By Cynthia Ratsimbazafy, David J. Newton and Stéphane Ringuet

Madagascar is home to hundreds of endemic rosewood Dalbergia and ebony Diospyros timber species, many of which are in high demand, particularly in Asia, because of their attractive appearance and highly durable properties for carving into furniture and other household items. At least 350,000 trees were illegally felled inside protected areas and at least 150,000 tonnes of logs illegally exported to destinations including China, Malaysia and Mauritius over the five-year period, according to the study: Timber Island: The Rosewood and Ebony Trade of Madagascar. The lack of regulation was compounded by additional factors including widespread poverty, corruption, poor species identification skills at point of harvest and deficient knowledge about timber resources and led to rampant, unregulated felling of precious timber species.

Cambridge, UK: TRAFFIC, 2016. 144p.

By Anatoly Lebedev

The preservation and sustainable use of Siberian and Russian Far East (RFE) forests is of global importance for a number of reasons. Yet, these forests, which are the traditional environments of many endangered species and indigenous tribes, are now supplying timber to nearby regions and countries that have largely destroyed their own forests. The vast forests of Asian Russia act as reservoirs for oneseventh of the global carbon pool. Russia holds 75 percent of the carbon stored by all of the world’s boreal forests, such that deforestation, after fossil fuel combustion, is the second largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in Russia, as it is worldwide. Properly conserved, Russian forests act as a critical green “lung” for the Earth, second to Brazil’s Amazon. The atmospheric carbon sink process, however, occurs much more slowly in taiga than in the tropical rainforest, as does the process of carbon exportation from organic changes. As a result, this source of carbon storage, after broad-scale commercial logging or forest fires, will also be more slowly restored to its initial function than would be tropical forests.. All across Russia, the past five years have witnessed a revival in domestic timber production, following the collapse of the 1990s, and a drive to achieve the level of volumes extracted during the Soviet period. In the RFE's Primorye Krai (Province), for example, roundwood production rose from 2.2 million cubic meters in 1998 to 3.3 million cubic meters in 2002 and to 3.7 million cubic meters in 2003, and seems to be increasing further under the pressure of growing Chinese and domestic demand. The same trend is exhibited in Khabarovski Krai. Its roundwood production grew from 5 million cubic meters in 1999 to approximately 6.5 million cubic meters in 2002. Iin both Krais there is a clear trend to harvest in formerly reserved, inaccessible, or roadless areas. Not only is the industry, then, launching a sort of "last attack" on formerly used, exhausted, and burnt forests, it is also aggressively pursuing the intact ones, which are already suffering from illegal operations. Expansion of logging and processing capacity over the last 3 to 4 years has not demonstrated a new and improved strategy, but, rather, has resulted in the poor condition found in the remaining commercially available forests and in the constant reduction of timber quality and price.

Washington, DC: Forest Trends, 2005. 48p.

By D.Y. Smirnov, (ed.), A.G. Kabanets, E.A. Lepeshkin, and D.V. Sychikov

Illegal logging of valuable temperate hardwoods has reached crisis proportions in the Russian Far East. Comparative analysis conducted by WWF Russia shows that from the period 2004-2011 the volume of Mongolian oak (the most valuable hardwood species) logged for export to China exceeded authorized logging volumes by 2-4 times. Much of this illegal logging takes place in the habitats of the Amur tiger and leads to their degradation. The materials included in this report are pertinent in the context of new legislation in the European Union, United States and other countries aimed at the exclusion of illegally sourced wood products, given that a signifi cant proportion of the illegal timber logged in the Russian Far East enters such markets in the form of Chinese-manufactured furniture and flooring. This report is applicable for use by public forest agencies, forest industry, NGOs, students and academics and all those who are not indifferent to the fate of Russian forests.

Moscow: World Wildlife Fund Russia, 2013. 43p.

By Charles Palmer

This paper considers the scale and underlying causes of recent high rates of deforestation in Indonesia. Its extent during 1997-98 is analysed using a materials balance model, the results of which demonstrate the seriousness of the problem at a time when the Indonesian economy was suffering the effects of the Asian financial crisis. The behaviour of the principal agents, illegal loggers, is discussed in the context of market and government failures and rent-seeking or corruption. A culture of corruption originated at the top of government during the tenure of ex- President Suharto, leading to market and government failures in the forestry sector, thus resulting in the creation of high levels of rent. A culture of corruption ensures that policy failures cannot be reversed and may lead to further intervention to benefit the status quo. Rent-seeking behaviour then spread to all levels of government, via a lack of good example at the top, leading to the creation of illegal logging networks. Since rent from illegal logging is higher than that for legal logging, there is an incentive for agents to ignore costs associated with sustainable forest management. Illegal logging, and hence inefficient resource use, is further encouraged by institutional failures such as weak enforcement and monitoring capacity, as well as policy failures at the international level too. Consequently, Indonesia’s forests have been intensively deforested for perhaps as long as 30 years, with little or no attention given to sustainable forest management.

London: Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment, 2001. 33p.

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By David Cowdrey

Illegal wildlife trade routes are difficult to uncover. By their very nature they are covert, sometimes run by organised criminals, and often used to smuggle other commodities such as drugs and guns. This report attempts to uncover some of these complex trade routes into Europe and the UK, as well as the techniques used to smuggle wildlife. It is based on research commissioned by WWF and TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, and independently conducted by the University of Wolverhampton which uses evidence from HM Customs and Excise, the Police and a number of court cases.

Cambridge, UK: TRAFFIC International, 2002. 15p.

By Debbie Banks and Julian Newman

This report is a call to action to stop the international illegal trade in tiger and other endangered Asian big cat skins. It draws together information from India, Nepal and China, as source, transit and destination countries. It also highlights the urgent need for governments to improve wildlife crime investigation, analysis, enforcement, communication and cooperation. Parties to the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) need to demonstrate greater political commitment and treat wildlife crime more seriously. Key range, transit and destination countries need to establish specialised enforcement units capable of combating the organised criminal networks controlling the trade. Professional enforcement agencies need to be involved in ensuring greater cross-border communication and coordination and the international community, both government and non-government, needs to provide adequate technical and financial assistance in mobilising new enforcement initiatives. There can be no doubt that the skin trade is spiralling out of control. On a remote road in the west of the Tibet Autonomous Region (hereafter referred to as Tibet), in October 2003, customs officers at a temporary checkpoint made a startling discovery that lifted the lid on the true scale of the illegal trade in tiger and leopard skins. In a single consignment officers recovered the skins of 31 tigers, 581 leopards and 778 otters. The skins came from India and were on route to Lhasa, capital of Tibet, a major hub for the trade.

London; New York: Environmental Investigation Agency, 2004. 24p.

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Edited by Kristiina Kangaspunta; Ineke Haen Marshall

The careless or illegal exploitation of the natural environment is by no means a recent development. Long before former US Vice President Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth made the dangers of the nonchalant and predatory use of our planet’s resources painfully real to large audiences, toxic waste was dumped in rivers and oceans, there was clear felling of forests and timber smuggling, and threatened or protected species (both animals and plants) were transported and traded for profit. Some of this took place locally, some of this crossed national borders. Some of this was perfectly legal, and some of this had been declared illegal either by local, national or international statutes. Sometimes the harm done was obvious to even the most casual observer, but very often it was not. Sometimes it was the work of one individual or a small group, but frequently networks or organized crime groups were involved. Occasionally, an individual, community group or NGO voiced their complaint, but more often than not there was a deafening silence. Now the silence has been broken – for reasons we can only speculate about, but which clearly include the ‘greening’ of politics, the emergence of local and global grassroots environmental justice movements, and the growing concern of large corporations with the damaging public relation effects of being viewed as ‘eco-hostile’. A tipping point has been reached where enough voices speak out loud and urgently to place environmental harm as a high priority item on the policy agenda. The publication before you aims to add a strong voice to the debate. The authors hope to contribute to the articulation of a global research agenda on environmental crime; a research agenda based on commitment to the following three principles: (1) Recognition of the value of evidence–based policy-making (over policies based on expediency, political pressures, or purely economic considerations); (2) Willingness to appreciate the importance of theoretical insights drawn from different disciplines to guide policy, and (3) Concern with balancing human and ecological rights. This Introduction provides the context for this effort.

Turin : UNICRI, cop. 2009. 129p.

By U.S. Government Accountability Office

Illegal trade in wildlife—wildlife trafficking—continues to push some protected and endangered animal species to the brink of extinction, according to the Department of State. Wildlife trafficking undermines conservation efforts, can fuel corruption, and destabilizes local communities that depend on wildlife for biodiversity and ecotourism revenues. This trade is estimated to be worth $7 billion to $23 billion annually. In 2013, President Obama issued an executive order that established the interagency Task Force charged with developing a strategy to guide U.S. efforts on this issue. GAO was asked to review U.S. government efforts to combat wildlife trafficking. This report focuses on wildlife trafficking in Africa, particularly of large animals, and examines, among other things, (1) what is known about the security implications of wildlife trafficking and its consequences, (2) actions Task Force agencies are taking to combat wildlife trafficking, and (3) the extent to which the Task Force assesses its progress. GAO analyzed agency documents and met with U.S. and host country officials in Washington, D.C.; Kenya; South Africa; and Tanzania. What GAO Recommends GAO recommends that the Secretaries of State and the Interior and the Attorney General of the United States, as co-chairs, jointly work with the Task Force to develop performance targets related to the National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking Implementation Plan. Agencies agreed with GAO’s recommendation.

Washington, GAO, 2016. 58p.

By Liana Sun Wyler and Pervaze A. Sheikh

Global trade in illegal wildlife is a growing illicit economy, estimated to be worth at least 5 billion and potentially in excess of 20 billion annually. Some of the most lucrative illicit wildlife commodities include tiger parts, caviar, elephant ivory, rhino horn, and exotic birds and reptiles. Demand for illegally obtained wildlife is ubiquitous, and some suspect that illicit demand is growing. International wildlife smuggling may be of interest to Congress as it presents several potential environmental and national security threats to the United States. Threats to the environment include the potential loss of biodiversity, introduction of invasive species into U.S. ecosystems, and transmission of disease through illegal wildlife trade. National security threats include links between wildlife trafficking and organized crime and drug trafficking. The role of Congress in evaluating U.S. policy to combat wildlife trafficking is broad. Potential issues for Congress include 1 determining funding levels for U.S. wildlife trade inspection and investigation 2 evaluating the effectiveness of U.S. foreign aid to combat wildlife trafficking 3 developing ways to encourage private sector involvement in regulating the wildlife trade 4 using trade sanctions to penalize foreign countries with weak enforcement of wildlife laws 5 incorporating wildlife trade provisions into free trade agreements and 6 addressing the domestic and international demand for illegal wildlife through public awareness campaigns and non-governmental organization partnerships. This report focuses on the international trade in terrestrial fauna, largely excluding trade in illegal plants, including timber, and fish.

Washington, DC: U.S. Congressional Research Service,The Library of Congress, 2008. 52p.

By Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Kaoem Telapak (KT)

Indonesia’s legal system is failing to act against timber criminals, seriously undermining the country’s top-level efforts to tackle illegal logging and deforestation. New research by EIA and our Indonesian partner Kaoem Telapak reveals that action through the courts was taken against only a handful of companies out of more than 50 proven to have either traded directly or indirectly in illegal timber.

London; Washington, DC: EIA, Bogor, Indonesia: Kaoem Telapak. 2021. 30p.

By Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

An undercover investigation by the Environmental Investigation Agency has exposed how an entire industry of Italian companies has continued to profit from the sale of valuable timber from Myanmar, even while many other countries have cracked down on the trade and European authorities agree that importing Myanmar timber is a violation of the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR). This trade has been allowed to continue since the military coup in Myanmar of February 2021. When asked, no trader confirmed they would stop importing despite the recent introduction of EU sanctions on the Myanmar Timber Enterprise, the state-owned company that claimed to be the only legal source of timber in the country. The investigation raises serious questions about how Italian and European authorities have allowed the trade to continue, and what action they will take to stop it. Only minimal fines have been imposed on the companies, who have continued to trade despite findings they are breaching the law, and the trade has only continued to increase despite heightened scrutiny on the legal problems with Myanmar timber.

London; Washington, DC: EIA, 2021. 34p.

By United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

The present version of the Wildlife and Forest Crime Analytic Toolkit is an initial attempt to provide a comprehensive overview for understanding the main issues related to environmental offences and for analysing preventive and criminal justice responses to wildlife and forest offences in a given country. Efforts have been made to provide a framework through which measures for prevention and response can be analysed and understood as the basis for an effective national response to wildlife and forest offences. The Toolkit is designed mainly to assist government officials in wildlife and forestry administration, Customs and other relevant enforcement agencies. It will help them to conduct a comprehensive analysis of possible means and measures to protect wildlife and forests and monitor their use and thus, to identify technical assistance needs. In this sense, the Toolkit may also be used as training material for law enforcers. In addition, other stakeholders at the international and national levels, as well as civil society, may find the Toolkit useful regarding their daily responsibilities. The Toolkit can be used effectively to address (a) a wide range of wildlife and forest offences, including illegal logging and illegal trade in timber and a lack of adherence to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and, (b) the usefulness of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the United Nations Convention against Corruption.

New York: United Nations, 2012. 212p,

By Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

Global Forest Watch estimated that between 2001 and 2018, Cambodia had lost 557 000 hectares of tree cover in protected areas, representing an 11.7% loss of the total protected area. Some protected areas have been deforested to such an extent that they no longer have much, if any, natural habitat, and one has been de-gazetted. This loss has impacted biodiversity conservation and has had a detrimental social and economic effect on the indigenous peoples who depend on the forest.

This report explores the ways in which laws, regulations and policies designed to afford protection for Cambodian forests and the local and indigenous people who depend on them are being abused. It also investigates deforestation in Prey Lang and Prey Preah Roka (two wildlife sanctuaries in northern Cambodia, both of which are designated protected areas – see Figure below), where thousands of trees have been illegally harvested and subsequently processed into plywood or luxury timber for export.

Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. 2021. 56p.

By Arias Goetschel

The Illegal Trade in Wildlife (IWT) is one of the most cumbersome threats currently facing biodiversity, with broad implications for the health and wellbeing of humans and nature. Over the past decade, reports of international illegal trade in jaguars (Panthera onca), with links to demand from Asian wildlife markets, have emerged throughout Latin America, raising the profile of jaguars as the emblem of Latin America’s fight against IWT. This DPhil is among the first to explore the characteristics, prevalence, and drivers of this threat to jaguars, with the goal of providing scientific evidence in support of ongoing and future projects and policies aimed at addressing it. Data collection efforts centred in Mesoamerica and Bolivia, two areas with varying degrees of evidence of international trade, and were based on interviews with enforcement agents and conservation practitioners, and questionnaire surveys with rural communities coexisting with jaguars. In both study areas, the illegal jaguar trade was found to be a prevalent, domestically-focused, and opportunistic activity, driven largely by the confluence of cultural traditions surrounding wildlife uses, forest-dependent livelihoods, and negative perceptions and interactions with jaguars, manifested through human-jaguar conflict. To a lesser degree, the trade was also influenced by a more diverse set of external actors and drivers than originally expected, including tourists of diverse backgrounds, regional immigrants, and traders of Asian-decent. Enabling factors ranged from critical limitations in the enforcement capacity of wildlife authorities, to a high social acceptability of jaguar killing in rural communities. Additionally, the DPhil highlighted biases in how those in charge of addressing the illegal trade in jaguars perceive and use evidence on the trade, with a tendency to disregard its reliability and conservation relevance. To address this issue, the DPhil provides guidelines towards a more objective decision-making on the illegal wildlife trade, and reinforces the need for evidence-based, multifaceted, counter-trafficking approaches that consider the complex interacting domestic and international, cultural and commercial drivers behind the illegal trade in jaguars.

Oxford, UK: St. Cross College, University of Oxford, 2021. 244p.

By Tanya Wyatt

The illegal wildlife trade is a prevalent crime that has not been explored by criminologists, who could contribute to the exploration of its impacts and its perpetration and thus recommend ways to reduce it. Traditional criminology has been legally positivistic, which ignores environmental structural harms that remain within the norm of the legal sphere. The emerging field of green criminology, keeping with the critical tradition in criminology, considers harms, but this is applied in an anthropocentric or speciesist manner. Using two case studies of wildlife trafficking in Russia Far East (fur and falcon), this research seeks to expand these limited concepts. This enhancement is accomplished through the development of a new perspective called deep green criminology that can be applied to other green crimes as well. With this ecocentric stance that recognizes the intrinsic value of all species and their right to humane treatment and a life free from suffering, other beings and the harms against them and the environment become visible as subjects of criminological inquiry. In this research this means exploration not only of activities defined as crimes (iIlegal trade of endangered species), not only of environmental harms which affect humans and certain species singled out by humans (poaching and capturing of charismatic fauna), but also includes harms that fall outside of these distinctions (inhumane trapping/capturing and treatment whether legally or illegally obtained, and the associated use of animals for clothing and sport). Additionally, this paper presents the three structural harms that are problematic in regards to wildlife trafficking; the danger to the environment; the cruelty to animals; and the threat to national and human security through the connection to corruption, transnational crime, organized criminal networks, and terrorism. By exploring who is involved, how it occurs. and where it takes place for each of these trades, typologies are created that provide a basis for further examination of the trade in illegal wildlife. Solutions are offered to improve the policies and enforcement that affect the illegal wildlife trade, as are recommendations for addressing the economics of supply and consumer demand for illegal wildlife and wildlife products. The conclusions that· result from this thesis tempered the proposed deep green criminological perspective to a more pragmatic approach.

Canterbury, UK: University of Kent, 2008. 203p.

By Dorothea Delpech

Wildlife crime is receiving increasing international media coverage, with much of the focus on the international Wildlife Trade (IWT) and iconic species (e.g. elephants, tigers and pangolins). Limited research exists on the impact of wildlife crime on native species in the UK. The majority of the UK landscape is categorised as rural and classified as Farmland. To account for the spatial overlap between Livestock and Wildlife, the thesis aimed to assess the incidence of these crime types on farmland in the UK. The thesis presents a multimethod analysis of livestock and wildlife crimes, beginning with a review of the existing research on the most effective prevention methods for crimes against terrestrial (land based) species (TS), which identified an overall dearth of empirical evidence. A victimization survey was then conducted of farmers in the UK. The survey received over 800 responses. Amongst the many survey findings, was the low level of reporting, with over 70% of wildlife crime incidents going unreported to the Police. The survey responses also identified an inverse relationship in the seasonal variation of these crime types. Finally, the thesis assessed Police data for Livestock and Wildlife crimes, between 2010 and 2015 from Dorset constabulary. The Police data was used to assess the seasonal variation in these crime types and identified the need to disaggregate the Police data into crimes involving different species to identify annual trends. Data quality issues associated with the recording of crimes in rural areas were identified and potential solutions for better location recording described. The thesis provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of Livestock and Wildlife crime in the UK, as well as highlighting the numerous avenues for further research.

London: University College London, 2020. 386p.

By Angus Nurse

This research considers the enforcement of wildlife legislation in the UK. It examines the extent of wildlife crime, the role of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in helping to shape the public policy and police response to wildlife crime and the current position of UK wildlife legislation. A variety of animal and wildlife protection legislation is on the statute books but crimes such as egg collecting, bird of prey persecution, the illegal trade in wildlife and the illegal killing and trapping of animals such as badgers for sport continue. NGOs through their campaign and policy documents argue that the enforcement regime should be strengthened and tougher sentences handed out to wildlife offenders. The research assesses these policy perspectives and the rationale behind them to determine how effective existing policies on wildlife crime are, given what is known about crime, punishment and justice in mainstream criminology. The research questions are addressed through document research and semi-structured interviews. Use is made of published figures and policy perspectives on wildlife crime as well as previous research on wildlife and environmental law enforcement. However, previous research considers either problems affecting individual species (e.g. badgers, or birds) or specific types of offence such as the illegal trade in wildlife or bird of prey persecution. This research considers UK wildlife in its entirety across all different types of offence. The research concludes that while the perception might be that wildlife laws are inadequate and a more punitive regime is required, it is in the enforcement of the legislation that problems occur rather than in any inherent weakness in the legislative regime. The research concludes that changes to legislation and a more punitive regime are unlikely to have a substantial effect on wildlife crime levels unless attention is also paid problems with the existing enforcement regime. The research makes recommendations for future criminal justice policy on wildlife crime.

Birmingham, UK: Birmingham City University, 2008. 296p.

By Michael Dawes

This thesis analyses the economics of rhino and elephant conservation in light of the recent upsurge in poaching in Africa. Each chapter focuses on a particular component of the new poaching crisis. Chapter One examines the development of market power by poachers and the implications for how owners should use patrols to defend their rhino. A dynamic model is developed and simulated. The owner is the Stackelberg leader, investing in anti-poaching patrols to protect rhino from poaching cartels who strategically compete in a closed-loop Nash Equilibrium ‘game’. Understanding the industrial organisation of cartels is shown to be of paramount importance in designing optimal anti-poaching policy because, perversely, patrol spending works to increase strategic behaviour between cartels. Chapter Two considers whether establishing a legalised trade in rhino horn could benefit conservation. A dynamic model is formulated and simulated. It is found that, even if the institutional arrangements are robust enough to support legalised trade, the economics suggest trade is not guaranteed to improve the conservation prospects of the species. In the absence of private sector speculation, a legalised trade could be used to sustainably conserve a rhino population when extinction would otherwise occur. However, with the introduction of speculation, speculative attack on the remaining stockpile is highly profitable, leading to extinction of the species. Chapter Three determines the consequences of increasingly fragmented conservation policy. A new panel of elephant census data for 1,262 reserves across 37 countries in Africa is used to examine the effect of varying anti-poaching policy across borders. An international border is found to result in an elephant population up to 2.5 times smaller than a reserve without a border. In addition, evidence that poachers arbitrage across reserves is found. The policy consequence is clear: as populations become increasingly fragmented, transfrontier conservation policy becomes more important.

Oxford, UK: St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford, 2018. 186p.

By Rodriguez, M., M. Pascual, J. Wingard, N. Bhatri, A. Rydannykh, A. Russo, J. Janicki

Sharing up to 98% of human DNA, great apes are our closest relatives on earth. Human activities, however, pose serious challenges to their survival and threaten them with extinction. Expansion of the agricultural frontier into tropical forests, and poaching, driven by lucrative illegal markets for pets and bush meat, are the main forces cited for their population declines.1 Meanwhile, in some parts of the world, people are eager to have baby chimps at home; others attend great ape ‘boxing matches’; while others are looking for that ‘Instagram-able’ moment with a captive great ape. Regardless of the kinds of demand for great apes, we are losing thousands to illegal trade in these species every year. The exact number is unknown due to the illegal nature of the trade, but the UN Environment Programme estimates that no fewer than 3,000 great apes are taken from the wild each year. 2 Because of these high losses and continuing population declines, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists great apes and gibbons as either endangered or critically endangered on its Red List of Threatened Species. These categories denote species that are “very likely” to become extinct in the wild or face an “extreme high risk” of extinction, respectively. There are seven species of great apes (excluding humans), divided into four genera – gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos. They inhabit areas of central Africa and South East Asia, and tend to live in humid mountainous areas and forests. Gibbons, part of the family of lesser apes, comprise 16 species, all of which are native to the tropical and subtropical forests of South East Asia.

Missoula, MT: Legal Atlas, 2018. 191p.

By Melissa Arias

In recent years, the illegal trade in jaguars has become a growing concern for the conservation of the species, following academic, media and NGO reports suggesting the emergence of international trafficking to China, and the existence of thriving domestic markets for jaguar body parts across the range. Jaguar hunting, and the use and trade in their body parts have a long history in Latin America, tied to the traditional practices and belief systems of past and current indigenous and mixed-ethnicity societies. Through most of the 19th and 20th centuries, jaguars were hunted at commercial scales for their skins, to supply the fashion industry in Europe and North America. The listing of jaguars under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1975, which prohibits international commercial trade, along with the establishment of national hunting laws,successfully put an end to commercial-scale international trade in jaguars. Since then, illegal trade became a minor concern amidst a larger set of threats facing the species, including habitat loss, fragmentation and increased conflict with humans over real or perceived livestock depredation. After nearly five decades since their listing under CITES, recent findings suggesting that the demand for jaguar body parts is expanding to other continents, particularly Asia, have raised concerns about the potential impacts of illegal trade on the survival of the species. These concerns have translated into conservation actions at the national and international level, including CITES Decisions 18.251 to18.253 on Jaguars (Panthera onca), adopted at the 18th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES held in Geneva, Switzerland in August 2019. In accordance with Decision 18.251, the CITES Secretariat commissioned this study to: i) map illegal trade in the jaguar throughout its range, including poaching, trade pathways and networks, and main markets that are driving this trade, and how it is connected to other wildlife trafficking activities in the region; ii) analyse the uses of jaguar specimens, both within range states and in international markets, as well as the extent to which illegally-sourced jaguar products are entering international trade; iii) analyse the modus operandi associated with illegal trade in jaguar specimens and possible drivers of this activity; and iv) characterize the overall impact of illegal trade on jaguar populations throughout the species’ range. Jaguars have a wide distribution, from the South-western United States to northern Argentina, covering 8.42 million km² across 19 countries (de la Torre et al., 2017). Despite being a highly charismatic species, their population status is poorly understood and their abundance estimates vary greatly. Jaguars are classified as Near Threatened under the IUCN Red List. However, most jaguar subpopulations with the exception of the Amazon subpopulation (including parts of the Pantanal, Yungas and Chaco biomes), have been assessed as Endangered or Critically Endangered due to their small size, isolation and deficient protection (de la Torre et al., 2017). The threats to jaguars are increasing, with deforestation growing inside and outside protected areas, driven by the expansion of agriculture, cattle ranching, and human infrastructure. These threats have synergistic impacts on jaguars by increasing access of poachers into remote areas, reducing prey abundances, and increasing the risk of human-jaguar conflict. Targeted poaching of jaguars for the illegal commercial trade adds to the pressures that jaguars are already facing, and may affect the survival of sub-populations that are at critical risk of extinction. Understanding the scale, characteristics and impacts of this growing threat to jaguars is essential to design and implement Decision 18.252, in particular paragraphs c) to g) as well as other effective jaguar conservation actions.

Geneva, SWIT: Convention On International Trade In Endangered Species Of Wild Fauna And Flora (CITES) , 2021. 141p.