Closing off smuggling routes to wildlife traffickers in Africa

International wildlife trafficking syndicates have long been acting with impunity in Africa and elsewhere, but several initiatives are now underway to put them on the ropes.

As part of ongoing efforts to stop the global trade in animals parts from Africa, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) are launching a project aimed at closing maritime trafficking routes between Africa and Asia. The aim is to strengthen wildlife law enforcement at key ports in order to close them to trafficking syndicates whose activities pose an existential threat to numerous vulnerable and endangered species in Africa, from pangolins to rhinos to elephants.

Of elephant ivory alone, 403 tons were seized in a decade between 2007 and 2017, according to the Elephant Trade Information System, which monitors the illegal trade in elephant parts. That volume amounts to 54,460 dead elephants. Over the past decade tens of thousands of African elephants have been gunned down by poachers for the pachyderms’ tusks. Every 15 minutes or so a wild elephant is killed for its ivory, according to the conservationist group WildAid. The overwhelming majority of ivory thus seized from the wild has been trafficked via maritime routes because there is far less risk of interception.

During the same period, only a third of wildlife seizures were made at exit ports in Africa and only 19% of all seizures have resulted in convictions. “These statistics underscore the importance of targeting transit points and strengthening law enforcement to end incentives for wildlife poaching and stop the illegal trade in wildlife,” the United Nations says.

The newly launched US$2 million initiative, which is set to run for three years, will target two key African exit ports, which have served as entrepots for the trafficking of elephant tusks, pangolin scales and rhino horns: Mombasa in Kenya and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. The intended destination of these illegally traded animal parts is usually China, Vietnam and other Asian countries where they are used in traditional medicine and can fetch large sums on the black market.

In early October the British government hosted an international conference where 50 nations pledged to work together more closely in order to eradicate wildlife trafficking. The U.K. has said it will provide further funding for counter-poaching efforts in Africa, including training for rangers and stepped-up law enforcement.

Simultaneously, the U.S. Wildlife Trafficking Alliance is intensifying its efforts to educate travelers about the dangers of wildlife trafficking to beleaguered ecosystems. It’s doing so, in part, by help of an online tourism toolkit that warns holidaymakers against buying endangered animals or their parts. “We’re trying to combat the ignorance on the part of the traveling public that they could end up buying these products accidentally,” said Steve Powers, a travel agency owner who participates in the educational project.