Looking into Species Laundering
Our previous blog covered the intersection of wildlife trafficking and money laundering. In this blog, Dr Zara Bending delves deeper into a topic currently attracting international scrutiny: species laundering.
What is species laundering and how does it happen?
Species laundering is a deceptive practice employed by wildlife traffickers to make specimens that are subject to regulation (e.g. protected or endangered species) appear to be legally traded. Much like money laundering masks the source of illicit funds, species laundering conceals the true origin and/or threatened status of wildlife being traded.
The result? Endangered species end up in private collections, pet markets, wildlife attractions, research facilities, and even zoos under the guise of legality. In some cases, institutions that may initially appear legitimate are fronts for illegal trade, with operators claiming that animals are part of breeding or conservation programs.
Species laundering happens through various methods, primarily involving forged or falsified documentation, such as CITES permits, which make illegally traded wildlife appear legal. For example, traffickers may mislabel protected species as less-regulated species or fraudulently claim that wild-caught or harvested wildlife was bred in captivity to subvert trade restrictions.
Which species are affected?
Species popular in the exotic pet trade are well represented in those commonly laundered – these include reptiles (e.g. tortoises and snakes), birds (e.g. parrots and songbirds), big cats, and primates.
However, it’s important to note that species laundering affects the whole web of life and – while most media attention focuses attention on charismatic terrestrial animals – it impacts organisms as wide-ranging as plants, fungi, fish and even insects.
Wild orchids and succulent varieties are highly targeted to meet global demand for ornamental plants, resulting in illegally acquired specimens being passed off as “artificially propagated” or “nursery-grown” paired with fake records.
With so many lookalike species, it can be difficult to identify which ones are subject to regulation without expert knowledge or genetic testing. One important element, therefore, of trafficking enforcement is training customs officials to identify at-risk species.
What about chimpanzees?
JGIG personnel have observed cases of chimpanzees and other great apes being mis-declared as ‘monkeys’ or other primates, including instances where shipments deliberately involved mixing species together to fool customs officers.
A BBC documentary revealed the processes involved in detail, showing how young chimpanzees were caught from the wild to be exported using false licenses. In this case the traffickers not only offered investigators the possibility of licenses declaring false species and to hide the illegally trafficked chimpanzees, but also proposed false CITES Appendix 1 permits which could be fraudulently used to openly export the youngsters as chimpanzees.
There remains also grave concern about what is known as the ‘C-Scam’, using a CITES exemption (C ‘captive-bred’ source code). The largest known historical example[1] saw over 130 chimpanzees and 10 gorillas exported from Guinea between 2007 and 2011 using the ‘C’ source code in dozens of fraudulent Guinea-issued CITES permits. Since a CITES Mission in 2011 found that there were no great ape breeding facilities in Guinea, these animals must be presumed wild-caught in Guinea and other range states. Traffickers purchased fraudulent CITES export permits from national CITES Management Authority officers for an estimated USD 5,000 each.
In the face of the organized crime and corruption that funds and fuels species laundering, JGIG stands unified with our colleagues in the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance and beyond, who work to preserve sanctuaries as safe havens and providers of essential rehabilitation for wildlife following the trauma of capture and trafficking. We continue to implement our “triangle approach” to combat trafficking and work to protect chimpanzee habitat.
The most recent United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime World Wildlife Crime report documented illegal trade in 162 countries and territories during 2015-2021, affecting approximately 4,000 plant and animal species. With wildlife trafficking (and crimes affecting the environment more broadly) continuing unabated for so many species, the Institute supports efforts to ensure trade under CITES is legal, sustainable and traceable, while championing initiatives to prevent and combat wildlife crime as serious crime.
The annual revenue generated by global legal trade in wildlife (both CITES and non CITES listed) is estimated at 220 billion per annum (involving at least 70,000 species) and billions of people in all regions of the world rely on wild species for food, medicine, energy, income, and other purposes including cultural identity. It is vital therefore that the integrity of legal trade be safeguarded and not exploited as a conduit for organized crime.
The Jane Goodall Institute Global is a proud International Champion of the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime. Read more here.
[1] See Global Financial Integrity, Illicit Financial Flows and the Illegal Trade in Great Apes (Report, October 2018) 12.
Imagery credit above right (parrot): JGI/Fernando Turmo
