By Yunbo Jiao

The central goal of this study is to produce an in-depth understanding of the nature and dynamics of China-related transnational environmental crime (TEC). To that end, this study takes the GreaterKaoem Telapak Kaoem Telapak China – including mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan – as the specific geographic focus for its investigation into three key TEC sectors (illegal trade in wildlife, forest products, and ozone depleting substances (ODS)). Overall, this study seeks to achieve the central goal in a four-step sequence. First, it builds a network-centric conceptual framework based on the idea of “networked threats require networked responses” advocated by many influential scholars. This framework focuses on addressing two puzzles: what essentially constitutes a network threat; and what forms a networked response. Second, it applies the concept of networked threats to the study of China’s global trade in illegal wildlife, forest products, and ODS. Third, it examines China’s TEC-related legal frameworks and enforcement responses and identifies key challenges that China has encountered in each of the three selected TEC sectors. Fourth and finally, it combines the above three lines of understandings – the accounts of networked responses, the empirical findings of China’s illegal trade, and the key regulatory and enforcement challenges identified – to develop practical suggestions on how can China apply the notion of networked responses to the formulation of regulatory and enforcement strategies for addressing the identified key challenges. This study makes two broad arguments: one theoretically oriented and one empirically directed. First, this study argues that while the concept of networked threats can be approached along the dimensions of transaction networks and directed networks, networked responses are not a standard, formatted mode of regulatory or enforcement responses. Instead, networked responses should be understood as a special way of thinking and acting: a way that sees a bright-side actor (e.g., enforcement agencies) as operating in an environment occupied by various networks and entities, which simultaneously present challenges in terms of amplified (networked) threats, as well as opportunities in terms of power amplifiers for the bright-side actor, in the sense that they could potentially be leveraged for tackling these threats. Second, China’s global trade in environmental contraband is typified by the substantial scale of China’s black markets and the deep embeddedness of China in the international and regional illicit trade chains. These two features, on the one hand, pose a serious challenge to the Chinese government in tackling its TEC; while on the other hand, they imply that Chinese effort and progress made toward addressing its illegal internal trade will likely have a substantive, positive overflowing effect on the whole of the international and regional illegal trade.

Canberra: Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, 2016. 306p.

By World Wildlife Fund - UK

Based on trade data for six timber producing regions, this report examines the role of the EU in trade in illegally sourced timber and assesses the potential for the EU to limit illegal logging over the next ten years. Presenting a league table of the EU’s top importers of illegal timber, and combining up-to-date information on both timber imports and EU policy, the report predicts that the main factor limiting illegal logging in the near future will be the exhaustion of forest resources. The implications are far-reaching: biodiversity, human health and national economies across the world will all be affected. The report concludes with a series of recommendations, which address the need for the EU and its member states to take more proactive steps to halt the practice of illegal logging and the trade in illegal timber. It also highlights the urgent need for meaningful co-operation from other major importing countries, including China, Japan and the US.

Godalming, Surrey. UK: WWF-UK, November 2005. 102p.

By EIA

A report on the role of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in curbing illegal timber trade and protecting endangered tree species. Despite the success of its current CITES listing, endangered ramin remains under threat, with the remnants of Malaysia’s ramin forests exploited unsustainably. Although ramin is banned from cutting and export in Indonesia – the only other significant range state – stolen wood continues to be laundered through neighbouring Malaysia in quantities exceeding the global annual legal supply.

London; New York Environmental Investigations Agency, 2011. 17p.

By Rachel Hembery, Anna Jenkins, George White and Beatrix Richards

Illegal logging exists because enormous profits can be made. These profits are most easily realised in countries with endemic corruption, lax law enforcement and poor social conditions, where there is little incentive to change forestry practice. Many of the countries supplying timber and wood products to the UK have high levels of foreign debt, poor governance systems, high levels of poverty and unsustainable forest management, and are experiencing loss of some of the world’s most biodiverse forests at an alarming rate. These factors – which by no means comprise an exhaustive list – contribute to the illegal and unsustainable trade in timber and wood products. Arguably the problems associated with illegal activities are most acute in developing countries, those countries with emerging economies and in the transitional economies of Russia and eastern Europe. These are areas of the world where weak political institutions and weak regulatory enforcement in the forested regions are often the norm, and where corruption is common. This report attempts to estimate the volume of illegal wood entering the UK and to identify which sectors of the UK market utilise this wood and fibre. It identifies various processes involving the UK government as a purchaser or specifier, as well as national and international governmental processes and market-based mechanisms that are in place to counter illegal logging. It identifies their effectiveness and weaknesses and makes a series of recommendations.

Godalming, Surrey. UK: World Wildlife Fund - UK, 2007. 103p.

By Lucia Bird and A. Gomes

The widespread devastation of Guinea-Bissau’s forests – a process coordinated by the military – was curtailed in April 2015 by the imposition of a five-year moratorium on logging exports. Now, the current government looks set to lift the ban – raising widespread concerns of a resurgence in illicit logging.

Drivers for lifting the moratorium may be linked to the powerful interests at play in the sector, both within Guinea-Bissau’s elite and those of the Chinese business community, which have long-standing links to the logging business in the country. These interests, and particularly those of Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Nabiam, were highlighted by a significant seizure of illicit logs by the Judicial Police in November 2020.

Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. 2021, 17p.

By Human Rights Watch

Since 2016, over 400 human rights defenders have been killed in Colombia—the highest number of any country in Latin America, according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). In November 2016, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC) guerrillas reached a landmark peace accord, leading to the demobilization of the country’s then-largest armed group. The agreement included specific initiatives to prevent the killing of human rights defenders. Separately, that year the Attorney General’s Office decided to prioritize investigations into any such killings occurring as of the beginning of 2016.

New York: HRW, 2021. 135p.

By Roger Ngoufo; Hubert Tsague D.; Matthias Waltert

In the African rainforest zone, wildlife can provide up to 70 % of animal protein to the population and is used for various cultural reasons (e.g. tastes, food habits, rituals and prestige). Cameroonians have become famous for their attachment to the consumption of game meat. Moreover, the availability of wildlife maintains a variety of public services, forming the basis of substantial numbers of public and informal jobs in the branches of transport and trade. But this natural and cultural heritage is severely threatened by the intensification of illegal activities, including the destruction of habitats and poaching. This book questions the current legal framework of wildlife resources management in Cameroon, asks whether the country’s legislation could be improved towards a sustainable exploitation of wildlife resources and makes concrete suggestions for a possible reform.

Göttingen: University of Gottingen, 2014. 110p.

By Rebecca Wing Yee Wong

The thesis is a study of how Chinese illegal tiger parts trading networks are organized. In particular, this thesis tests in a qualitative manner the causal relationship between three independent variables and the network organizations of these markets. The three independent variables are “ethnicity”, “level of enforcement” and “proximity to the source country”. The thesis also discusses the dynamics of the illegal transactions of tiger parts products. Legitimate meditators or dispute resolutions mechanisms are lacking in the underworld so the risks, which the parties undertake during trading, are far higher. This thesis explores how illegal transactions are enforced, carried out and honored in this trade. In order to map the organization of the tiger trade, I conducted fieldwork in three trading hubs across China: Lhasa. Kunming and Xining.

I discovered five tiger parts trading networks, three of which specialized in the trading of tiger skins and two in tiger bones. Within these networks, the level of perceived but not the actual level of risk influences the decisions of the actors in the network. Entry into the network is easy when the perceived level of enforcement is low. In these settings, there is no ethnic restriction for entering the network; the supplier is willing to trade with anyone with a trustworthy reputation. On the other hand, accessibility to the network is strictly controlled when actors perceive a high level of enforcement in their operating environment. Under this setting, the organization of the network becomes more exclusive and ethnically homogenous, as shown in the Tibetan tiger skin-trading network in Lhasa and the tiger bone-trading network in Kunming. The proximity of the tiger source country to the re-distribution sites (fieldwork cities) also influences the organization of the networks. When the level of enforcement is low and the tiger source country is far away from the re-distribution sites, a monetary deposit is required in order to show that the buyer is serious about his/her request, as shown by the tiger skin-trading network in Kunming.

Oxford, UK: St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford . 2013. 280p.

By Lucy Vigne

In much of tropical Africa a breakdown in law and order, corruption and an influx of firearms led to heavy rhino and elephant poaching, especially in the 1970s and 1980s. I collected and analysed data to reveal the collapsing numbers of rhinos in Africa. Although we had general trade information, we needed more understanding of the soaring smuggling and consumption in order to combat it. I carried out extensive fieldwork in the main market at the time: North Yemen (Yemen from 1990). From the 1980s I regularly monitored the trade in rhino horn used for prestigious curved dagger (jambiya) handles, updating information on smuggling routes, prices, and demand. I worked with Yemenis on education campaigns, encouraged substitutes, and assisted policy makers, with Esmond Martin, who was to become my longterm research colleague. In the Indian subcontinent, home to most Asian rhinos, we also worked with officials and local people on strategies to fight rhino poaching and smuggling. And in eastern Asia we surveyed consumer markets for rhino horn used in traditional Oriental medicine to close down illegal trade. Around 2010 demand escalated once again causing serious rhino poaching, this time mainly in South Africa for customers in China and Vietnam, but again information was lacking. I surveyed illegal markets and collected prices of rhino horn, in order to strengthen legislation and enforcement. Demand for elephant ivory also rocketed from about 2010 onwards and we learned newly moneyed undiscerning Chinese consumers were eager to acquire mass-produced ivory items. We carried out market surveys in key illegal African and Asian markets to alert decision makers to control the surge in trafficking and unregulated retail sales, mostly for mainland Chinese. A new Chinese diaspora and the internet encouraged this lucrative trade, fuelled by corruption, mismanagement and apathy in many regions. Human population pressure on valuable natural resources is rising, resulting in climate change and wildlife crime increasing, and biodiversity in wild habitats more threatened, plus spreading zoonotic diseases. Compared with the 1980s there is at last growing attention to these challenges, including wildlife crime, in search of securing nature for a healthier, safer planet.

Oxford, UK: Oxford Brookes University. 2020. 80p.

By Tomomi Kitade and Ayako Toko

Japan was formerly recognized as one of the world’s largest end-use markets for wildlife products, particularly during the height of the national economic boom which lasted throughout the mid-1970s and 1980s. Wildlife products traded to Japan at the time were extensive and wide-ranging, and included everything from animal fur and leather for fashion, exotic animals for pets and zoos, to taxidermy specimens, raw materials for traditional medicine and other traditional manufacturing industries. Rhino horn and elephant ivory, arguably the two symbols of the current illegal wildlife trade crisis, were also traded to Japan in massive quantities until 1980 and 1989, respectively, when international trade bans were introduced pursuant to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). For a time Japan ranked as the world’s largest consumer of both rhino horn and elephant ivory, but the market for these products declined significantly over the years, to a point where only a small fraction of the former domestic market remains significant today. This research sheds light on Japan’s wildlife trade history as a case study on the contributing factors that helped reduce the market for rhino horn and elephant ivory. By conducting comprehensive research into these phenomena, this report aims to elucidate the circumstances and drivers for change, in the hope that it may provide useful understanding for the contemporary context in other Asian markets facing problems with wildlife trade. Additionally, this study critically reviewed the status of the current domestic market and regulations to amplify where Japan stands today in terms of the historical and global context and provides recommendations for addressing current issues in Japan, especially in light of severe contemporary global levels of illegal wildlife trade. Because of the holistic approach taken and the historical knowledge required for this study, information was collected and analysed from a wide range of sources. In terms of literature, sources in the Japanese language were especially utilized, including the database of National Diet records and national newspaper archives. Various data relating to trade, production, and socio-economic status, as well as records associated with regulatory schemes, were obtained from many sources including the Japanese government, domestic industry associations, and CITES-related databases (i.e. the CITES Trade Database and the Elephant Trade Information System). Furthermore, critical insights were gathered through a series of stakeholder/expert interviews, especially with industry members who were directly part of the process. Finally, an original consumer survey was conducted in 2014 to gain further understanding of consumer perspectives.

Tokyo: TRAFFIC Japan, 2016. 96p.

Edited by C.D. Spinellis / Nikolaos Theodorakis Emmanouil Billis / George Papadimitrakopoulos.

Volume Ii: Essays In English, German, French, And Italian. Nestor Courakis is Emeritus Professor of Criminology and Penology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Law and a full-time Professor at the University of Nicosia.

Athens: ANT. N. Sakkoulas Publishers L.P , 2017. 1899p.

By Florian Weigand

Exploring the links between armed conflict and transnational crime, Florian Weigand builds on in-depth empirical research into some of Southeast Asia’s murkiest borders. The disparate voices of drug traffickers, rebel fighters, government officials and victims of armed conflict are heard in Conflict and Transnational Crime, exploring perspectives that have been previously disregarded in understanding the field.

Cheltenham, UK; Northampton MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020. 176p

By Nigel Davidson

In 2017 it will be Australia’s turn to chair the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KP), an international organisation set up to regulate the trade in diamonds. Diamonds are a symbol of love, purchased to celebrate marriage, and it is therefore deeply ironic that the diamond trade has become linked with warfare and human rights violations committed in African producer countries such as Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and, more recently, Zimbabwe and Angola. In their quest for diamonds, or by using diamonds to purchase weapons, armed groups in these countries have engaged in recruiting child soldiers, amputating limbs, and committing rape and murder. In response to the problem, the international community, non-governmental organisations and key industry players such as De Beers combined forces to create the Kimberley Process in 2002. The KP uses an export certificate system to distinguish the legitimate rough diamond trade from so-called ‘blood diamonds’, which are also known as ‘conflict diamonds’. This book considers the extent to which the KP, supported by other agencies at the international and national levels, has been effective in achieving its mandate. In so doing, it presents an original model derived from the domain of regulatory theory, the Dual Networked Pyramid, as a means of describing the operation of the system and suggesting possible improvements that might be made to it. Nigel Davidson spoke with 936 ABC Hobart about what Australia can do to help stop blood diamonds.

Canberra: Australian National University Press, 2016. 330p.

By Elleman, Bruce A. and Paine, S.C.M

The sixteen case studies in this book reflect the extraordinary diversity of experience of navies attempting to carry out, and also to eliminate, commerce raiding. Because the cases emphasize conflicts in which commerce raiding had major repercussions, they shed light on when, how, and in what manner it is most likely to be effective. The authors have been asked to examine the international context, the belligerents, the distribution of costs and benefits, the logistical requirements, enemy countermeasures, and the operational and strategic effectiveness of these campaigns.

Newport, RI: U.S. Naval War College Press, 2010. 277p.

By Daniel Mejía

No one can deny that Colombia has worked tirelessly to fight illegal drug production, trafficking, and organized crime groups linked to these activities. Since 1994, more than two million hectares of coca have been sprayed with glyphosate, 1,890 metric tons of cocaine have been seized, and 28,344 coca leaf processing laboratories have been destroyed. The costs that Colombia has paid in this “war” are very high. Since 2000, the country—with partial funding from the U.S. government—has invested more than US$1.2 billion, or about 1 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), per year into the military component of Plan Colombia.1 However, the costs have not solely been public financial resources. More than 57,000 Colombians are estimated to have been killed between 1994 and 2008 as a consequence of growing illegal drug markets and resulting confrontations between drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and the Colombian government during the war on drugs.2 This translates into approximately 3,800 additional homicides (or about 25 percent of total homicides) per year from drug-related violence alone. Yet despite such enormous investments and costs, Colombia continues to be a key producer and trafficker of illicit drugs, and in particular of cocaine.

Washington DC: Brookings Institute, 2016. 17p.

By Elleman, Bruce A.; Forbes, Andrew; and Rosenberg, David

As modern nation-states emerged from feudalism, privateering for both profit and war supplemented piracy at the margins of national sovereignty. More recently, an ocean enclosure movement under the aegis of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 has granted states access to maritime resources far beyond their territorial limits.

Newport, RI: U.S. Naval War College Press, 2010. 277p.

By James Wingard and Maria Pascual

Anti-money laundering (AML) laws have the potential to play a crucial, game-changing role in transforming wildlife trafficking from a low-risk/high-reward to a high-risk environment. Yet despite the 2017 UN Resolution callings on countries to leverage AML laws in the fight against wildlife trafficking, they remain under-utilised. Investigations and prosecutions in the case of wildlife-trafficking crimes still rely primarily on charges for poaching or trafficking, while money-laundering crimes are mostly overlooked. There are several reasons for this, one of them being the degree to which wildlife crimes constitute a predicate offence. This paper reviews the AML laws from 110 jurisdictions from the Legal Atlas online platform to determine their applicability to illegal wildlife trade (IWT) crimes, showing positive results for 64 out of the 110 countries. The paper also flags some more general challenges that may hinder the application of such AML laws.

Missoula, MT: Legal Atlas, 2019. 29p.

By Irvin Kerman

The Guiana’s ecosystems provide habitats to over 4,500 species of flowering plants, 660 species of birds, 300 species of freshwater fishes, 180 species of mammals, 150 species of reptiles and 90 species of amphibians. Of great significance in the Guianas is the large number of wild fauna and flora that are unique to the region. Amongst these are species that are globally in decline but have found safe refuge in the Guianas’ wilderness and are flourishing. Other species are simply endemic to the region, being found in very few other areas of the planet. Amongst the very special species found in the Guianas is the jaguar, Panthera onca, the largest cat of South America. As with species like the giant river otter, Pteronura brasiliensis, the arapaima, Arapaima gigas, black caiman Melanosuchus niger, and giant anteater, Myrmecophaga tridactyla, the jaguar requires an extensive territory to survive and has found this in the Guianas. The extremely low population of humans, most of whom live along the coast, make the Guianas very attractive for forest cats whose migratory behaviour necessitates their having extensive wilderness areas as habitats. Another character that has helped make the Guianas attractive to forest cats has been the general respect and or fear that persons of the region have always had for the species. The jaguar, and many of its smaller relatives such as the jaguarundi, Herpailurus yagouaroundi, ocelot, Leopardus pardalis and the oncilla, Leopardus tigrinus, have rarely ever had to face the threat of targeted exploitation. Human – wildlife conflicts have, in the past, been limited to accidental encounters within the territory of the animals. However, from recent reports to WWF, this situation is feared to have changed. Several species of wildlife are exported annually from Suriname and Guyana to the US, Europe and Japan. Some of these species, particularly birds and wild plants, are also the subject of domestic trade. Globally, illegal and/or excessive trade remains a very significant impediment to the survival of many species. Both Guyana and Suriname have a legal international trade, with export quotas being set per species, based on population estimates and relative abundances worldwide. The quotas also reflect the listing of the species under international conventions. However, the jaguar does not belong to this list of species approved for exploitation. The jaguar is classified by all countries of the Guianas as being endangered and thus in need of protection. This means that it is illegal to target and hunt the species, whether for export, recreation, the domestic pet trade, or for bushmeat. There are only a few exceptions where special provisions are made for capture and shipment for education, exhibition and research to zoological parks, museums and wildlife reserves.

Guianas: WWF Guianas, 2010. 14p.

By Simone Haysom and Rowan Martin

The research described in this trend report is a response to concerns raised by the World Parrot Trust (WPT) over the scale and scope of online markets for African grey parrots within range states in Africa. African Grey parrots are popular pets in many countries but international trade in wild African grey parrots is prohibited under multilateral agreements and national laws in some countries. However, preliminary investigations into advertisements for these birds on Nigerian internet platforms raised concern. Analysis of data from an ongoing project of the Market Monitoring and Friction Unit (MMFU), which focuses on monitoring the online marketing of live endangered birds, revealed an emerging online market for African grey parrots in several African countries. This report provides evidence that, despite high levels of local and international protection, live sales of this endangered species are being advertised on so-called ‘classifieds platforms’ across the continent, including in countries outside the species’ natural range, and which represent some of the largest and most rapidly developing economies. The study sought not only to highlight specific concerns about the trade in African grey parrots but also to elucidate the dynamics of its international and regional regulation so as to inform targeted engagement and potential action at a malleable stage in market development. A total of 782 online advertisements were identified over a six-month period (October 2020–March 2021), with almost all of them being on classified sites. The high number and frequency of advertisements in Kenya (455) and Nigeria (264) were concerning, and action is urgently needed to address the problem in both countries. Noticing advertisements in countries such as Benin, Ghana and Angola, even in low numbers, is an early-warning sign of nascent markets elsewhere. The analysis suggests a rising demand for the species as pets, which traders are seeking to meet. The pattern of these advertisements suggests illegal trade both across borders, contravening agreements under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and within countries, contravening national laws. National wildlife authorities are therefore urged to monitor the development of these markets and to take early action to shut down such marketing activities on the implicated platforms.

Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2021. 31p.

By Nellemann, C., Henriksen, R., Raxter, P., Ash, N., Mrema, E. (Eds)

Given the alarming pace, level of sophistication, and globalized nature that illegal trade in wildlife has now notoriously achieved, UNEP initiated a Rapid Response Assessment to provide some of the latest data, analysis, and broadest insights into the phenomenon. Tackling illegal wildlife trade demands this examination of the relationship between the environmental resources at stake, their legal and illegal exploitation, the loopholes that exacerbate the situation, the scale and types of crimes committed, and the dynamics of the demand driving the trade. In the international community, there is now growing recognition that the issue of the illegal wildlife trade has reached significant global proportions. Illegal wildlife trade and environmental crime involve a wide range of flora and fauna across all continents, estimated to be worth USD 70–213 billion annually. This compares to a global official development assistance envelope of about 135 billion USD per annum. The illegal trade in natural resources is depriving developing economies of billions of dollars in lost revenues and lost development opportunities, while benefiting a relatively small criminal fraternity. This report focuses on the far-reaching consequences of the environmental crime phenomenon we face today. The situation has worsened to the extent that illegal trade in wildlife’s impacts are now acknowledged to go well beyond strictly environmental impacts – by seriously undermining economies and livelihoods, good governance, and the rule of law. Even the security and safety of countries and communities is affected: the report highlights how wildlife and forest crime, including charcoal, provides potentially significant threat finance to militias and terrorist groups. Already recognized as a grave issue in DRC and Somalia by the UN Security Council, the assessment reveals that the scale and role of wildlife and forest crime in threat finance calls for much wider policy attention, well beyond those regions. The consequences are increasingly evident: illegal wildlife trafficking constitutes a barrier to the achievement of both sustainable development and environmental sustainability. As reflected in a range of decisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the UN Office for Drugs and Crime, the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, INTERPOL, the UN Security Council, and others, the illegal trade in wildlife and environmental crime are now widely recognized as significant threats on a global scale, to be tackled with urgency. However the responses to date, in terms of impact on the ground, have been too modest, and inadequate to the scale and growth of the threat to wildlife and the environment.

Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme; Arendal, Norway: GRID-Arendal. 2014. 108p.