Halcyon MUN 2019 Special Committee - Illegal Wildlife Trade

6th Annual Conference

Halcyon MUN 2019
Special Committee

Illegal Wildlife Trade

Committee:                 Special Committee

 Issue:                     Illegal Wildlife Trade

 Written by:                Mia Ciauri

 Position:                  Member of the BOD

Introduction
Millions of animals are sold illegally, and many of these species are becoming endangered.
The illegal wildlife trade has rapidly increased, threatening to overturn decades of successful
conservations. Wildlife crime is a big global business run by dangerous international
networks. Poachers and traffickers pursue profit at any cost to meet the consumer demands.
The illegal wildlife trade is the fourth biggest illegal trade in the world, and it is worth over an
estimated £15 billion annually. In the trade, wildlife and animal parts are trafficked much like
illegal drugs and arms. Many of the well known animals trafficked in this business include
elephants, rhinos and tigers and for many of them the situation is critical.

Definition of Key Terms

Poaching:
Poaching​ has been ​defined​ as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild ​animals​, usually
associated with land use rights. A poacher is​ someone who ​catches​ and ​kills​ ​animals
illegally​, and then sells them on the Illegal market for profit.

Wildlife trade:
 refers to the commerce of products that are derived from non-domesticated animals
or plants usually extracted from their natural environment or raised under controlled
conditions. It can involve the trade of living or dead individuals, tissues such as
skins, bones or meat, or other products.

Endangered animals:
 An endangered species is a species of wild animal or plant that is in danger of
extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. A species is considered
threatened if it is likely to become endangered within the near future.

General Overview
Illegal wildlife trade has long posed a genuine threat to biodiversity. Recently, however, the
increase in demand for products such as ivory, rhino horn and tiger parts has created a
market lucrative enough to attract international criminal networks. This has resulted in
populations of animals being killed and an assault on the world’s wildlife, which is destroying
global biodiversity, threatening many species with extinction and plundering valuable natural
assets. Poachers kill more than 1,000 rhinoceroses and about 20,000 elephants a year.
Poaching also threatens the last of the wild tigers in the world with only 3,890 left. Examples
of illegal wildlife trade include, poaching of elephants for ivory, tigers for their skins and
bones, rhino for their horns of ivory, pangolin scales and bear bile. Illicit wildlife products are
smuggled from African countries by transport to destination countries, mainly Asia.
Consumers then use these products in different ways from traditional medicines, collectors
items to status symbols. Wildlife trade has escalated into a major crisis as a increasing
proportion is illegal and unsustainable, and directly threatening the survival of many species
in the wild.

The illegal wildlife trade is not just an issue which affects wildlife. The trade is a enormous
international organised crime and it’s often run by horrid crime syndicates, involved in other
organised crimes and corruption. This threatens the people who live and work alongside the
wildlife being targeted. This can also affect the economic development of some of the
world’s poorest countries.

Major Parties Involved
China
China is the largest market for illegal trade products, and the market continues to grow.
China’s demand for wildlife products is driving a global trade in endangered species.
“Today’s tiger farms are basically feedlots where tigers are bred like cattle to make luxury
products, including tiger bone wine and tiger skin rugs,” said Judith Mills, author of the book,
Blood of the Tiger: A Story of Conspiracy, Greed, and the Battle to Save a Magnificent
Species​. In addition China also has bear farms, where bears are “milked” for their bile. Bile
is an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine, although pharmaceuticals that have similar
properties are widely available. Wild products are regarded as superior to farm-raised, and
the legal market simply makes it easier to launder poached animal products.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora,
also known as Cites, banned the international commercial trade of rhinos and most tigers in
1975. But for decades afterward, China permitted domestic sales of products made from
these animals. Rhino horn and tiger bone were smuggled into the country from abroad, and
tiger farms were set up in the late 1980s, some with government backing, to breed big cats
for bones, skins and parts. In 1993 China banned trade of rhino horns and tiger bone, in
response to threatened sanctions from the USA, and poaching declined significantly. Over
the years, China has taken significant steps to implement and enforce this ban through
public education campaigns, promotion of effective substitutes for tiger and rhino medicines,
and strengthening law enforcement. Allowing the legal market for the wildlife trade to resume
will be detrimental to conservation efforts, potentially increasing the demand for these
products and increasing poaching of wild tigers and rhinos. China has been a leader in the
conservation of majestic species such as elephants, and many environmental organisations
and countries are hoping the country will recognise its role in the illegal tiger and rhino trade
and maintain the ban.

South Africa:
Rhino poaching in South Africa increased from 13 to 1,004 between 2007 and 2013. South
Africa accounted for 91 per cent of the rhinos killed by poachers on the continent in 2016. In
2017, 1,028 rhinos were killed by poachers, the fifth year in a row that this number was over
1,000. The country has taken a hard line in response to its poaching crisis. In 2017, 200
suspects were arrested. From 2008 to 2015, at least 220 poachers were killed by security
forces and rangers in Kruger National Park, South Africa. South Africa is the third most

biodiverse country in the world and is thought to be home to more than 80 per cent of the
world’s rhinos. The government regards biodiversity as a vehicle for the improvement in
living standards and social upliftment. The right to conservation and the ‘secure ecologically
sustainable development and use of natural resources while promoting justifiable economic
and social development’ are included in the South African constitution. The country has five
separate TFCA agreements with Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland,
although sometimes it has differing priorities to its regional neighbours within these TFCAs.
This is because many rangers and poachers in the neighbouring countries like to cross the
border to poach and kill the rhinos for their ivory.

Timeline of Key Events

 Date                      Description of Event

 1960                      CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered
                           Species of wild fauna and flora) is formed in an international
                           agreement to protect animals in trade so that their survival is not
                           threatened

 1973                      The Endangered Species Act provides conservation for
                           threatened and endangered plants and animals in their
                           respective habitats in an effort to keep populations stable and
                           protected.

 1989                      A global ivory ban is created by CITES in an effort to reduce
                           poaching and stop the decreasing number of elephant
                           populations

 2006                      Elephant poaching spikes and 120 carcasses are found in a
                           national park in Africa

 2013                      Around 2000 dead pangolins, a very rare mammal, are seized
                           from a fishing vessel headed towards China

Previous Attempts to Resolve the Issue
CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora) is a international agreement organisation to help protect the endangered wildlife in the
world. The international species convention hosts various committee meetings and
evaluates each country’s progress since the last meeting. It measures progress towards
compliance with and enforcement of CITES commitments for the threew species groups.
International commercial trade of elephants, rhinos and tigers, and their parts and products
is almost universally prohibited by CITES, however the enforcement of this restriction
remains weak.

Projects which the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund is currently supporting to both
protect wildlife and reduce poverty include:

      ●   Saving Pangolins by Reducing Demand in South East Asia: This project, led by
          WildAid will dissuade South East Asian consumers, including in Vietnam, from
          purchasing pangolin products by debunking the false medicinal value of their
          scales and making the consumption of pangolin meat socially unacceptable.
      ●   Developing law enforcement capability in Malawi to combat wildlife crime: This
          project, led by RSPCA International with the Department of National Parks and
          Wildlife in Malawi, is training Malawian officials and supporting them in
          investigating and prosecuting wildlife crime. This includes establishing a national
          database on wildlife crime to allow better and more accurate intelligence
          gathering.
      ●   Counter Poaching Training Programme for Sub-Saharan Africa: This project, led
          by the Tusk Trust, aims to reduce poaching of rhinos and elephants by
          significantly improving law enforcement capacity in wildlife protection zones.
          Training is being provided to rangers, including proven tracking tactics. The
          project is also providing training in information gathering and analysis to improve
          coordination of national and international efforts to disrupt poaching and
          trafficking.

Possible Solutions
There are various possible solutions to decrease and hopefully eradicate the Illegal wildlife
trade, although this process would be very long and might not reach and influence the
people it reach. Working with the TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, to support
teams of rangers and local people on the ground who put their lives on the line to protect

elephants and other wildlife from poachers, could pose as a viable solution to poaching.
Exposing and closing key hot-spots and routes where ivory and other illegal products are
being traded, could help decrease the number of animals and animal parts being trafficked.
Promoting initiatives that change consumer behaviour and reduce demand for illegal wildlife
products could reduce the number of consumers from buying the illegal products. Putting
pressure on governments to improve and enforce their regulations to make it possible to end
the illegal wildlife trade, once and for all. The following points are some possible solutions to
the illegal trade of wildlife products, although not all of them would be successful and more
ideas and collaboration of governments and national organisations would have to occur to
come up with more effective long term solutions.

Bibliography
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