illegal wildlife trade Archives

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How to fight the wave of plant trafficking in SA

27 Feb 2025, 14:43

Image of Lithops salicola from Wikimedia Commons In part one of our new mini-series focusing mainly on plant trafficking, we looked at the seriousness and the extent of the problem, which affects South Africa too, and the role that social media plays in enabling it. In this second part we take a high-level look at Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Plant trafficking a threat to SA’s indigenous species

27 Feb 2025, 13:28

Image of Conophytum tumidum from Wikimedia Commons They might look unprepossessing – tiny little fleshy plants, many of which closely resemble stones, nestling between the rocks in some of the most arid parts of South Africa. But for some time now, the country’s residents have been reading media reports about those very indigenous plants, particularly Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Visualising corruption risks in the illegal rhino horn trade supply chain

18 Jan 2023, 16:46

Nicola Okes and Gabriel Sipos, TRAFFICFirst published on TNRC (Tackling Natural Resource Corruption) The rhino horn trade represents one of the four largest illegal wildlife trade flows (UNODC 2020) by value. Although the drivers and uses of rhino horn differ across user groups and market destinations (e.g., medicinal use or status-conferring prestige products), the overall Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

SA pioneers wildlife conservation bond to support black rhino, communities

02 Nov 2022, 15:58

Image: Wikipedia, used under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license Swiss banks are not generally known for charitable endeavours, but have a reputation – some might say a well-deserved one – for being secretive. In fact, the country consistently appears in the top 10 of the Financial Secrecy Index, a ranking of jurisdictions that fuel financial Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Corruption as an enabler of wildlife, forest and fisheries crime: part 5

06 Oct 2021, 11:00

With so many lucrative avenues for criminals to choose from nowadays, the fact that international wildlife crime (IWT) and the smuggling of wildlife products continues to increase is a measure of the vast sums of money to be made from this illegal practice. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), for example, which it spelled out in its 2020 World Wildlife Crime Report, “the Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Corruption as an enabler of wildlife, forest and fisheries crime: part 4

06 Aug 2021, 12:43

Image: Wilson Lau, TRAFFIC A humble marine mollusc, Haliotis midae, has been the inadvertent cause of one of South Africa’s biggest poaching/smuggling challenges. The largest abalone in South Africa, it is known locally as perlemoen, from the Dutch meaning ‘mother of pearl’. Occurring naturally along the South African coastline, perlemoen is nothing more than a Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Corruption as an enabler of wildlife, forest and fisheries crime: part 3

27 Jul 2021, 15:26

A new study titled Convergence of wildlife crime with other forms of organised crime, released in May 2021 by the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC), sheds light on this phenomenon of crime convergence, which has been noticed more and more over the last two decades. The report shows that criminal networks are dealing in wildlife Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Corruption as an enabler of wildlife, forest and fisheries crime: part 2

12 Jul 2021, 14:57

Consider this statement: “Bribes can make up to 10% of the wholesale value of ivory in Asia.” And given that according to an investigation by the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC), raw ivory currently commands a price of between US$597/kg and $689/kg, on the Asian market – down from a mind-boggling high of $2 100/kg in Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Corruption as an enabler of wildlife, forest and fisheries crime: part 1

28 Jun 2021, 14:34

Image: Flickr/gmacfadyen Corruption is an enabler of wildlife, forest and fisheries crime. There are no surprises in that statement, as many will be aware that corruption occurs at every stage of the wildlife trafficking supply chain – and it’s a big reason for the continued prevalence of wildlife trafficking routes and networks. There are also Read more >