Illegal trade that’s wiping wildlife off the map

East Asian market has seemingly insatiable appetite

August 2011: Immense and increasingly sophisticated illegal trade in wildlife parts, coupled with antiquated enforcement methods, are decimating the world's most beloved species including rhinos, tigers, and elephants on a scale never before seen, according to Wildlife Conservation Society conservationist Elizabeth Bennett

Ms Bennett says that much of the trade is driven by wealthy East Asian markets that have a seemingly insatiable appetite for wildlife parts.


'We are rapidly losing big, spectacular animals'
According to her report, organised crime syndicates using sophisticated smuggling operations have penetrated even previously secure wildlife populations. Some of the elaborate methods include: hidden compartments in shipping containers; rapidly changing of smuggling routes; and the use of e-commerce whose locations are difficult to detect.

‘We are failing to conserve some of the world's most beloved and charismatic species,' said Ms Bennett, who began her career in conservation more than 25 years ago in Asia. ‘We are rapidly losing big, spectacular animals to an entirely new type of trade driven by criminalised syndicates. It is deeply alarming, and the world is not yet taking it seriously. When these criminal networks wipe out wildlife, conservation loses, and local people lose the wildlife on which their livelihoods often depend.'

For example, South Africa lost almost 230 rhinoceroses to poaching from January to October last year, and fewer than 3,500 tigers roam in the wild, occupying less than seven per cent of their historic range.

'We have taken our eye off the ball'
Bennett says an immediate short-term solution to stave off local extinction of wildlife is through enforcement of wildlife laws, and to bring to bear a variety of resources to supersede those of the criminal organisations involved.

‘We have taken our eye off the ball,' said Bennett. ‘Enforcement is critical: old fashioned in concept but needing increasingly advanced methods to challenge the ever-more sophisticated methods of smuggling. When enforcement is thorough, and with sufficient resources and personnel, it works.'

On a larger scale, Bennett says that law enforcement agencies need to look at wildlife smuggling as a serious crime and its enforcement as part of their job. Encouragingly, Bennett points to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Asia, which has recently listed wildlife crime as one of their core focuses, and the potentially powerful International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime was signed into effect.

‘Unless we start taking wildlife crime seriously and allocating the commitment of resources appropriate to tackling sophisticated, well-funded, globally-linked criminal operations, populations of some of the most beloved but economically prized, charismatic species will continue to wink out across their range, and, appallingly, altogether,' she warned.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/wildlife-smuggling2011.html