Body parts of endangered animals, including elephant tusks and rhino horns, seized from trafficker in Selangor, Malaysia, July 18, 2022. REUTERS/Hasnoor Hussain
July 19, 2022 - Wildlife crime threatens the very existence of some of the world's most precious forests, coral reefs, fish, and animals. But the profit motive behind wildlife crime is often unnoticed. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) estimates that the economic costs of illegal timbering alone is as high as $152 billion annually, impacting honest U.S. business by flooding markets with cheap, illegally harvested wood.
Killing iconic endangered animals such as rhinoceroses and elephants is not only horrific in the images splashed on social media, but as explained by USAID, is an illegal business worth "tens of billions" of dollars annually, and now constitutes one of the "world's largest black markets."
The same can be said for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. An estimated 32% of fish imported into the United States violates IUU requirements. That means the fish is harvested in a manner that destroys protected fisheries and reefs, kills endangered species, and is ultimately unsustainable. Again, the profits in illegal fishing are huge. A recent study from the University of British Columbia estimates that the economic costs of IUU fishing alone are as high as $50 billion annually.
The true costs of wildlife crime far exceed strictly economic factors. Wildlife crime has...
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