Wildlife trafficking in the Internet age

Abstract

There is a broad consensus that the Internet has greatly expanded possibilities for traditional transit crimes such as wildlife trafficking. However, the extent to which the Internet is exploited by criminals to carry out these types of activities and the way in which it has changed how these crimes are carried out remains under-investigated. Based on interviews and investigative cases, this paper shows the possibilities offered by a crime script approach for understanding what kind of criminal opportunities the Internet offers for conducting wildlife trafficking and how these opportunities affect the organization of this transit crime, as concerns both the carrying out of the criminal activity and the patterns of relations in and among criminal networks. It highlights how Internet-mediated wildlife trafficking is a hybrid market that combines the traditional social and economic opportunity structure with that provided by the Internet.

An open door for illegal trade: online sale of Strombocactus disciformis (Cactaceae)

“…There already exists a growing concern for the regulation of -illegally collected plants sold on the Internet (Sajeva et al 2013, Lavorgna 2014. At this point, eBay offers the option of reporting items on sale based on their prohibited and restricted items list, which includes plants and seeds.…”

CITES, wild plants, and opportunities for crime

“…Trade over the Internet over the past two decades has led to an escalation of the problem: it accelerated the illegal plant trade and made it a real Bhybrid^(online and offline) market (Lavorgna 2014). In fact, no matter how highly specialised the market in certain wild plants is, it is much easier to find potential buyers or sellers online than in the physical world (Wu 2007;Interpol 2013;Sajeva et al 2013;Lavorgna 2014;Olmos-Lau and Mandujano 2016).…”

“…In fact, no matter how highly specialised the market in certain wild plants is, it is much easier to find potential buyers or sellers online than in the physical world (Wu 2007;Interpol 2013;Sajeva et al 2013;Lavorgna 2014;Olmos-Lau and Mandujano 2016).…”

“…In other words, all these approaches build on the statement that Bopportunity makes the thief^ (Felson and Clarke 1998: v). The study of opportunity structures has already proved beneficial in research on wildlife crimes (Wellsmith 2010;Moreto and Clarke 2013;Lavorgna 2014;Lemieux 2014) but to the authors' knowledge it has never been used specifically to study CITES and wild plant crime.…”

Trophy Hunting, Conservation, and Rural Development in Zimbabwe: Issues, Options, and Implications

“…On the other hand, global and regional issues that influence trophy hunting are mostly concerned about global politics, policy issues [140,141], and illegal trade and trafficking of wildlife products [142][143][144]. Some key species especially elephant and lions are governed internationally through a quota system through CITES and tend to reduce impact on these species.…”