Wildlife trade

Assorted seashells, coral, shark jaws and dried blowfish on sale in Greece

Framed butterflies, moths, beetles, bats, Emperor scorpions and tarantula spiders on sale in Rhodes, Greece

The international wildlife trade is a serious conservation problem, addressed by the United Nations' Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora CITES, which currently has 175 member countries called Parties.

Legal wildlife trade

The legal wildlife trade includes specimens of species that are not listed in any of the three CITES Appendices, and specimens of species which are listed by CITES and which are traded internationally with the appropriate documents. These documents include permits and certificates for the import, export, re-export and introduction from the sea which are issued by the CITES Management Authorities of the respective countries. The UNEP–WCMC manages a trade database on behalf of the CITES Secretariat, where records of trade in wildlife and scientific names of taxa listed by CITES are reported annually..

Note that wildlife trade that is legal is not necessarily sustainable. Hence, much legal trade in wildlife may still be a significant conservation concern. Unsustainable wildlife trade may be addressed in a number of ways, including listing a species of concern on the appropriate Appendix of CITES.

Illegal wildlife trade

Hunting for the illegal wildlife trade has the greatest potential to do maximum harm in minimal time, and is a serious threat to a number of endangered and vulnerable species. Illegal wildlife trade and contraband includes live pets, hunting trophies, fashion accessories, cultural artifacts, ingredients for traditional medicines, and wild meat for human consumption. Bushmeat trade is considered illegal when imports occur in contravention of the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES), national quarantine laws, and other laws that ban the trade of specific animals.

Illegal wildlife trade is broadly defined as an environmental crime, which directly harms the environment. Wildlife trafficking is driven by organised groups who exploit natural resources and endanger threatened species and ecosystems in contravention of CITES. Environmental crimes by their very nature are trans-boundary, using porous borders, and involve cross-border criminal syndicates characterised by irregular migration, money laundering, corruption and the exploitation of disadvantaged communities.

The links between wealth, poverty and engagement in the wildlife trade are complex: people involved in the trade are not necessarily poor, and the poor who are involved do not capture the majority of the trade’s monetary value. In 2002, the illegal wildlife trade was estimated it to be the second largest illegal trade, second only to the drugs trade, with a value of at least £10 billion. In 2008, it was estimated that it is worth at least US$5 billion, and may potentially total in excess of $20 billion annually. This ranks the illegal wildlife trade as among the most lucrative illicit economies in the world, behind illegal drugs and possibly human trafficking and arms trafficking. Due to its clandestine nature, the illegal trade is difficult to quantify with any accuracy. Potential areas of market growth include the Internet, where traders use chat rooms and auction websites to engage in illicit wildlife sales.

In Europe

The revenues generated by the trafficking in endangered species are estimated at 18 to 26 billion Euros (approx. 32 billion US$) per year, with the EU the foremost destination market in the world. The trade is principally coordinated by well organised, loose networks based in the EU and in the source regions. It is now common for perpetrators to use couriers and air mail-orders. Animals from several destinations are concentrated in one place, from which it is possible to organise transit into the EU. A number of highly sophisticated Colombian groups manage the supply chains for a wide variety of species. Chinese organised crime groups, based mainly in Hong Kong, have specialised in the supply of Traditional Chinese Medicine products containing derivatives of endangered species to several companies across the EU, particularly in North West Europe. Within the EU, dedicated organised crime groups often exploit legitimate business structures to facilitate the importation and retail of specimens. Groups in North West Europe, for instance, cooperate with breeders in other Member States to launder ‘wild caught’ animals, using false documents to trade them as captive bred on the legitimate market. Difficulties in ascertaining the authenticity of foreign certificates frustrate enforcement efforts. Of note, there is evidence that trafficking in endangered species is of increasing interest to poly-criminal organised crime groups. Groups involved in high-level drugs trafficking in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have established a notable role in the illegal supply of endangered species to the EU and US markets. As a result, some of the concealment methods developed for drug trafficking are now used to traffic endangered species.

In Arabia

There is a large illegal trade in free-living houbara bustards, trapped in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, which are exported to the Middle East where they are used by some falconers to train their falcons. By the end of the 1990s, 4000–7000 houbaras were traded in this way from Pakistan each year. In 1998, initiatives were taken in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah to confiscate illegally imported houbara bustards when they entered the United Arab Emirates, while government agencies in Pakistan actively confiscate birds as they are smuggled out of the country through air and sea ports.

After the Haj of 2010, skins of pythons and other reptiles, tigers, and of Arabian leopards poached in Yemen were offered among the products being sold in the tent city of Mina, Saudi Arabia. Endangered animal parts are smuggled into the Kingdom, often with little effort in disguising or hiding the items.

In May 2011, a United Arab Emirates citizen was arrested as he was preparing to fly first class from Bangkok to Dubai with various rare and endangered animals in his suitcases, which included four leopard cubs, one Asiatic black bear cub, and two macaque monkeys.

In Asia

Shark fin for sale in Hong Kong

A substantial portion of the global illegal wildlife trade — possibly the largest in the world — takes place in Asia, where demand is driven by the need for specific animal parts to practice traditional Asian medicine, for human consumption, and as symbols of wealth. Demand for illegal wildlife is reportedly increasing in Southeast Asia due in part to the region’s economic boom and resulting affluence. Southeast Asia is also a key supplier of wildlife products to the world.

Live animals and animal parts such as tortoises, fresh water turtles, snakes, sharks, pangolins and monitor lizards are sold in open-air markets and end up as pets, trophies, or in specialty restaurants that feature wildlife as gourmet dining.

China is the world’s largest importer of wildlife products, including an insatiable demand for turtles, ivory, tigers, pangolins, and many other species used for food or medicine. India and Nepal feature as source and transit for the trade in body parts of tigers, rhinos, leopards, snow leopards, otters and musk deer for usages in traditional Chinese medicine, and for decorative use by the neo rich. Traders use land-routes via Sikkim, Ladakh and Tibet as borders are porous and customs lax. Skins and body parts of 783 tigers, 2766 leopards, and 777 otters were seized between 1994 to August 2006 in India alone, probably representing a tiny fraction of the actual trade bound for Tibet and China. Among the many seizures of live and dead pangolins in Southeast Asian countries, these were the largest ready for export to China: in spring 2008, two shipments containing about 23 t of dead pangolins and scales were discovered in Vietnam originating in Indonesia; in July 2008, some 14 t of frozen Malayan pangolins and about 50 kg of scales were seized in Sumatra.

In Thailand, the Chatuchak weekend market in Bangkok is an important hub for the sale of freshwater turtles and tortoises for pets. People from Japan, Malaysia and Singapore are known to purchase large numbers of turtles from the dealers for retail in their respective countries. The majority of the illegally sourced species observed during surveys carried out in 2006 and 2007, or confiscated in recent years were not native to Thailand, but originated in Indonesia, Indochina, Madagascar, Congo, Uganda, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Barbados, and Venezuela. The illegal trade in live elephants and ivory still flourishes. Seizures in Asia and Africa in recent years appear to have severely reduced the availability of African raw ivory, and prices increased on average over 300% since 2001. However, Thailand still has one of the largest and most active ivory industries seen anywhere in the world. Every year, many elephants are illegally imported from Myanmar for use in the tourism industry; elephant calves are slated for begging on the streets. The sale of lizards, primates, cats and other endangered species has been widely documented. The Suvarnabhumi International Airport offers smugglers direct jet service to Europe, the Middle East, North America and Africa. Trade routes connecting in Southeast Asia link to the United States for the sale of turtles, lemurs, and other primates, Cambodia to Japan for the sale of slow lorises as pets, and the sale of many species to China.

In Vietnam, 14,758 cases involving wildlife hunting and trade violations were identified and prosecuted from 1996 to March 2007, and about 635 tons of wildlife with a total of 181,670 individual animals was confiscated. The data showed an increasing trend in the number of wildlife violations, from 1,469 cases in 2000 to 1,880 cases in 2002. The expansion of markets and price acceleration have contributed an important boost for the development of illegal wildlife trade that was identified as the most important factor contributing to the significant depletion of populations of some species such as cats, (bears, pangolins, amphibians, reptiles, orchids, agarwood and some other endemic plants. The quantity of wildlife provided for the Vietnam markets is estimated at about 3,400 tons and over 1 million heads per year.

Japan appears frequently on the top three list of importing countries in endangered species with official permission under the regulation of CITES. Japan is a major importer of live reptiles, mostly tortoises and freshwater turtles, but also Mississippi Alligator, Reticulated Python and Nile Crocodile, although export of these species is restricted in the countries of origin, or species are listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

In August 2010, a notorious Malaysian wildlife trader has been arrested after having tried to smuggle about 100 live snakes to Indonesia. Since the early 1980s, he legally wholesaled tens of thousands of wild reptiles annually, many of which were on sale in American pet stores. But he allegedly commanded one of the world's largest wildlife trafficking syndicates, and using a private zoo as a cover, also offered a large array of contraband, including snow leopard pelts, panda bear skins, rhino horns, rare birds, and Komodo dragons, chinchillas, elephants, gorillas, tigers, and smuggled critically endangered wildlife from Australia, China, Madagascar, New Zealand, South America to markets largely in Europe, Japan, and the United States.

In North and South America

The USA is the second largest importer of wildlife products and a large destination for the illegal pet trade. Every month, many tons of bushmeat arrives from Africa. During 2001–2005, over 11,000 specimens, i.e. live animals and wildlife products of birds, reptiles, marine turtles, corals and mammals were seized in shipments from Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Amazon rainforest animals are smuggled across borders the same way illegal drugs are — in the trunks of cars, in suitcases, in crates disguised as something else. In August 2011, a couple was arrested when they tried to smuggle jaguar pelts into the U.S. from Mexico. The two had made repeated trips to Florida and had offered to sell the skins to customers in Texas and Florida or through Internet sites. Both face up to five years in prison and criminal fines of up to $250,000 each.

Animal trading in Latin America is widespread as well. In open air Amazon markets in Iquitos and Manaus, a variety of rainforest wildlife is sold openly as meat, such as agoutis, peccaries, turtles, turtle eggs, walking catfish, and others. In addition, many species are sold as pets. The keeping of parrots and monkeys as pets by villagers along the Amazon is commonplace. But the sale of these "companion" animals in open markets is rampant. Capturing baby tamarins, marmosets, spider monkeys, saki monkeys, and other species in order to sell them, often requires shooting the mother primate out of a treetop with her clinging child; the youngster may or may not survive the fall. With the human population increasing, such practices have a serious impact on the future prospects for many threatened species.

See also

• Poaching
• Wildlife smuggling
• Ivory trade
• Environmental crime

Organizations addressing illegal wildlife trade

• TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network
• ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN)
• Clark R. Bavin National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory
• FREELAND Foundation
• Wildlife Alliance
• Species Survival Network

Further reading

• Roe, D. (2002). Making a Killing Or Making a Living: Wildlife Trade, Trade Controls, and Rural Livelihoods. IIED. ISBN 978-1-84369-215-7.

External links

• CITES
• TRAFFIC − international NGO dedicated to ensuring that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to nature conservation
• ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network − wildlife law enforcement network
• FREELAND Foundation − international NGO dedicated to ending the illegal wildlife trade, conserving natural habitats and protecting human rights
• Wildlife Alliance − international NGO addressing wildlife trafficking and other crimes against nature
• Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)
• EIA in the USA
• The Species Survival Network − international coalition of over 80 NGOs committed to the promotion, enhancement, and strict enforcement of CITES
• Wildlife at Risk − combating the illegal wildlife trade in Vietnam
• Saving Vietnam's Wildlife