Wildlife trade is enormous, ranging from legal timber, fish and pets to organised crime smuggling ivory, rhino horn and pangolins. Illegal wildlife trade is widely estimated to be worth billions of dollars a year and is one of the most direct threats to many species. This module explains how trade is regulated, how trafficking works and how it is fought.
What you will learn
- The scale and types of wildlife trade
- How CITES regulates international trade
- How trafficking networks operate
- Tools for fighting wildlife crime, and what travellers can do
Legal and illegal trade
Most wildlife trade is legal: fisheries, timber, farmed crocodile skins, captive-bred pets, medicinal plants. It becomes a problem when it is unsustainable, and a crime when it breaks national or international law. Illegal trade includes poaching protected species, smuggling across borders without permits, laundering wild-caught animals as “captive bred”, and selling protected species online.
Commonly trafficked products include elephant ivory (carvings and jewellery), rhino horn, pangolin scales and meat, tiger and other big cat parts, bear bile, reptiles, birds and primates for the pet trade, totoaba swim bladders (driving the vaquita’s decline), shark fins, sea cucumbers, rosewood timber and rare orchids and cacti.
CITES
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) came into force in 1975 and now has over 180 member parties. It regulates international trade (not trade within countries) through three appendices:
| Appendix | Level of protection | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| I | Species threatened with extinction; commercial international trade essentially banned | Tigers, most rhinos, great apes, all pangolins (since 2017), sea turtles |
| II | Trade allowed with permits showing it is legal and not detrimental to survival | Many parrots, sharks, corals, some crocodiles, most orchids |
| III | Species protected in at least one country that asks others for help | Various, listed by individual countries |
Each party has a Management Authority that issues permits and a Scientific Authority that advises whether trade is sustainable. Parties meet every two to three years at a Conference of the Parties (CoP) to change listings. CITES is powerful but depends on national laws and enforcement.
National laws are equally important. They protect species within a country, set penalties and regulate domestic markets. China’s closure of its legal domestic ivory market at the end of 2017 was a major step against elephant poaching.
How trafficking works
Wildlife trafficking often involves organised networks:
- Poachers, often poor local people paid small sums, sometimes armed groups.
- Middlemen who collect and consolidate products.
- Traffickers who move them across borders, hidden in shipping containers, air luggage or mail, using corruption at ports and borders.
- Traders and buyers in destination markets, increasingly online.
Routes change as enforcement shifts. Ports in East Africa and hubs in Southeast Asia have been major transit points for ivory and pangolin scales to East Asian markets.
Fighting wildlife crime
- Frontline protection: rangers, patrols, intelligence, sniffer dogs at airports and ports.
- Wildlife forensics: DNA analysis identifies species and even the geographic origin of seized ivory. Research led by Samuel Wasser at the University of Washington used DNA from seized tusks to map poaching hotspots and link seizures to the same trafficking networks. Isotope analysis and morphology also help.
- Following the money: financial investigations and anti-money-laundering laws target the profits of organised networks.
- Prosecution and sentencing: strong laws and trained prosecutors and judges; many countries have increased penalties.
- International cooperation: INTERPOL, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the ICCWC consortium and regional wildlife enforcement networks.
- Technology companies: online platforms working with NGOs to remove illegal wildlife listings.
- Demand reduction: campaigns to change consumer behaviour, for example reducing demand for rhino horn and ivory in key markets.
- Monitoring: organisations such as TRAFFIC track trade and publish research.
Zoonotic disease and trade
Live wildlife markets and trade can bring stressed animals of many species together with people, creating conditions for diseases to jump between species. After the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries tightened rules on wildlife trade and consumption, and One Health approaches have gained attention (Ecology Module 13).
What travellers can do
- Do not buy souvenirs made from ivory, tortoiseshell, coral, shells, big cat skins, reptile skins or rosewood.
- Avoid wildlife “selfies” with captive slow lorises, sloths, monkeys or cubs, which fuel the capture of wild animals.
- Do not eat bushmeat, shark fin soup or wildlife dishes from illegal sources.
- Report suspicious wildlife products or online listings to authorities or organisations such as TRAFFIC.
- Choose responsible operators who follow ethical wildlife guidelines.
Case study: pangolins
Pangolins, scaly anteaters found in Africa and Asia, are thought to be the most trafficked wild mammals in the world, hunted for their meat and for scales used in traditional medicine, although the scales are made of keratin like human nails. In 2016, CITES moved all eight pangolin species to Appendix I, banning international commercial trade from 2017. Huge seizures continued, including shipments of more than 10 tonnes of scales at a time, representing tens of thousands of animals. China removed pangolin scales from its official pharmacopoeia list of approved medicines in 2020 and raised pangolins to the highest level of legal protection. Rescue centres rehabilitate confiscated pangolins, but the trade remains a severe threat.
Try it yourself
Search a major online marketplace for “ivory”, “tortoiseshell” or “exotic pet”. What do you find, and how is it described? How could a buyer tell whether a product is legal?
Key terms
- CITES: the international treaty regulating trade in listed species.
- Appendix I and II: CITES categories for the most threatened species and for species needing controlled trade.
- Laundering: passing off illegally obtained wildlife as legal, for example as captive bred.
- Wildlife forensics: scientific methods used to investigate wildlife crime.
- Demand reduction: efforts to reduce consumer demand for illegal wildlife products.
Quick quiz
Further reading
- UNODC (2024). World Wildlife Crime Report.
- CITES Secretariat (cites.org) and TRAFFIC (traffic.org).