Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Michelle Anagnostou, Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biology, University of Oxford
When most people hear terms like poaching, wildlife trafficking or illegal wildlife trade, they probably think of threatened species such as elephants, rhinos, tigers or sharks. Geographically, wildlife crime may feel like a problem confined to southern Africa or southeast and East Asia.
Of course, these species have long been heavily trafficked, and those regions are major hotspots for the trade. However, illegal wildlife trade affects thousands of species of wild plants, animals and fungi, and has been reported in 162 countries, including Canada, which is far from a passive bystander.
Illegal wildlife trade is one of the largest criminal activities in the world and some black markets are growing each year. The immense scale of the problem, coupled with a changing climate and a widening gap between organized crime and countries’ capacities to respond, poses a mounting global concern.
Yet one of the biggest gaps in our understanding has been the nature of organized crime connections to illegal wildlife trade, hardly surprising given how difficult criminal networks are to study.
In recent years, experts have increasingly stated illegal wildlife trade converges with other forms of serious and organized crime, such as drug and human trafficking.
Though reported in the media, empirical evidence has been lacking. Much of what we knew about these convergences came from anecdotal reports and reviews. In response, research by our team in 2021 and 2022 reviewed existing knowledge and theorized how these criminal convergences work, laying the groundwork for new empirical research.
Our latest study documents those connections directly through more than 100 interviews with investigators on the ground in Canada, South Africa and Hong Kong. This study mapped how illegal wildlife trade intersects with other organized criminal activities.
A complex web of criminality
Our findings confirm that wildlife trafficking is rarely isolated. Whether in South Africa’s rhino reserves, Hong Kong’s shipping terminals or Canada’s coastal towns, the same pattern repeats: the people and networks trading in wildlife are often involved in other illicit activities.
Our research shows that illegal wildlife trade converges with drug, sex and human trafficking, child abuse, trade in human body parts, forced and bonded labour, arms trafficking; vehicle theft and trafficking, counterfeit and pirated goods trade, and illegal trade in metals and minerals. The list goes on.
In Canada, interviewees described wildlife being bartered like currency. In several provinces, fish and animal parts, such as sturgeon, have been exchanged directly for illegal drugs. One officer recalled raiding a trafficker’s house and finding grizzly bear and polar bear hides that had been exchanged for high-value narcotics.
Similar stories came from other provinces, where guns are often illegally exchanged for wildlife, or where migrant workers are illegally exploited in illegal wildlife processing facilities. Some cases were small-scale, localized operations, while others linked local poachers to sophisticated international organized crime networks.
Still other cases connected wildlife to the murkier “oddities” trade: human bones, preserved reptiles, bird parts and other macabre collectables. In these circles, even the line between wildlife trafficking and the illegal sale of human remains can blur.
How Canada fits a global pattern
The Canadian examples mirrored experiences reported by law enforcement in other countries. In South Africa, rhino horn trafficking networks have also run child exploitation rings; in Hong Kong, shark fins and endangered turtles are trafficked alongside counterfeit and pirated goods. Across all three jurisdictions, convergence of these crimes follows the same logic: shared infrastructure and the pursuit of profit from illegal sources.
Trafficking illegal commodities requires prearranged transportation, trusted fixers, corrupt officials and money laundering channels. Diversifying into wildlife simply offers another revenue stream with relatively low penalties if caught. As one investigator told us: “If you’re a smuggler, the commodity might change, but you will remain a smuggler.”
Despite these convergences, Canada’s response remains siloed, inadequately prioritized and under-resourced. Wildlife crime cases are generally handled by conservation or environment authorities, while narcotics, arms and human trafficking cases fall to police or border agencies, each constrained within geographically defined jurisdictions.
This siloed system creates blind spots that sophisticated networks exploit. Without mechanisms for joint intelligence-sharing and prosecution, each agency sees only pieces of the puzzle.
Tackling converging crimes
Canada’s experience is part of a much larger global challenge. Delegates from around the world will soon gather in Samarkand, Uzbekistan for the 20th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), where they will discuss strengthening enforcement and co-operation. Countering illegal wildlife trade requires collaborative multi-agency and cross-sectoral approaches, in Canada and beyond.
This requires deepening collaborations and information sharing protocols between partners including environmental, policing, financial, customs and organized crime agencies — and recognition that wildlife trafficking is as much an economic crime and security issue as an environmental one.
Stronger penalties, better co-operation and the use of anti-money laundering approaches could significantly improve efforts. Public awareness is also key: illegal wildlife purchases, increasingly via online and social media platforms, represent not only environmental harm, but also link consumers to a criminal economy most would likely want nothing to with.
Unfortunately, the illegal wildlife trade is still one of the most lucrative of all illegal trades. The World Bank estimates that illegal logging, fishing and wildlife trade result in economic losses amounting to trillions of dollars annually. The immense profits are siphoned off by organized crime networks and corrupt officials, instead of supporting conservation and sustainable development.
Moreover, when wildlife trafficking intersects with drug and arms trade, it reinforces the same criminal networks that destabilize communities, laundering dirty money, spreading corruption, eroding governance and weakening the rule of law.
Ultimately, by treating wildlife trafficking as a complex form of organized crime, Canada can help dismantle the networks that profit from exploiting both people and the planet.
Michelle Anagnostou receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She also consults for World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the National Cargo Bureau on counter-wildlife trafficking projects.
Peter Stoett receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Ashwell Glasson and Brent Doberstein do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
– ref. New study reveals how illegal wildlife trade intersects with organized crime in Canada – https://theconversation.com/new-study-reveals-how-illegal-wildlife-trade-intersects-with-organized-crime-in-canada-266753
