2. Introduction to wildlife crime
2.4. Impacts of wildlife crime
According to the UNEP (2014):
“The consequences of the illegal trade in wildlife span environmental, societal (including security), and economic impacts – including affecting the resource base for local communities, and resulting in the theft of natural capital at national levels. The illegal trade in wildlife is therefore a barrier to sustainable development.”
Addressing wildlife crime is essential to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Most obviously, wildlife crime undermines SDG 14 (Life below water) and SDG 15 (Life on land). It also affects SDG 1 (No poverty) by denying communities the opportunity to sustainably harvest natural resources for sustenance and economic activity.
The negative effects of wildlife and other environmental crime are felt in every aspect of human life, particularly where commercial and large-scale poaching occur. Wildlife crime, particularly within the fisheries and forest sectors, negatively impacts food, economic, climate and environmental security and drives deforestation and desertification.
Additional critical factors affecting societies and productive economic activity are:
Public health and disease
Although the exact cause of the Covid-19 pandemic is still under investigation at the time of writing, the World Health Organization is actively exploring the possibility that it was triggered by human exploitation of wildlife. This is likely given that "[n]early three quarters of emerging human infectious diseases have animal reservoirs.... zoonotic viruses have been responsible for some of the most significant emerging disease threats to human health and economic development." (World Health Organization, 2021).
The rate of pandemic disease emergence has increased steadily since the early 2000s. Diseases such as Ebola and Marburg disease, SARS, MERS, swine flu, avian flu, and the novel coronavirus all originated in animals. There is widespread concern among experts that without action to curtail IWT, another pandemic is inevitable.
National security
In addition to pandemic disease risks, wildlife crime intersects with a number of national security issues including conflict, terrorism, violent extremism and serious corruption (Jasparro, 2009). Disputes over access to and control of natural resources contribute to conflict. As many as 40 percent of intrastate conflicts over the past 60 years have been linked to natural resources.
The US and Colombia are among the countries to specifically include wildlife and biodiversity degradation as threats to national security. Areas ravaged by wildlife crime are often violent, awash with guns and illegal goods such as drugs. Communities find themselves in physical danger from poachers and criminal gangs. They may be coerced into participating in illegal activities, and are subject to threats and intimidation. Poachers are known to torture and kill anti-poaching personnel, including rangers ( IFAW, 2008).
Terrorist groups are known to profit from wildlife crime. For instance, there is evidence that the Lord’s Resistance Army, the Janjaweed and other non-state militias are the main actors behind wildlife poaching and trafficking on the DRC/Central African Republic border (Ondoua Ondoua, 2017). This chimes with a well-established practice of financing conflict through natural resources (FATF, 2015), such as the diamond trade in Angola (diamonds) and the control of oil fields by the Islamic State terrorist organisation. Protecting wildlife and other natural resources can therefore support efforts to cut off sources of terrorist financing.