[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":30},["ShallowReactive",2],{"author-312":3,"author-team-312":7,"author-work-312":8},{"id":4,"name":5,"image":6},312,"Patricia Raxter","7eb2cf33-1f9c-47c9-ad13-9c8f5d660595",null,{"publications":9,"news":10},[],[11,21],{"id":12,"title":13,"slug":14,"image":15,"type":16,"date":17,"body":18,"language":7,"tags":19,"translations":20},9674,"Bushmeat trafficking risks explored at a United for Wildlife Taskforce meeting","bushmeat-trafficking-risks-explored-at-a-united-for-wildlife-taskforce-meeting-1872","17c4b55a-0569-4735-85f3-b4eaa7b2079b","Blog","2020-09-24","On September 23, 2020, the Basel Institute on Governance, as part of its support to [United for Wildlife](http://unitedforwildlife.org/), organised a webinar on zoonotic disease risks associated with the trafficking in bushmeat. The event gathered members of United for Wildlife's Financial and Transport Taskforces wishing to explore this topic in more detail following a recent alert from the Basel Institute's intelligence team.\n\nPresenting to an audience of 81 participants from the airline industry, law enforcement, financial institutions, NGOs and international organisations, the speakers and panelists highlighted the pandemic and reputational risks associated with bushmeat trafficking. Panelists noted in particular the serious reputational and operational risk faced by airlines and airports servicing Africa-to-Europe routes when transporting bushmeat.\n\nFeatured speakers included:\n\n*   Rob Campbell, The Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge\n*   Dr. Tim Wittig, United for Wildlife Information Sharing System, Basel Institute on Governance\n*   Dr. Tricia Raxter, United for Wildlife Information Sharing System, Basel Institute on Governance\n*   Ian Cruickshank, United for Wildlife Transport Taskforce\n*   Denis Knauer, Border Management Expert\n*   Sandrella Morrison, University of Utrecht\n\n## Bushmeat trafficking in brief\n\nBushmeat refers to meat harvested from wild animals in Africa, though the term can be applied to wild meat sold in Asia and South America as well. This can and often does include protected species, including apes and other primates.\n\nMisconceptions around the terms make it easy to not take bushmeat trafficking seriously. Too often we equate bushmeat hunting with subsistence, rural communities and ancient traditions. In fact, the largest markets for bushmeat are in urban areas in Africa, where Africans purchase bushmeat as luxury foodstuffs preferable to farmed meat. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone, one million tons of bushmeat flows to urban markets each year. Across Central and West Africa, as much as 5 million tons of bushmeat is consumed each year.\n\nWhile few studies have been conducted, bushmeat trafficking to Europe could top more than 1,000 tons annually. Each year traffickers and individual travellers move at least 270 tons of bushmeat through Charles de Gaulle Airport in France, 40 tons via Swiss airports, and 44 tons through Brussels Airport. The only risk most passengers face is having their meat confiscated. Few arrests or prosecutions occur, though it is increasingly clear that organised crime groups regularly ferry wild meat to markets in Europe in a low-risk, high-reward scheme.\n\nIn one study of bushmeat trafficking through Switzerland’s airports, over one-third of the species seized were CITES protected species, including pangolins, primates, duikers, tortoises and small carnivores. This was in addition to non-CITES-protected species such as rodents, wild pigs and other ungulates, reptiles, birds and invertebrates.\n\nClearly, no species is immune to the threat of bushmeat trafficking, including humans: the chance of disease transference along the bushmeat supply chain is high. At the supply end, traffickers are vulnerable to contracting Ebola and other blood-borne diseases during the butchering and preserving process. Consumers are at risk of African swine fever, in addition to myriad other pathogens and diseases.\n\nIn fact, three out of every four emerging diseases originate in animals. This means it is only a matter of time before disease spillover occurs through the bushmeat trade, either in Africa or within the many bushmeat markets in Europe and beyond.\n\n## Further reading and sources\n\n*   [Bushmeat information and identification guide](https://cites.unia.es/cites/file.php/1/files/bushmeat-FSVO.pdf). A joint initiative of the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office and Tengwood Organisation\n*   [Dead or Alive: Towards a Sustainable Wildlife Trade](https://www.biodiversity.be/4859/). Presentations from a 2019 conference organised by the Belgian Biodiversity Platform and funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office\n*   [International bushmeat trade originating from West/Central Africa](https://slideplayer.com/slide/4115989/). Slides developed by the CITES Secretariat\n*   [The scale of illegal meat importation from Africa to Europe via Paris](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230177025_The_scale_of_illegal_meat_importation_from_Africa_to_Europe_via_Paris). 2010 article published in the journal _Conservation Letters_.\n*   [Screening for Viral Pathogens in African Simian Bushmeat Seized at A French Airport](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7169774/). 2016 article published in _Transboundary and emerging diseases_ vol. 64,4 (2017) and included in the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) database.\n*   [Profile of international air passengers intercepted with illegal animal products in baggage at Guarulhos and Galeão airports in Brazil](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3925492/). 2014 article published in Springerplus and included in the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) database.\n*   [Report to CITES: CITES-listed species at risk from illegal trafficking in bushmeat; results of a 2012 study in Switzerland’s International Airports](https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/111850/1/tengwood_report_to_cites.pdf). A 2014 research report of the University of Zurich.",[],[],{"id":22,"title":23,"slug":24,"image":25,"type":16,"date":26,"body":27,"language":7,"tags":28,"translations":29},9697,"Want to stop illegal wildlife trade? Be more like Malawi","want-to-stop-illegal-wildlife-trade-be-more-like-malawi-1831","21bc5261-4f9c-4347-b59d-839ae7c8114a","2020-07-31","As we have all become painfully aware, our lives can be brutally disrupted by animal-borne viruses like covid-19 that can sicken and kill people and devastate the global economy – in only seven months. We also know that the current pandemic is only the latest in a [series](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/coronavirus-global-epidemics-health-pandemic-covid-19/) of such wildlife-related diseases that are occurring more frequently and becoming [more deadly](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/02/comparing-outbreaks-coronavirus-mers-sars-health-epidemic/).\n\nWhile scientists are still trying to work out exactly how the coronavirus jumped from bats to people, it’s pretty likely the virus travelled through pangolins, the world’s most heavily trafficked mammal. These are now endangered everywhere they exist. And where do people interact with pangolins? Mostly through the [illegal wildlife trade](https://www.baselgovernance.org/illegal-wildlife-trade), involving transnational criminal syndicates making billions of dollars trafficking endangered wildlife.\n\nIt turns out the [areas](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7087654/) most threatened by wildlife trafficking are also areas at the highest risk for infectious disease emergence. While solutions revolving around [banning wild meat](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/06/ban-live-animal-markets-pandemics-un-biodiversity-chief-age-of-extinction) markets and more tightly [regulating](https://www.eurogroupforanimals.org/news/meps-support-call-eu-positive-list-species-allowed-pets) the sale of wildlife might help in the long term, Malawi and other developing and emerging countries might be enacting a simpler and more immediate solution - putting wildlife poachers and traffickers in prison.\n\n## What is Malawi doing right?\n\nIn short, Malawi is beginning to hold wildlife traffickers more accountable for their actions by imposing [deterrent custodial sentences](http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-01/01/c_138671465.htm) for high-level offenders. Malawi just identified, investigated, arrested, tried, and sentenced a wildlife trafficking syndicate, including its kingpin, in less than a year. The convicted [Chinese and Malawian](https://www.courthousenews.com/malawi-jails-9-chinese-wildlife-trafficking-gang-members/) traffickers were sentenced to a combined 56 years in prison in June 2020, and the Chinese criminals face deportation upon release. One reason their sentences are so long is that Malawi convicted them of financial crimes and [conspiracy](https://eia-international.org/press-releases/wildlife-crime-syndicate-members-jailed-in-malawi-for-total-of-56-5-years-kingpin-due-in-court-later-this-week/) as well as wildlife trafficking. This is something that needs to happen systematically across all affected countries to deter organised crime.\n\nAnd Malawi is not alone - some of its neighbours have increased penalties and enforcement for poachers and traffickers. In 2019 Tanzania convicted ivory trafficker [Yang Feng Glan](https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/chinese-queen-of-ivory-sentenced-to-15-years-in-jail-for-tusk-trafficking/) and two members of her criminal syndicate to 15 years each in prison, as well as a fine of [double the ivory market value](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tanzania-poaching/chinese-ivory-queen-smuggler-sentenced-to-15-years-jail-in-tanzania-idUSKCN1Q81L7#:~:text=Kisutu%20Court%20Magistrate%20Huruma%20Shaidi,another%20two%20years%20in%20prison.) they were caught trafficking.\n\nMeanwhile, in Vietnam a repeat trafficker had her prison [sentence doubled](https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/illegal-wildlife-trade-wild-animals-vietnam-jail-a9517541.html) on appeal to five years for trafficking king cobras, monitor lizards, turtles and other rare species earlier this year. Even better, in the same month a Vietnamese court sentenced a pangolin trafficker to [13 years in prison](https://vietnamnews.vn/environment/716734/company-director-sentenced-to-13-years-in-jail-for-wildlife-trafficking.html), a sentence practically unheard of in the West for wildlife trafficking. Often presented as the bad guy for their role in wildlife trafficking, even China has stepped up, in 2019 sentencing [11 traffickers](https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/RB3.dec19Jan20.pdf) between 6 and 15 years for trafficking ivory from [Mozambique](https://mag.wcoomd.org/magazine/wco-news-88/china-customs-disrupts-wildlife-trafficking-syndicate/).\n\nWhile many states in source countries are still struggling to address poaching and trafficking, particularly in the [forestry](https://eia-global.org/campaigns/forests) and [fishing](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/27/chinese-fishing-vessels-galapagos-islands) sectors, the [significant efforts](https://www.awf.org/blog/strengthening-africas-criminal-justice-systems-fight-illegal-wildlife-trade) to strengthen laws and enforce them are starting to reap benefits.\n\n## Do as I say, not as I do….\n\n[Europe](https://ec.europa.eu/environment/cites/traf_steps_en.htm) and the [US](https://www.fws.gov/news/ShowNews.cfm?ref=u.s.-government-bolsters-overseas-law-enforcement-capacity-to--combat-&_ID=36326) have worked for decades with governments in areas at high risk for wildlife crime in Africa and Asia to improve investigations and achieve meaningful convictions. But they have been less effective at home. In Western countries, laws and penalties are often [weak or unenforced](https://www.dw.com/en/europe-a-silent-hub-of-illegal-wildlife-trade/a-37183459). Criminals too often [get away](https://earthjournalism.net/stories/investigation-reveals-illegal-wildlife-trade-is-rife-in-eastern-europe) with [little or no jail time](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301364184_Wildlife_crime_in_Spain_In-depth_Analysis_for_the_ENVI_Committee_of_the_European_Parliament_2016#pf21). Fines, where applied, are not commensurate with the value of the trade or the damage to wildlife and biodiversity. Sentencing has likely never taken into account the risks traffickers take in exposing others to pandemic disease.\n\nPerhaps the most egregious example of punishment not fitting a crime comes from the UK. Earlier this year, a wildlife criminal received a [two-year suspended sentence](https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/seafood-salesman-convicted-of-eelegally-smuggling-53million-worth-of-european-eels-through-the-uk) for trafficking USD 63 million in eels to China. Also this year, in Germany a [Dutch bird trafficker](https://www.impel-esix.eu/dutch-bird-smugglers-convicted-in-germany/) caught with more than 70 exotic birds of various species poached from the wild received a fine of less than EUR 5,000.\n\nThe paltry fines and non-custodial sentences in many places make the two-year prison sentence a [Vietnamese tiger](https://apnews.com/d2d16159bc1d4461b4f2cbc5b8236358) trafficker operating in the Czech Republic received in 2019 seem more reasonable… until you learn that he was involved in a [significant transnational tiger trafficking ring](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/19/gruesome-discovery-of-czech-tiger-farm-exposes-illegal-trade-in-heart-of-europe) which included a tiger zoo that bred tigers for slaughter, a butchering facility where tigers were turned into gelatin to supply traditional medicine markets, and the transnational sales of skins, bones and claws. Investigators spent five years unravelling the network, three more years than the traffickers will spend in jail.\n\nAustralia and the US could also learn from Malawi.\n\nIn Australia, a [repeat offender](https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/illegal-snake-trader-neil-simpson-fined-20000-for-illegal-importation/news-story/a0af304345ebbe023aca912125c83d96) convicted of illegally importing and exporting wildlife was forced to pay about AUD 38,000 in fines for his second offence involving the trafficking of animals worth many times the fine. On his [third conviction](https://www.cdpp.gov.au/news/man-caught-dealing-native-australian-animals), he received a suspended sentence. Unsurprisingly the same individual was charged as recently as June 2020 with wildlife trafficking in a [new case.](https://www.awe.gov.au/news/media-releases/two-arrested-wildlife-trafficking-operation)\n\nIn the US, a [rhino horn trafficker](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/irish-national-sentenced-prison-trafficking-rhinoceros-horns) convicted for trafficking a horn at USD 50,000, and trying to sell 10 more horns worth at least that much each, received a one-year sentence. Another man in the US convicted of trafficking [1,000 box turtles](https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndok/pr/new-jersey-man-sentenced-smuggling-over-1000-illegally-collected-box-turtles-oklahoma) to China worth around a [million dollars](https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-turtle-black-market-china-20170604-story.html) paid fines and fees totaling USD 350,000 and received two years _of probation_.\n\n## So let’s practice what we preach, and start acting like Malawi\n\nVery few countries have taken wildlife crime seriously, despite the threats to biodiversity and pandemic disease, or connections with serious transnational organised crime. Low-level offenders make up the bulk of arrests and convictions, while intermediaries, kingpins and corrupt officials enable them to go free. Far too often, convicted traffickers immediately re-offend, assured that the low fines and weak penalties will continue to simply be the “cost of doing business”.\n\nCustodial sentences and fines that reflect the seriousness of the crime, including the monetary value of products trafficked and the associated risks to human health and biodiversity, serve as a deterrent to would-be criminals. That will save wild animals and help preserve our fast-diminishing biodiversity. And it may just help stop the next pandemic before it occurs.",[],[],1784560127196]