Battle against wildlife crime needs some concerted effort: UN report

Nagpur: Unlawful trade in about 4,000 wildlife species — 3,250 of which are listed as endangered — calls for multifaceted interventions through policy engagement, law enforcement, and market suppression to win the battle against wildlife crime, states the 3rd edition of World Wildlife Crime Report (WWCR)-2024 released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Monday.
“Thousands of threatened wildlife species are affected by wildlife trafficking and some of those worst-affected receive little public attention. Most of the analysis in this report was based on data from 2015–2021. During this period, over 1.40 lakh records of seizures were reported in 162 countries and territories,” states the report.

A total of 3,250 species involved in the seizure are listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices.
The seizures included 444 mammal species, 751 birds, 405 reptiles and 52 amphibians. As per the Indian Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, the conservation status of these species is ‘Threatened’, ‘Near Threatened’, ‘Least Concerned’ and stable or increasing. The impact of wildlife trafficking on status of wildlife species is a critical concern driving policy attention to wildlife crime, states the report.
Species worst affected include rhinoceros (29%), pangolins (28%), elephants (15%), others (8%), turtles & tortoises (2%), seahorses (2%), carnivores (2%), parrots (2%), snakes (2%), crocodilians (5%) and eels (5%). Similarly, the commodities in trade from the trafficked animals include live (15%), others (28%), medicines (10%), coral pieces (16%), and ivory, meat, roots, bodies, small leather products, shells, and extracts (31%).
On the brighter side, the report states that apparent progress with reductions in poaching and illegal trade in elephant ivory and rhinoceros horn over the past decade suggests that multifaceted interventions through policy engagement, law enforcement, and market suppression can reap rewards.
Thousands of threatened species including a wide range of reptiles, fish, birds, and mammals are affected by wildlife trafficking but a small minority of which, such as elephants, tigers, and rhinoceros, attract the majority of policy attention.
The UNODC has populated an indicator of progress towards the target to end trafficking of protected species of flora and fauna under the framework of sustainable development goals.