronavirus possibly from bats, SARS from civet cats, and Ebola from monkeys. Finally, national security can be threatened by the illegal wildlife trade because of the illegal wildlife trade’s connection to corruption, organised crime groups, and to a much lesser degree to terrorism and insurgency. These all are known to challenge the rule of law and sovereignty of various countries around the world. This combination of risks and threats in multiple aspects of society is why the illegal wildlife trade needs to be targeted for concerted efforts to curb the amount of wildlife that fuels this black market.

This chapter delves into the contentious area of harm and victims within the illegal wildlife trade. The often times conflicting perspectives from which harm can be constructed will first be looked at. This includes how definitions of who can be harmed and what harm is change depending upon if an anthropocentric, biocentric, or ecocentric approach is taken when assessing the presence of harm. This leads to an exploration of victimhood within wildlife trafficking. The discussion centres on who are victims of the illegal trade—is it the individual animals? Can plants be victims? Are those who lose natural resources the victims? Can the environment or planet be a victim? Is it the country? This sets out a typical hierarchy of victimhood within the illegal trade that is not dissimilar to the hierarchy of human victims. The ‘ideal’ wildlife victim is the critically endangered charismatic megafauna, like the tiger, where as other less appealing animals, like the pangolin, are less ‘worthy’ victims or in the case of plants and invertebrates invisible altogether. Along this continuum are also people and communities that maybe victimised by the trade because it damages their livelihood. Non-human animals who are rescued from the illegal wildlife trade also face further possible victimisation depending upon what fate they are given upon being found. This section explores the euthanasia, rehabilitation, reintroduction, or life in captivity that non-human animals face when law enforcement takes them out of the smuggling chain. The chapter concludes with thoughts on what societies’ moral obligation is around harm and victims in this context.

Construction of Blame and Offending—Similar to defining and determining who is a victim within the complicated chain of wildlife trafficking, unpicking who is the offender can also be challenging. This chapter introduces the idea that there is also a hierarchy of offending. In terms of the offender, there are those that might be considered ‘blameless’ due to the circumstances under which they illegally poach or harvest wildlife. Who can blame the impoverished villager for killing an endangered animal to get money for food? Within this spectrum though there are also the intermediaries, the smugglers, the corrupt law enforcement and government officials, the transnational organised crime groups, the corporations and states benefiting, and the buyers all playing some role within a wildlife trafficking operation. With the differing levels of blame, responsibility, and guilt that can be attached to the different actors, the next section delves into what punishments are then deemed to be appropriate for these different hierarchies.

The Fight Against Wildlife Trafficking—The illegal wildlife trade is nestled between law enforcement, conservation/environmental protection, and the economy. This unique position means that there are multiple, often times competing, stakeholders determining the ways in which wildlife trafficking can be combated. This chapter presents the agendas that collide when compromise must be reached between criminalisation and regulation. The perspectives and hurdles faced by each of the actors involved will be detailed, i.e., police, customs, scientists, NGOs, and government officials among others.

Transnational Collaborations—Looking at each of the stakeholders in turn, leads into a discussion in this chapter of the transnational collaborations to curb wildlife trafficking. The first approach explored is the species collaborations that focus on protection of one or a group of species. Then, regional collaborations are equally detailed such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations–Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN–WEN) and the South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN). The financial, transportation, and technology sectors have formed industrial collaborations also aiming to tackle the illegal wildlife trade. Next global collaborations are considered—United for Wildlife and the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC). The latter is made up of INTERPOL, CITES, the World Customs Organisation (WCO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the World Bank. Part of the global collaborations are the series of high-level conferences that have taken place in London, Kasane, and Ha Noi since 2014. Finally, Interpol’s Environmental Security Unit, the ultimate collaboration, is looked at in detail. After each of these cooperative efforts has been described, there will be a critical evaluation of what limitations and challenges these efforts face and proposals as to what other alternatives might be tried.

The concluding chapter summarises the complicated nature of wildlife trafficking; from its pervasiveness to its hidden nature; from the supply side to the demand side; from the construction of victimhood to the construction of offending; from the conflicting perspectives of those fighting against it to the transnational collaborations. The book ends by reflecting upon what wildlife trafficking will look like in the coming years particularly focusing on its nature and extent in a world where most economies are struggling, most nations remain enmeshed in neo-liberal capitalist consumer policies, and the main victims of the trade—wildlife—remain an unheard voice in our multispecies societies.