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The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Showing posts from category wildlife trafficking.
  • It’s Time for the World to Treat Wildlife Crime as Serious and Organized Crime

    ›
    China Environment Forum  //  Guest Contributor  //  September 2, 2021  //  By Sophie Le Clue

    Customs officers seize ivory tusks, rhino horn and leopard skins, with a street value of around four million Euro, at the Hong Kong Customs and Excise headquarters in Hong Kong, China, 08 August 2013. This large seizure of wildlife products bound from Nigeria was disguised as timber inside two containers. It is the latest in a recent surge of wildlife seizures that underline Hong Kong's role as a pivotal transhipment point for illicit wildlife products bound from Africa to a booming underground market in mainland China. The growing middle class in China is driving the market for carved ivory trinkets made from elephant tusks, as well as rhino horn which is taken as a so-called aphrodisiac or medicinal tonic. The illegal trade is driving many iconic African animal species to extinction, as well as funding armed terrorist groups in the horn of Africa.

    On August 18, 2021, we witnessed a potential game-changer in the fight against international wildlife crime (IWT). One of the world’s leading wildlife trafficking hubs, Hong Kong, voted to change its laws to treat wildlife Crime as “Organized and Serious Crime.” From 2010 to 2020, local authorities valued wildlife seizures in the city at more than HK$1 billion (USD128.5 million), but the scale of the illicit trade passing through Hong Kong has likely been many times larger.

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  • Taking Action to Address Wildlife Crime’s Environmental, Health, and Security Risks

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    From the Wilson Center  //  July 12, 2021  //  By Alice Chang

    Ivory Crush, June 19, 2015 Times Square, NYC

    “This COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us, albeit in a devastating way, of the interconnected nature of things, most particularly between economies, the environment, human and wildlife health and welfare,” said John Scanlon AO, the former Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and Chair of the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime, at a recent Wilson Center event on wildlife crime’s connection to human health and security. Despite its serious implications for a broad swath of issue areas, wildlife crime and trafficking remain under-studied and under-regulated. At the event, experts from diverse fields in defense, global health, and conservation highlighted the need for international cooperation to mitigate wildlife crime’s impact on environmental degradation, the spread of zoonotic disease, and transnational security threats. 

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  • John Scanlon on the Case for Criminalizing Wildlife Trafficking under International Law

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    Friday Podcasts  //  July 9, 2021  //  By Holly Sarkissian

    Thumbnail Scanlon Podcast Image“The world is still feeling the full brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic which most likely had its origins in a wild animal,” says John Scanlon AO, Former Secretary-General of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and Chair of the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime, in this week’s Friday Podcast. Scanlon spoke at a recent Wilson Center event on the connections between wildlife crime, human health, and security.

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  • Michael Standaert, Ensia

    How effective are China’s attempts to reduce the risk of wildlife spreading disease to humans?

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    Covid-19  //  Guest Contributor  //  January 11, 2021  //  By Wilson Center Staff

    China | 2008 01 | Investigation at a Chinese fur farm.

    This article, by Michael Standaert, originally appeared on Ensia.

    Nearly a year ago, somewhere in China, a previously unknown virus made its way from a wild animal into a human host. There it found not only a hospitable home, but also an opportunity to spread trillions of copies of itself, eventually replicating to become the global Covid-19 pandemic.

    That outbreak, now having infected more than 46 million people around the world, has been the impetus for a series of actions taken by the Chinese government to — in theory — get a handle on zoonotic disease outbreaks now and in the future.

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  • Sharon Guynup, Mongabay

    Landed by the thousands: Overfished Congo waters put endangered sharks at risk

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    October 27, 2020  //  By Wilson Center Staff
    2-h

    The original version of this article, by Sharon Guynup, appeared on Mongabay.

    In a video clip, seven fishermen climb into a wooden “Popo” boat that’s beached on the Republic of the Congo’s sandy shoreline. They start up the motor of the 40-foot, limo-length motorized canoe and head out into the Atlantic. The men aboard the weathered craft — its blue paint chipped and faded by years of salt and sun — could be out for a week.

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  • Sharon Guynup, Mongabay

    Brazilian Amazon Drained of Millions of Wild Animals by Criminal Networks

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    August 18, 2020  //  By Wilson Center Staff
    shutterstock_495935098

    The original version of this article, by Sharon Guynup, appeared on Mongabay.

    The Brazilian Amazon is hemorrhaging illegally traded wildlife according to a new report released last month. Each year, thousands of silver-voiced saffron finches and other songbirds, along with rare macaws and parrots, are captured, trafficked and sold as pets. Some are auctioned as future contestants in songbird contests. Others are exported around the globe.

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  • Preventing the Next Pandemic: Zoonotic Diseases and Future Outbreaks

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    Covid-19  //  Reading Radar  //  July 7, 2020  //  By Amanda King

    Report-CoverTo recover from the devastating impacts of COVID-19, we will need to understand the risks and environmental factors that caused the novel coronavirus and other zoonotic diseases to emerge in the first place, according to a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Livestock Research Institute. The report, Preventing the Next Pandemic – Zoonotic Diseases and How to Break the Chain of Transmission, examines the root causes of the COVID-19 pandemic and other zoonotic diseases. It also explores the complex linkages between biological and non-living factors that impact our global ecosystem and spread diseases.

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  • We Must Address Exotic Wildlife Consumption to Avoid the Next Global Pandemic

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    Covid-19  //  Guest Contributor  //  April 20, 2020  //  By Candace Famiglietti & Maria Ivanova

    A suspect in the transmission of Covid-19 to humans, pangolins are the most trafficked animal in the world despite the ban on trade by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). Currently on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), pangolins are armadillo-looking mammals found in Asia and Africa but are more closely related to cats and dogs. Humans hunt them for their scales used in traditional medicine and the fashion industry and for their meat, which is considered a delicacy. Asian pangolins have become critically endangered, and poachers have turned to trafficking African species, most destined for China and Vietnam. According to TRAFFIC, a leading non-governmental organization working on wildlife trade, twenty tons of pangolins are trafficked each year, putting them on the fast track to extinction. 

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