Tim Wittig
Publications and news by Tim Wittig.
Publications
Perspectives 1: Impacts of illegal wildlife trade on business
Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is in the global spotlight thanks to its alleged role in triggering the coronavirus pandemic. It is sparking vivid debate among communities of experts not just in conservation, but in business, finance, technology, anti-corruption forces and law.
One such debate is taking place in the ranks of litigation service providers and economic crime experts of the International Academy of Financial Crime Litigators and IWT specialists at the Basel Institute on Governance.
This short series presents their different expert perspectives on topics crucial to combating IWT.
In this edition, Dr. Timothy Wittig, Senior IWT Specialist at the Basel Institute on Governance and Antenor Madruga, Partner at FeldensMadruga and Fellow of the International Academy of Financial Crime Litigators, explore the impacts of illegal wildlife trade on business.
Special analysis: How will COVID-19 impact global wildlife trafficking?
This special analysis provides a predictive assessment of likely impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on illegal wildlife trade activities, associated risks to transport and finance companies, and possible futures in our response.
It is a United for Wildlife Taskforce report published in partnership with the Basel Institute on Governance.
Terrorism, Conflict, and Ivory Trafficking: Myth & Reality
The relationship between conflict and terrorism and ivory trafficking is often poorly understood.
This article examines some of the realties underpinning this relationship, and calls for greater cross-sector cooperation in responses to ivory trafficking.
Poaching, Wildlife Trafficking and Organised Crime
One of the most serious security threats posed by poaching and wildlife trafficking may also be one of the least well documented: their relationship with organised crime.
To shed light on the subject, this chapter analyses the most common narratives on the link between poaching, wildlife trafficking and organised crime – and the security threat this link poses in African source and transit countries.
The focus is predominantly on higher-level wildlife trafficking beyond the poaching stage. Here, the chapter argues that the dominant narratives frequently assert the fact of organised criminal involvement without going as far as they might to consider its security implications.
The chapter goes on to highlight a number of obstacles to addressing these security dimensions. It does so emphasising the stumbling blocks posed by a lack of understanding of the precise dynamics of wildlife trafficking and its overlaps with other forms of organised crime.
This chapter appears in Haenlein, Cathy, M. L. R. Smith, eds. Poaching, Wildlife Trafficking and Security in Africa: Myths and Realities. Whitehall Paper 86. London: Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, 2016. ISBN: 9781138743779
Threat Finance
From the Taliban in Southwest Asia to al Shabaab in the Horn of Africa to drug-trafficking organizations in Mexico, the behavior, capabilities, and ultimate success or failure of terrorist, criminal, and other transnational threats are closely tied to economic and financial factors.
This close link among an adversary’s operational, strategic, and financial dynamics is widely recognized and has spawned a boutique art aimed at countering and taking advantage of what has come to be known as “threat finance” within not only the Special Operations Forces (SOF) but also within conventional military units, interagency counterterrorism and intelligence efforts, law enforcement, and the financial and charity sectors.
Threat finance is a critical issue for both undergrounds and SOF. Learning to understand economic and financial dynamics and leverage them for effect is a critical and perhaps underused weapon in the national security arsenal.
This article was published on pp.97-132 of Hahn, Erin, ed. *Special Topics in Irregular Warfare: Understanding Resistance. *US Army Special Operations Command, 2016.
A Social Model of Conservation to Fight Wildlife Trafficking: What Conservationists Can Learn from Public Health
The key determinants of whether particular species and ecosystems will live or die today are social factors – criminal behavior, political corruption, consumer behavior, land use decisions, cultural norms and practices, individual psychology, conflict, poverty, local livelihood choices, socio-economic inequalities, et al. But despite recognizing that our current biodiversity catastrophe has human, social roots, conservationists and environmentalists have yet to translate such consensus into action to save wildlife and the natural environment on a wide scale.
This article examines this paradox in terms of efforts to combat illicit wildlife trafficking, and proposes a social model of conservation, which is focused on systematically identifying and addressing the social determinants of wildlife trafficking and presents an alternative to conventional – yet in many instances failing – bio-scientific models of conservation.
This article focuses exclusively on the worldwide poaching crisis impacting most acutely charismatic and other economically valuable species, but likely has applicability to other important drivers of extinction and species decline such as habitat loss, ocean acidification, pollution, climate change, or other human-driven causes.
It was originally issued in 2015 with minor updates in 2017.
Understanding Terrorist Finance
Understanding Terrorist Finance provides powerful new insights into the financial and economic realities of terrorist groups. Dispelling popular myths, the book presents the first unified coherent framework for the systematic analysis of terrorist finance and includes empirical studies of the financing of groups in Europe, Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East.
Wittig finds that the activities typically represented as ‘terrorist finance’, such as donations, criminal activities and weapons procurement, ought to be understood in terms of how terrorist groups – as socio-political actors – access and interact with flows of economic value rather than as elements of an illicit financial edifice supposedly underpinning global terrorism.
The book represents a significant contribution to both research and practice.
News and blog
Impacts of illegal wildlife trade on business – risks, but also opportunities
Illegal wildlife trade IWT is in the global spotlight thanks to its alleged role in triggering the coronavirus pandemic. It is sparking vivid debate among communities of experts not just in conservation, but in business, finance, technology, anti-corruption forces and law. One such debate is taking place in the ranks of litigation service providers and economic crime experts of the International Academy of Financial Crime Litigators and IWT specialists at the Basel Institute on Governance. We have decided to publish a short series highlighting different expert perspectives on topics crucial to combating IWT. In the article below, Dr. Timothy Wittig, Senior IWT Specialist at the Basel Institute on Governance, explores the impacts of IWT on business. Risks – but also opportunities ============================== Five years ago, illegal wildlife trade IWT was not on the radar of most companies. Wildlife protection was viewed as just a conservation issue, something for charities to take care of. Now it’s on everyone’s lips. The covid-19 pandemic, likely triggered by illegally traded wildlife, has helped to propel the issue into the global spotlight. Fortunately, companies in the transportation and financial sectors had already started to recognise their exposure to the risks of being abused by wildlife traffickers. What risks? IWT exposes companies to a host of risks, not only those directly associated with wildlife and its protection. Why? Because it significantly converges with money laundering, financial crime, drug trafficking, human trafficking and threat finance, as well as climate change and humanitarian welfare issues. For example, heroin trafficking networks in East Africa are known to also be heavily involved in the ivory and rhino horn trades. Illegal logging virtually always overlaps with high-level corruption and kleptocracy, and is itself an important driver of climate change. So as IWT converges with all of these issues, corporate risk managers are now realising that they need to include IWT in their risk analysis and mitigation processes. Until now, frankly, IWT has been a big blind spot. These vulnerabilities are now being recognised in international policy and regulatory circles. The Financial Action Task Force FATF , for example, has released guidance on tackling financial flows linked to IWT. The regulatory net is tightening. On the business side of things, companies are under increasing pressure from investors and asset managers to mitigate risks related to environmental, social, and governance ESG issues. The pressure has increased with covid-19. Crucially, it includes ensuring integrity and sustainability throughout the company’s entire supply chain. Demonstrating that your company is not fuelling organised crime or contributing to habitat destruction – even down to raw material suppliers - is a big part of that. Real opportunities Personally, I find IWT an incredibly rewarding field to work in because there are real opportunities to make a meaningful positive difference in the world. One of the best specific examples is the United for Wildlife Transport and Financial Taskforces, a global initiative of the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The Taskforces aim to mobilise the private sector against wildlife trafficking using high-level formal commitments backed up by the sharing of actionable intelligence. The Taskforces were founded four years ago with12 companies, but now have expanded to include over 150 global companies from the banking, money and financial services, maritime shipping, airline, express delivery, and port operations industries. Just formally convening such a group around an issue like IWT is a major accomplishment. More importantly together these companies have made huge tangible impact against IWT. Starting from near zero, they are now able to identify and mitigate IWT-related risks internally, share and action intelligence on IWT, and more broadly make active contributions to law enforcement and government efforts to stop global wildlife trafficking. I have had the honour of working with the Taskforces since their inception as their head of intelligence and analysis. I can say from long experience that the secret to their success are all the unsung working-level heroes within these companies who have recognised the importance of IWT to their companies and to the world. Quietly and without fanfare, they have literally moved entire industries in a more sustainable direction. Now supported by the Basel Institute’s IWT intelligence team, our job is to help these companies expand on this success. Next up: tech firms and lawyers Despite impressive progress against IWT in the financial and transportation sectors, the clear outliers in private-sector action against illegal wildlife trade are the big tech monopolies. Social media platforms act as a huge and largely unregulated online marketplace for illegal wildlife trade – even more so now that physical movement is restricted by pandemic lockdowns. Who will tighten the net here? Perhaps lawyers can. General counsel offices of our partner companies in the Financial and Transport Taskforces are leading the way in using IWT intelligence as an opportunity to strengthen corporate risk management systems as well as to communicate overall sustainability principles. Looking forward, private law firms can help their clients understand and manage the risks to their business posed by environmental crime. And law professors can include illegal wildlife trade on academic curriculums – safe in the knowledge that this is an issue that, for companies at least, is only going to get more important. To view the alternative perspective on this topic by Antenor Madruga, Partner at FeldensMadruga and Fellow of the International Academy of Financial Crime Litigators, see The Academy's website or download the PDF.
COVID-19: How anti-corruption tools and industry collaboration can help us win the fight against illegal wildlife trade
Conservationists and public health experts alike have welcomed the recent renewed commitment by the Chinese government to eliminate illegal wildlife trade in response to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 emergency. On 26 January, China ordered a temporary ban on all trade in wild animals, and since then Chinese authorities have reportedly seized 38,000 live animals along with 2,347 kg of wildlife products, and punished almost 700 offenders. Many hope this ban will become permanent, at least in terms of the world’s most vulnerable species. As former UK Foreign Secretary William Hague states powerfully in a recent article, “Capturing, trading and consuming endangered species should have no place in the modern world.” This represents a clear and correct call to action, but one that comes with a note of caution. Corruption risks nullifying any attempts to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade and the organised crime networks behind it. Research shows that corruption lubricates illegal wildlife trade at all levels, from officials turning a blind eye to corrupted employees bypassing security checks at ports and airports, to the intentional misuse of the legal wildlife trade as a cover for illicit activity. It’s not just academic. Many of the exotic animals traded at the market at the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak were imported in violation of Chinese customs regulations, having been smuggled under cover of some other commodity or trafficked by criminals facilitated by unscrupulous business people and government officials all along the illicit supply chain. The market itself where the virus seems to have originated nominally passed inspections late last year. Lord Hague’s article describes how the efforts of Chinese law enforcement officials to fight illegal wildlife trade are "hampered by vendors using licenses to sell legal products such as hares and deer, as a cover for the illegal products kept under the counter." Corruption, we find, lies at the centre of the problem. Put even more bluntly, the novel coronavirus crisis would not exist without the globalised illegal trade in wildlife, and in turn the illegal wildlife trade cannot exist at this dangerous scale without corruption. In context of the current public health emergency at least, one thing is clear: corruption kills. The question we face now is to what extent anti-corruption will form part of the picture – not just in China but in other countries battling to tackle the world’s fourth largest illegal trade. Thankfully, there is help available. Unlocking the power of the private sector Wildlife traffickers often currently operate with impunity, but they suffer from two major vulnerabilities. First, virtually all illegal wildlife moves commercially. Wildlife trafficking networks exploit commercial transport services such as shipping, trucking, air cargo, and passenger flights to smuggle illegal wildlife, leaving trafficker access to commercial transport a key chokepoint. Second, global wildlife trafficking relies on a complex international supply chain, but one that is in most cases backed by and constructed for the monetary benefit of a relatively small number of key corrupt financiers and facilitators. Even though payments at the source and retail levels are often in cash, these middlemen rely on the international financial system to fund their illegal activities and launder their profits, often in combination with other illicit business. Combined, this means the private sector can be a powerful partner in efforts to eliminate the illegal wildlife trade and combat the corruption that is its lifeblood. The United for Wildlife Taskforces, an initiative of The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, brings together the world’s leading transport and financial firms along with field experts and law enforcement to do just that. Through this collective network and its intelligence-sharing system implemented by the Basel Institute on Governance, private-sector members can access – and share – crucial information on wildlife trafficking. This can be the key that investigators need to crack cases. It also helps the companies and industry bodies make it more difficult for wildlife traffickers to misuse private-sector infrastructure and systems for their illegal activities, and be more prepared to address corruption risks that exist in many key transport and finance hubs for wildlife trafficking. Following recent Taskforce industry events in London, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Johannesburg, and Nairobi, numerous firms have shown increased interest in joining the initiative. This is particularly true in the financial sector, where banks have embraced the fight against wildlife trafficking as a way to enhance their compliance and risk management systems as well as contribute to more environmentally sustainable business models. In this vein, the global money laundering watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force FATF , under the current Chinese presidency recently committed to prioritise wildlife trafficking. This increased interest is highly welcome, because the success of collective action is highly dependent on achieving the right critical mass. Transnational crime needs transnational, cross-sector cooperation It’s often said that the criminals are able to cooperate much better than the people trying to fight them. How does this model of intelligence-sharing and collaboration across borders and between the public and private sectors work? A recent case story gives a flavour. A major transnational wildlife trafficking syndicate operating across Africa and into Asia was taken down in June 2019, following a complex investigation coordinated across multiple countries and law enforcement actors. The four suspects were indicted in the United States on charges related to ivory and rhino horn trafficking, heroin trafficking, money laundering, conspiracy, and other financial crime offences. The collaboration of private-sector companies and on-the-ground NGOs in providing information that led to this successful strike was crucial. You can read about it in this in-depth article by CBS News. Beyond the impacts of this particular case, the investigation marks a watershed moment in how the world is responding to wildlife trafficking. In particular, it demonstrates: The power of a new model of collaboration across law enforcement, private, and non-governmental sectors. The ability to successfully bring to justice “untouchables” - and do so in a way that they are sure to prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law without the risk of corruption of the process. The potential of being able to execute coordinated law enforcement operations across multiple countries in the wildlife trafficking arena. To truly disrupt and destroy trafficking networks, this is what is needed. The use of the “follow the money” approach, in both the investigation and also in regard to charging the suspects for money laundering and financial crime offences. This is standard in cases of grand corruption, but very new for wildlife trafficking. Cases like this demonstrate that wildlife traffickers who considered themselves “untouchable” are no longer safe from the reach of law enforcement. And that, with the help of anti-corruption tools and collective initiatives such as the United for Wildlife Transport and Financial Taskforces, actors in the private, public and third sectors can help turn commitments against illegal wildlife trade into action and into lasting positive impact for our planet and human health.