The Problems of Earth: Illegal wildlife trade

Illegal wildlife trade –or animal trafficking– is the transport of animals from one place to another for purposes of commercial enterprise. 

Illegally trafficked leopard and tiger heads at a warehouse in Denver, USA (National Geographic, 2016)

Animal trafficking relies on the killing of hundreds of thousands of animals and is a multi-billion-dollar criminal industry –ranking around 23 billion USD worldwide. It is one of the world’s most pressing conservation challenges, affecting hundreds of millions of people and thousands of wildlife species. The illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade is one of the highest valued illicit trade sectors in the world. Yet work within this field is uncoordinated.

Some animals that are frequently traded include fishes –including sharks and rays–, insects and arachnids, turtles and snakes, crocodilians, tigers and other big cats, monkeys, pangolins –the world’s most trafficked mammal and perilously close to extinction–, rhinos, elephants, and more. Birds are among the most trafficked animals, from harpy eagles to finches and hummingbirds. Some animals are difficult to catch, especially without hurting them.  

Patagonian Conures trapped in Argentina, packed in cramped cages prior to export (parrots.org, 2021)

Certain continents are more prone to animal trafficking than others: South and Latin America, the Caribbean, and Southeastern Asia, for instance, are extremely biodiverse, which means that they host more types of wildlife than other places on the planet. From their origin, animals are trafficked in much the same way that guns and drugs: they are hidden in toilet paper tubes, clothing, nested boxes, etc. These highly unnatural environments cause undue stress, frequent mortality, and outbreaks of infectious diseases. Many times, the animals die before they reach their destinations. They are often sedated with alcohol or drugs, which can result in respiratory or cardiac issues. Larger animals such as tigers or animal by-products –rhino horns or elephant tusks– find their way across the ocean via ships. 

Parrots packed in bottles (The petition site, 2021)

However, it is important to note that animal trafficking only happens because there’s a market for it. If people didn’t purchase these animals, nobody would bother smuggling them. One of the primary reasons behind animal trafficking lies in people’s desires for exotic pets. 

Just like drugs and arms, animals have intrinsic value to people who want them. That makes the trade extremely lucrative for those who lack the moral to seek other lines of work. When people buy illegal animals or their by-products, they are forced to pay a premium because the seller took uncountable risks to deliver the “product”. Sometimes, traders are not evil people but marginalized population that do not have livelihood opportunities and become easily targeted by the criminal industry. 

Some animals are trafficked as pieces and parts: skulls, blood, meat, etc. Animal traffickers harvest various parts of the animals to use as accessories, jewelry or furniture. These animals give up their live –and their important role on nature– so consumers can decorate themselves and their homes as status symbols. 

Elephant tusks and pangolin scales at Hong Kong Customs after being seized in transit from Nigeria to Vietnam (Myanmar Times, 2019)

Many animal parts are seen as vehicles for healing, so they are trafficked for medicinal purposes. The so-called exotic dishes require ingredients such as sharks’ fins –you have this issue explained in the post “overfishing*”– but the shark fin itself does not provide any real flavor or substance to the soup, which is typically made with chicken broth. Bushmeat –meat obtained in the wild– has become a delicacy. Animal fighting, where animals fight each other to death, is another cause of animal trafficking, this does not just apply to exotic animals, puppies or chickens are raised as fighters. If fur farming is controversial, wild fur harvesting industry is a barbaric tradition that kills animals to remove their furs on the field, leaving the corpse behind. Wild fur harvesting advertise itself online with words as “Fur Harvesters Auction Inc. (FHA), located in North Bay, Ontario CANADA is the source of the finest Wild Fur for the international fur fashion industry. FHA has gained international recognition and respect for its stellar assortment of unique and luxurious products.”

* https://azoresexperiences.blogspot.com/2020/11/overfishing.html

Lynx pelts, Canada. (Aljazeera America, 2015)

The main effect is the loss of biodiversity. Animal trade has been the reason for many species to extinguish. The animals are plucked from their natural habitats, they do not understand what it means to be caged, they often hurt themselves trying to scape or fall into severe mental issues, and many of them get beaten and abused by their handlers. Animals can hurt us trying to defend themselves, they carry diseases and parasites that might infect human beings or spread them to other animals, causing serious epidemics. Furthermore, countless of them fail to thrive after they find homes overseas and die. People who buy those animals often fail to look into the future and, unable to control their exotic pets, the owners either kill them or unleash them into the wild. In occasions, animals are sold to circus, touristic entertainment or hotels.

2 rescued “dancing bears” in Nepal. The bears had their teeth removed and then a hot rod pierced their nose so a chain would run through. (Christopher J. Gervais, 2018)

When the product that the traffickers seek is not the animal alive but a valuable body part, animals are poached and destroyed in the field. These animals suffer unnecessarily and lose their lives just because the consumer believes that he or she is entitled to that animal’s body or life.

Illegal trade is the greatest immediate threat to the conservation and survival for many of the targeted species. A famous example is the case of the tigers: with fewer than 4,000 wild individuals, demand of tigers and their body parts is pushing these animals closer to extinction, and while wild tigers are found in just 13 Asian countries, the illegal wildlife trade of parts and products from captive tigers comes from all corners of the globe. Some numbers that you may not believe is that there were a total of 111 direct exports of tigers from the European Union (EU) between 2013 and 2017, 103 of which were live tigers and a total of 165 EU tiger re-exports, 84 of which were live tigers. There are at minimum 850 tigers across the EU –taking into account the United Kingdom (UK)– and around 5,000 captive tigers in the United States (US).  

Big cats in a circus (Christopher J. Gervais, 2018)

Besides animals, plants suffer from illegal trade too: there are 29,000 orchid species listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Yet South China is a known black spot for trade in wild-collected ornamental orchids. 

The accelerating decline in wildlife populations will have long-term negative impacts on local communities as it robs communities of their natural capital and livelihoods –70 billion USD per year are lost due to crimes affecting natural resources– deepens poverty and inequality, and threatens national security by causing instability and fueling conflicts. 

Confiscated tortoises in UK (New scientist, 2019)

What is done and what to do?

Some organizations are calling for action. A good example is TRAFFIC, an organization that was established in 1976 by WWF and IUCN as a wildlife trade monitoring network. For over 40 years, it has been leader in wildlife trade research to make sure that illegal wildlife trade is identified, prevented, and prosecuted at every opportunity. 

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is also taking action to this crisis by seeking to reduce both supply and demand for wildlife trade. The GEF founded the Global Wildlife Program (GWP) which is a global partnership on wildlife conservation and crime prevention for sustainable development. Launched in 2015 to combat poaching, trafficking, and demand for wildlife and wildlife products illegally traded across Asia and Africa. The GWP carries out activities in 13 countries in Africa, 6  in Asia, and 3 in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Endangered pygmy lorises in a cage at a market in Hanoi, Vietnam (WCS.org, 2015)

The best way to fight animal smuggling is to make sure that you are not buying anything that contains animal by-products. If you know that someone is keeping an illegal exotic animal, notify the authorities so they can investigate the case. Spread the word: buying wildlife or wildlife by-products is not cool. Advocate for laws that help restrict what animals and their by-products can be shipped. 

International cooperation is needed for stopping the buying and the trafficking. International policy pressure affects the trafficking by reducing the motivation for criminal involvement in illegal trade. 

Conservation strategy to end illegal animals trade (Traffic, 2021)

It is important to change people’s relationships with wildlife onto a new path towards a new and more sustainable future. We need to understand that the wild is not ours to take, but an incredible and complex system that we need healthy and thriving. Wild animals are not clowns to entertain us, they are not cute stuffed animals for us to pet. They are individuals with instincts and a place to be, which is not our house, not even a zoo. Of course we all want to see a lion, a zebra, a giraffe, a dolphin, a polar bear, a penguin… But there is a reason why animals are indigenous to some parts of the world and not others. Their biological makeup endears them to certain weather conditions, plant life, animal life and other details such as vast extensions to wander around and stimulate their brains and skills. 

Each wild animal has a role to play in its natural habitat. Each wild animal removed from that habitat has a cost for that ecosystem’s health. Each cost for an ecosystem’s health has a cost for our society. 

A mixed pod of wild Striped and Common dolphins in the Azores (Maria Serra, 2020)

“This is our planet, run by humankind for humankind. There is little left for the rest of the living world.” –David Attenborough. 

Maria Serra

SOURCES

Fur harvesters auction inc. http://www.furharvesters.com

Global Environment Facility (2021) Illegal Wildlife Trade. GEF: investing in our planet. https://www.thegef.org/topics/illegal-wildlife-trade

Leigh, H. (2020) How the US and Europe help fuel the illegal tiger trade. WWF. https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/how-the-us-and-europe-help-fuel-the-illegal-tiger-trade 

Lingel, G. (2018) Animal Trafficking: The Wildlife Trade You Don’t Want to Believe Exists. Sentient Media. https://sentientmedia.org/animal-trafficking/ 

Oxford Martin Programme on the Illegal Wildlife Trade https://www.illegalwildlifetrade.net

Sas-Rolfes, M. et al. (2019) Illegal Wildlife Trade: Scale, Processes, and Governance. Annual Review of Environment and Resources (44) pg .201-228 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-environ-101718-033253 

Traffic. https://www.traffic.org