In 2019, the illegal wildlife trade reached staggering levels. Pangolin scales and ivory were being trafficked in massive quantities from Africa to Asia, exposing a network of crime syndicates operating at an industrial scale. The sheer volume of these shipments marked a disturbing milestone, one that revealed the global reach …
TRAFFIC is working in partnership with IUCN through the USAID Wildlife TRAPS Project to explore how social and behavioural change could play a part in motivating people towards choosing safer and more sustainable patterns of wildlife trade and product consumption. The first step in this work has been to prepare …
Weaknesses and loopholes in maritime supply chains are often exploited by traffickers to smuggle illegal wildlife and timber products to feed growing demand, predominantly in Asian markets. Together, TRAFFIC and WWF are supporting the shipping sector to detect illegalities passing through global waters. Legal wildlife trade is a complex business, …
As Hong Kong moves towards the final step of a landmark ivory ban, TRAFFIC has released a report that acknowledges progress, but urges tighter regulation on privately owned ivory stocks, antique ivory and licensing to prevent these products from entering illicit markets. According to TRAFFIC’s ‘Ebbing Away’ report released ahead …
Given the emergence of the global health crisis in 2020 and the economic fallout thereafter, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and its partners, discussed the need to initiate discourse on mainstreaming nature into the economic recovery process in India. These discussions led to the initiation of a webinar series under …
New research reveals how traffickers are robbing the world’s most wildlife-rich region of its natural wealth. Mexico, Brazil and Colombia see the highest number of wildlife trafficking instances in aviation according to the data, often to supply countries less commonly associated with illegal wildlife trade, including the Netherlands, Germany and …
Chinese banks must take action to prevent illegal wildlife traffickers from exploiting their networks to launder money says TRAFFIC. The non-governmental organisation, which works globally on trade in wild animals and plants in the context of both biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, is today releasing resources that indicate how Chinese …
An assessment of the routes, networks and methods used for trafficking wildlife and other illicit goods such as drugs and weapons between 2015-2019 has evidenced a high degree of interconnection, which could prove fundamental to disrupting illicit activities. The findings are detailed in the newly published brief, Shared Skies, produced …
The Case Digest- An Initial Analysis of the Financial Flows and Payment Mechanisms Behind Wildlife and Forest Crime, provides a thorough examination of the financial data from more than 40 wildlife crime cases from across the globe, including 11 detailed case studies. The report is a product of years of …
Wanting to provide for a family or the lack of financial security are cited as key motivators for people caught illegally trading wildlife in Namibia, according to a new report released by TRAFFIC. Trading Years for Wildlife lifts the lid on why 45 offenders who are incarcerated in six different …
In a promising new report, Teetering on the Brink: Japan’s online ivory trade, TRAFFIC finds that trade in ivory has dropped by as much as 100% this year on Japan’s largest online ivory trading platform, Yahoo Japan. It’s a highly welcome development considering the dangerous state of the nation’s ivory …
The new study, Insights from the Incarcerated: An assessment of the illicit supply chain in wildlife in South Africa, builds on earlier interviews with the same offenders to understand their motivations in engaging in wildlife crime. Almost three-quarters of the offenders had been imprisoned for rhino-related crimes, the remainder for …
Weak legislation and limited checks on private captive tiger facilities across the EU and the UK provide significant opportunity for tiger parts, such as skins and bones, to enter illegal trade, according to a joint report from WWF and TRAFFIC, Falling Through the System: The role of the European Union …
Future pandemics will emerge more often, spread more rapidly, do more damage to the world economy and kill more people than COVID-19 unless there is a transformative change in the global approach to dealing with infectious diseases, warns this major new report on biodiversity and pandemics by 22 leading experts …
The extent to which the Chinese Government supports the continued use of pangolins, the world’s most trafficked mammal, is revealed in a new EIA report.Four months ago, Chinese State media reported that pangolin scales had been removed from traditional medicines – but research has found it is still business as …
Illegal trafficking and unsustainable trade in wildlife are causing unprecedented declines in some species. They can also potentially lead to the spread of zoonoses, such as SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. While the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora has been in force since 1975, …
A summary of the findings from the interviews is published today in The People Beyond the Poaching: Interviews with convicted offenders in South Africa. Almost three-quarters of offenders had been imprisoned for rhino-related crimes, the remainder for abalone- and cycad-related offences. More than half of the offenders said they participated …
Ahead of World Elephant Day, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Secretariat, TRAFFIC and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) publish the Identification Guide for Ivory and Ivory Substitutes, a comprehensive and accessible resource for identifying the most commonly found ivories and artificial substitutes …
The endemic Philippine Pangolin Manis culionensis, known locally as balintong, occurs in the Palawan faunal region and has the most restricted range among the eight pangolin species, with a decreasing population trend. The species has been considered protected and prohibited from any form of hunting, possession or trade in the …
Millions of native animals and large volumes of wildlife products are trafficked domestically and internationally in and from Brazil each year, but a lack of good quality data, data sharing, and enforcement co-ordination between states and federal authorities conceal the true extent of the illicit trade finds a new TRAFFIC …
The World Wildlife Crime Report 2020 outlines how trafficking in some wild species, which are then butchered and sold illegally, can increase the transmission of diseases that spread from animals to humans. Zoonotic diseases represent up to 75 per cent of all emerging infectious diseases and include the new coronavirus …
