Global Overview of Wildlife Crime - UNODC Report

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Toko
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Global Overview of Wildlife Crime - UNODC Report

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New UNODC report provides global overview of wildlife crime
Cambridge, UK, 26th May 2016—the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime this week published its inaugural World Wildlife Crime Report, the first global assessment of its kind. The study highlights how the poaching and illegal trade of thousands of species worldwide presents real environmental dangers and ultimately undermines the rule of law by potentially fuelling conflict.

TRAFFIC contributed information towards the study, in particular on the reptile skin trade, while partner organizations in the project included those under the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC), such as the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the World Customs Organization (WCO).

The report—part of UNODC's ongoing Global Programme on Wildlife and Forest Crime—looks at eight case studies of species products sorted by seven industrial sectors that make use of wild sourced materials across the world. Information has been extracted from 164,000 seizures contained in a database of wildlife crime cases in 120 countries. They cover almost 7,000 different species, with no country the source for more than 15% of any seized shipments.

According to UNODC Executive Director, Yury Fedotov, who launched the report: “The desperate plight of iconic species at the hands of poachers has deservedly captured the world’s attention, and none too soon.

“One of the critical messages to emerge from this research is that wildlife and forest crime is not limited to certain countries or regions. It is not a trade involving exotic goods from foreign lands being shipped to faraway markets.”

The report also offers an analysis of legal and illegal markets for wildlife and forest products, to assist in addressing vulnerabilities in the legal trade and promote better global regulatory systems. It highlights too how gaps in legislation, law enforcement and criminal justice systems present serious issues.

“This UNODC study provides important insight into the pervasive criminality that undermines international efforts to ensure that wildlife and forest trade is legal and sustainable,” said Steven Broad, TRAFFIC’s Executive Director and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for the report.

“UNODC’s analysis of this challenge adds important weight to the case for urgent and effective action by governments and businesses to tackle this critical threat to biodiversity, security and livelihoods of people around the world.”


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Re: Global Overview of Wildlife Crime - UNODC Report

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Re: Global Overview of Wildlife Crime - UNODC Report

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Case studies show that when illegally traded wildlife is introduced into legal commercial streams, criminals have access to a much larger source of demand than they would have had on the black market alone.
That's the killer argument against legalisation of trade in endangered species.


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Re: Global Overview of Wildlife Crime - UNODC Report

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Similar to other sensitive products such as firearms, pharmaceuticals, or antiquities, protected species can be legally traded internationally if accompanied by the appropriate paperwork; permits for around 900,000 legal shipments of protected wildlife products are issued annually, and case studies show that permits acquired through forgery, fraud or corruption have been used to traffic wildlife.


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Re: Global Overview of Wildlife Crime - UNODC Report

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Cases reviewed for this report indicate that informal harvesting practices can allow internationally protected wildlife to be illegally introduced into commercial streams before being legally exported.


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Re: Global Overview of Wildlife Crime - UNODC Report

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Case studies suggest that some wildlife farms, captive breeding operations, or even zoos may play a role in laundering illegally acquired wildlife.


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Re: Global Overview of Wildlife Crime - UNODC Report

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CITES requires parties to “penalise” violations of the agreement, but it does not require these violations to be deemed a crime.
In some countries, CITES violations can only be punished with a fine, while in others, offenders can be sentenced to more than four years in prison. There is considerable variety in CITES implementation laws, and some are ambiguous on the point of penalties, but of the 131 parties for which data were available (72% of all parties), 74% did not deem violations a serious crime, as per the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime


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Re: Global Overview of Wildlife Crime - UNODC Report

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Quite some numbers :shock: But no real advice to how the trade can be stopped O/ O/

:ty: Toko! Very shocking O-/


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Re: Global Overview of Wildlife Crime - UNODC Report

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Ivory trafficing might have to do much more with speculaion than with actual demand!
Evidence that raw ivory has become the object of speculation comes from several sources. Most broadly, it is difficult to reconcile what is known about supply with what is known about demand. No charted ivory retail market, licit or illicit, can explain the scale of poaching and trafficking that has taken place in recent years. This suggests there may be some additional reason, other than immediate use, to acquire ivory, and, as discussed below, speculation remains one possibility.
But the large and continuous flow of raw ivory, teamed with rapid price changes and touted investment value, suggest that speculation might indeed be occurring. More research would be required to test this possibility, which has important implications for policy. If ivory has become an investment commodity, this dramatically changes the rules by which the market operates. Speculation limits the prospects for generalised demand reduction, because the value of the commodity is effectively de-linked from end use demand. Unlike cocaine or heroin, there is an absolute limit on the amount of ivory that can be produced, so there is a danger of a vicious cycle ensuing, where each elephant poached increases scarcity, and thus the incentives for poaching another. Paradoxically, interdiction and destruction of ivory stocks would also serve to limit supply, further enriching those invested in ivory. For these reasons, the illicit markets for investment-grade wildlife products will require a specialised approach.
0: 0: 0:


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Re: Global Overview of Wildlife Crime - UNODC Report

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This is a terrible perspective O-/ :evil: :evil:


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