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5 Conclusion
The illegal wildlife trade is worth at least $10 billion per year. These funds finance further illegal activity including linked transnational crimes, insurgency and political destabilization. This economic loss is exacerbated for countries in which endangered species cannot be easily protected, where the activities of armed non-state actors in poaching and transnational crime hinder development, investment and tourism. If the current rates of poaching continue, the populations of African elephants and rhinos in southern Africa will once again be pushed to the brink of extinction.
The economic gains of perpetrators of the illegal wildlife trade could, if recovered, be used by governments to counter its global impacts, which include the erosion of state authority in countries supplying elephant ivory, rhino horn and tiger parts; the proliferation of civil conflict in these states; and national security threats across consumer, demand and transit countries involved in the trade. The activities of transnational organized crime syndicates which connect the trade, linking poachers in Central and East Africa to traders and sellers in East Asia, Europe and the United States, pose a threat to the stability of all states in a globalized world.
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The isolation of habitats and sanctuaries which are home to vulnerable species is sought out by armed non-state actors trying to avoid the reach of state influence during civil conflict in wildlifeproduct source countries. These states have found the fight against increasingly sophisticated methods of poaching too costly to bear alone. Poaching is driven by a demand for wildlife products that has risen dramatically in the last few years. Ineffective legislation is unable to prevent the flow of wildlife products from source countries to traders in consumer regions.
More evidence-based research is required into the true role played by armed non-state actors participating in the illegal wildlife trade. In order to formulate effective policy responses to counter the illegal wildlife trade, the international community needs to understand why these actors have become entrenched in the wildlife trade, and what may happen if they are denied access to these resources.
International collaboration on this issue must take place. Despite the signing of multilateral agreements such as CITES, renewed commitment to fight against the illegal wildlife trade is needed to implement and enforce legislation prohibiting the trade, to support wildlife source countries (such as the African elephant range states), to tackle the rising demand for these products and to break down the links to transnational organized crime.
Failure to do so will ensure that transnational organized crime operatives involved in the illegal wildlife trade will continue to cause billions of dollars of economic loss to governments, fuelling civil conflict in already unstable states and funding illegal activity across the world, threatening the stability and security of states involved in all aspects of this trade and beyond.
