E4J_Wildlife_-_Slides_-_Module_1_-_FINAL.ppsx

MODULE 1:
Illicit Markets for Wildlife Products

Introduction
E4J University Module Series
Wildlife, Forest and Fisheries Crime
Module 1: Illicit Markets
Learning Outcomes Key Issues/Content
• Recognize causes and implications of wildlife
trafficking;
• Identify animal and plant species, regions and
countries most affected by wildlife trafficking;
• Understand activities and circumstances that
define wildlife trafficking and that delineate
illegal from legal activities;
• Identify characteristics of wildlife trafficking and
the patterns and operation of illicit markets for
wildlife and wildlife products and derivatives;
• Understand available data and the gaps in
open-source statistics;
• Identify, locate, and critically engage with
relevant material relating to the criminology of
wildlife trafficking.
Demand and consumption
Supply and demand
Implications of wildlife trafficking
Wildlife trafficking and parallel legal markets
Perpetrators and their networks
Poaching
Trafficking
Data

EXERCISE + DISCUSSION
Scenario 1
You are booked on a trip to Tanzania to visit Seregenti National Park
and climb Mount Kilimanjaro. One week before you leave, the
mother of your fiancé (your future mother-in-law) asks you to bring
back an ornament made from ivory in the shape of an elephant for
her. She is a collector of curios from all over the world and your
fiancé confirms that bringing back the ivory ornament would make his
mother very happy and would also improve your relationship with her.
Ivory ornaments are not sold openly in markets in Tanzania but can
easily be obtained for purchase when asking guides or souvenir shop
owners.
Would you buy and bring back the elephant ornament made from
ivory? Why? Why not?
What defines the illicit wildlife market – and how it affects you!

Scenario 2
Your 90-year-old Austrian grandmother dies and you inherit a
fashionable fur coat from her. The coat is made from ocelot,
leopardis pardalis, which was listed in CITES Appendix I in 1990.
Your grandmother purchased the coat from a local shop in 1993.
The circumstances of the sale and the knowledge, if any, of the
CITES-listing by the seller or the grandmother can no longer be
established. The current value of the ocelot fur coat is EUR 3,000.
Would you wear the coat, sell it, or trash it?

Scenario 3
A friend from China has invited you to his wedding, which is celebrated in
grand style in your friend’s hometown. The formal wedding dinner, at which a
traditional Cantonese dinner is served, is one of the highlights. The menu
cards placed on each table set out each of the ten courses. The third course
is listed in the English menu as ‘fish soup’. Your Chinese friend, however,
points out to you that the Chinese menu lists this course as shark fin soup, an
expensive, highly valued Chinese delicacy, that is traditionally served at many
Chinese weddings.
What do you do? Do you leave out the soup course? Protest loudly? Boycott
the dinner? Eat the soup politely to please the hosts?

Scenario 3
One of your friends is about to celebrate a major birthday and you want to buy him
a gift to remember you by. Your friend is a passionate chess player, so you trawl
the internet and look at several websites selling second hand goods where you
hope to find an antique chess board for your friend. During your search on a
public, commonly used site to buy and sell pre-owned goods, you come across a
post selling an elegantly carved chess board along with a note saying ‘made from
African ivory, brand new, recently purchased’. The private seller further states that
the item needs to be sold and for a low price as the seller is relocating.
What do you do? Do you alert the relevant authorities? Report the seller to the
company that operates the website? Contact the seller to alert him/her that selling
ivory is illegal? Buy the chessboard? Ignore the post and keep looking?
Looking at the answers given to these scenarios: what determines your
decision? By what criteria would you proceed one way or another? In your
opinion, what is the lawful, ethical thing to do, and why?

TERMINOLOGY
Wildlife
• Wild animals collectively, as opposed to, for instance, domestic animals, pets,
farm animals, and animals in captivity; or
• Any wild plant or animal, whether it is indigenous or exotic, and any derivative
thereof.
Trafficking
Illegal acts by a person, whether for the benefit of themselves or another person,
for purposes of importing, exporting, re-exporting, introducing from the sea,
dispatching, dispatching in transit, distributing, brokering, offering, keeping for
offer, dealing, processing, purchasing, selling, supplying, storing or transporting.
Wildlife
Trafficking
Illegal trade, smuggling, poaching, capture, or collection of endangered species,
protected wildlife (including animals or plants that are subject to harvest quotas
and regulated by permits), derivatives, or products thereof.
Wildlife and
forest crime
Taking, trading (supplying, selling or trafficking), importing, exporting, processing,
possessing, obtaining and consumption of wild fauna and flora, including timber
and other forest products, in contravention of national or international law.

DEMAND + CONSUMPTION
Medicinal use and healthcare
• Many medicines are based on animal parts, plants, or compounds extracted from them.
• Use ranges from herbal remedies to ingredients of industrial pharmaceuticals.
• Wild animal and plant species are components of traditional medicines, upon which approx.
80% of the world population rely for primary healthcare.
Food
• Use of wild-sourced animals and plants ranges from elements of staple diets to tonic and
novelty foods.
• Some people depend on wild meat for their protein supply because affordable alternatives are
not available.
Cosmetics and fragrance
• Some exotic animal products like musk and ambergris have largely been replaced with
synthetic alternatives.
• Demand for wild-sourced plant inputs for the cosmetics and perfume industries remains strong.
• Illegal wild sourcing remains a risk where cultivation is not a cost-effective alternative.

Curios and collections
• Wildlife and plant products used for decoration and ornamental purposes
• Skins used as rugs
• Tourist souvenirs; prestigious gifts
• Jewellery
Fashion and accessories
• Skins, furs, feathers and fibres from many mammal, reptile, bird and fish species
traded to make clothing, boots and shoes, bags, and other items
• Luxury market
• Traditional clothing
• Fashion
Furniture and construction
• Furniture making often involves timber from endangered species, but also rattan
and bamboo, products such as oils, gums, dyes, resins, latex
• Especially tropical hardwood from Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America

Pets and zoos
• Trade in living animals for collections
• Especially reptiles, birds, and ornamental fish, but also includes invertebrate
species such as scorpions and spiders
• Tropical fish for aquaria and freshwater turtles and tortoises for terraria
Ornamental plants and gardens
• Garden and indoor plans
• Rare species sought by collectors
• Ferns, palms, cacti
Sports
Religion and cultural tradition; belief use
Science and medical testing

DATA AND GUESSTIMATES
reference estimated
value or
range
year of
estimate
source
Wildlife trafficking USD 6
billion/year
1993 Warchol, The International Illegal Wildlife Trade
citing Interpol and Speart 1993
Global commercial exchange
of wildlife possibly in CITES
contravention
USD 5
billion/year
2002 Brack & Hayman, International Environmental
Crime: The Nature and Control of Environmental
Black Markets (2002)
Illegal wildlife and plant trade USD 5
billion/year
2002 Anderson, ‘Investigation, Prosecution, and
Sentencing of International Wildlife Trafficking
Offenses in the U.S. Federal System’ (1997)
Illegal wildlife trade, excl.
fisheries and timer
USD 9–20
billion/year
2004 Brack, The growth and control of international
environmental crime (2004)
Illegal trade in wildlife USD 5–20
billion/year
2008 Wyler & Sheikh, International illegal trade in
wildlife: threats and US policy, 2008
Illegal wildlife trade USD 7-23
billion
2016 Nellerman at al, The Rise of Environmental
Crime (2016)
Stolen animals [US]D 10
billion/year
2009 Bergman, ‘Wildlife Trafficking’ (2009)
Illegal wildlife trade USD 20
billion/year
2015 Challender et al, ‘Understanding markets to
conserve trade-threatened species in CITES’
(2015)

SEIZURE DATA
UNODC (2016): Share
of type of wildlife
among total seizures,
2005-2014

SEIZURE DATA
EIA (2018): Pangolin
illegal trade seizure since
2000

SUPPLY + DEMAND
Complexity of int’l trade
Figure:
Regional trade gravity for (a) mammals, (b)
birds, and (c) reptiles
Gravity model analyses (legal) trade flows
between regions.
Symes et al, ‘The gravity of wildlife trade’ (2018)

SUPPLY + DEMAND
Elephant illegal trade network
Patel et al, ‘Quantitative methods of identifying the key nodes in the illegal wildlife trade network’ (2015)
Rhino illegal trade network Tiger illegal trade network

IMPLICATIONS OF WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING
 Ecological costs
 Animal cruelty
 Threats to other species
 Depletes resources
 Reduces biodiversity
 Threats and violence
 Governance, conflict
 Biosecurity risks
can diminish species populations and cause extirpation; rarity can fuel demand
cruel methods used to kill, capture, transport, or conceal wildlife
detrimental by-catch of non-target species; introduction of harmful alien species
undermines resource management; economic losses, threatens livelihoods
main cause of diversity loss; threatens ecosystem functions
use by poachers, criminal gangs against each other, officials (but also force used
by officials)
can undermine good governance and rule of law; role of wildlife crime in armed
conflict
threats to humans, native species, and livestock if viruses, bacteria are introduced

EXERCISE
Task Split into three groups, read one of the following cases, and answer
the following questions
Cases
1. Lemthongthai v S (849/2013) [2014]
2. Yip v Director of Border Revenue [2012]
3. USA v Kha at al [2012]
Questions
1. Which species was involved in the case? Is it an
endangered/protected species? Where did it come from?
2. What means, methods, and routes were used to traffic the specimens?
3. Who were the perpetrators?
4. How did the case come to light? What information do you have on the
detection and investigation?
5. What offences were the accused charged with?
6. Provide a brief summary of the court proceedings.
Wildlife Trafficking cases in the courts

TYPOLOGY OF OFFENDERS
Harvesters Intermediaries Consumers
• Subsistence
• Specialist
commercial
• Opportunist
• Local guide
• Rule abuser
• Bycatch
• Recreational
• Reactionary
• Logistician
• Specialist smuggler
• Government
colluder
• Third party
• Processor
• Launderer
• Vendor
• Medicinal
• Ornamental
• Cultural
• Gift
• Investment
• Recreational
• Animal food
• Construction
materials
• Fuel
• Food
Note: categories are not mutually exclusive
Phelps et al (2016): Typology of key actor roles along wildlife trade market chains

Phelps et al (2016): Typology
of common illegal wildlife trade
configurations
CRIMINAL NETWORKS

LOCATIONS AND ACTIVITIES
Concentrations of
Wildlife
Trafficking
• ‘Hot products’
• Spatio-temporal concentrations
• Hot routes and risky facilities
Collecting and
harvesting
• initial step: collection, poaching, or harvesting of the animal or plant, alive or
killed, in order to be further processed into a product or derivative of some sort
• In contrast to other forms of smuggling/trafficking, the main harm caused by
wildlife trafficking occurs when the contraband is sourced
Trafficking
• Concealment
• Fraudulent documents
• Laundering
• Routes
Selling • Market places
• Online trade

THINGS TO REMEMBER
★ Illegal wildlife market, like any
market, is driven by demand and
supply (correlation)
★ Demand and supply are not
merely driven by greed and
ignorance
★ Frequently difficult to separate
trafficking from legal trade
(parallel markets, laundering, …)
★ Livelihoods and jobs may
depend on trade; tradition and
culture may be hard to change
★ Need to differentiate between
species, locations, countries,
commodities, use
★ Illicit wildlife markets are volatile
and highly speculative; many
figures are guesswork
★ Diverse players/roles in wildlife
trafficking
★ Sole operators; networks
★ Caution when making
assumptions about organized
crime and terrorism
▶ Careful with generalizations, exaggerations, bold statements;
▶ Where possible use multiple sources to support findings and arguments

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