Introduction Wildlife Crime Pollution Crime Environmental Crime Committee Wildlife Crime Working Group Pollution Crime Working Group Conferences and Meetings News Manuals Ecomessage Partners and acknowledgements Previous projects Restricted website Links Environmental crime

Illegal Logging in Cambodia David Higgins

Elephant Killed by Poachers Bill Clark

Tiger Cubs, Thailand Faith Doherty, Environmental Investigation Agency

Wildlife crime is the taking, trading, exploiting or possessing of the world’s wild flora and fauna in contravention of national and international laws.

In wildlife crime the direct victim is the plant or animal that is exploited, rather than an individual or group of people. As such, people often do not become aware of the crime until the individual offences accumulate and leave the survival of a species in danger. It is often only then that people become concerned about the crime and its impact upon them. 

Far-reaching damage

• Some 5,000 species of animals and 28,000 species of plants as protected against international trade, as listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
• In 2004 a report by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) states that over 4,000 elephants were illegally killed each year in the African Range States.

Taking action

The beginning of 2006 saw the appointment of a fulltime desk-officer at INTERPOL to manage the wildlife crime programme, which continues to expand its activities in co-operation with INTERPOL’s Environmental Crime Committee.

Within this framework, the INTERPOL Wildlife Crime Working Group helps co-ordinate the exchange of information between member countries and supports domestic law enforcement operations.