How wildlife trafficking drives ecological disasters, sexual exploitation and organised crime
A deep dive from Wild Crime, a newsletter about wildlife trafficking and environmental crimes
Welcome to the first deep dive from Wild Crime, which will provide greater insight into the topics we cover. It could be anything from a look at the drivers of wildlife trafficking, to a reconstruction of a raid on illegal fishermen. This week I wanted to explain why I chose to start Wild Crime.
Wildlife trafficking drives environmental destruction. Species can be pushed to levels of critical endangerment, habitats are ruined. In our oceans, illegal fishing threatens marine life and strains resources. Illegal logging and mining is already destroying our rainforests. But this activity also dovetails with other types of criminality. Drug traffickers – who already have well-established smuggling routes – frequently engage in the trade in illicit wildlife as a sideline. It’s even been linked to terrorism.
And some people are getting rich. Very rich. Estimates of the value of the wildlife trafficking trade run as high as $23bn a year.
Environmental destruction
The most obvious impact of wildlife trafficking and environmental crime is the destruction of species, habitats and vital ecosystems.
In the animated film Rio, Jesse Eisenberg lends his voice to a blue, flightless parrot which falls victim to traffickers. Rio, Eisenberg’s eponymous character, is a Spix’s macaw. As suggested by the colloquial name “little blue macaw”, it is a species of small blue parrot.
Once endemic in Brazil, it was effectively trafficked out of existence in the wild by the turn of the millennium. No sightings were recorded between 2000 and 2016, and it was officially designated extinct in the wild in 2019. There were estimated to be just a few dozen birds alive, living in collectors’ cages around the world.
Thankfully, conservation efforts have turned its fortunes around and there are now known to be a few hundred birds, which were bred in captivity and successfully released back into the wild. Despite this success, the illicit trade in Brazilian songbirds remains strong.
Illegal mining and logging are key drivers of environmental destruction across the world, from southeast Asia to the Amazon rainforest. The government of Peru frustrated conservationists last year by passing a law essentially legalising informal mining – often the preserve of violent, illegal miners on the hunt for gold. The growth of illicit gold mines in the Amazon has been called an “ecological disaster”.
Animal welfare
Traffickers don’t treat animals well. On a visit to a veterinary centre in Brazil last year I saw pictures of baby birds kept in appalling conditions – tiny cardboard boxes, unclean and unkempt.
Bear farms across Asia keep bears in tiny cages to extract bile – an important ingredient in some Chinese medicines. Big cats are kept in dirty cages without the room to run around before being sold to wealthy collectors.
And ultimately many animals are killed. Some animals are more valuable to traffickers for their parts, which can be sold to collectors or those developing medicinal products in China and elsewhere.
Organised crime and global security
It is all-too-easy to view wildlife trafficking and environmental crime as isolated. But they often go hand in hand with more serious crimes.
Illegal mining in the Amazon is linked to human trafficking as young women are coerced into becoming sex workers by criminal gangs. The Italian mafia was notorious for its illegal dumping of waste, which has led to serious health consequences for many.
Drug cartels often develop a “side hustle” as wildlife smugglers. After all, if you’ve already gone to all the trouble of developing a sophisticated network to get illicit products across international borders, why would you stop at drugs?
Gangs can make huge profits from trafficking wildlife and plants. And wherever there are huge profits to be made, cartels and organised criminals will flock. Trafficking can be a good way to launder money made from even more illicit sources. It has even been linked to the financing of terrorism.
Trafficking wildlife also comes with comparatively light sentences when compared to drugs or terrorism. Smugglers often get away with little more than a confiscation and slap on the wrist, lowering the stakes for criminals used to much worse.
Hopefully this has piqued your interest for more deep dives into the world of wildlife trafficking and environmental crime. This is meant as an introductory post to explain the concept of this newsletter, but I’ll be getting more specific (and more wild) in the future.
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I’ve made this post free to everyone, but in the future the majority of deep dives and interviews will only be available to paid subscribers.