Part 2 of the Wildlife crime – understanding risks, avenues for action learning series provides companies, policy makers, practitioners and law enforcement with information and background knowledge on crime and corruption in the exotic pet trade.
4. Captive breeding and wildlife laundering
4.3. Enforcement challenges at entry points
Wildlife seizures typically occur during customs checks at international borders, but significant impediments hamper efforts to disrupt IWT. In too many cases, customs officers may believe that seizing wildlife is a burden and the crime will not be taken seriously. Challenges include:
- Difficulty for customs officers to determine species or their body parts.
- Confusion over who to report instances of wildlife crime to.
- Identifying the difference between real, faked or illegally altered CITES certificates.
- Corruption.
- Inadequate checking of paperwork as animal welfare considerations often make thorough checks unfeasible.
- Scarce resources and knowledge of officers tasked with enforcing wildlife crime legislation at points of entry.
- Low reporting of offences due to a lack of follow-up or penalties for offenders.
- Lack of information on the scope and scale of the trade domestically or internationally, making it difficult for officials to take crime seriously.
Proactive efforts by the private sector to prevent illegally trafficked animals from entering transport chains are essential to supplement the work of customs agencies and law enforcement (Wannenwetsch & Guy, 2020). Among those leading these efforts is the United for Wildlife Transport Taskforce and the ROUTES Partnership.