Criminal Elements: Illegal Wildlife Trafficking, Organized Crime, and National Security

Jan 19, 2018 | Saiyara Khan
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“The same criminals that are trafficking in drugs, guns, and people, traffic in wildlife,” said Christine Dawson, the director of the Office of Conservation and Water at the U.S. Department of State, at a recent event in the Wilson Center’s “Managing Our Planet” series. Experts from Vulcan Productions and Brookings Institution joined Dawson to discuss the links between national security and wildlife trafficking, which is now the fourth largest transnational crime in the world, and to mark recent legislative successes and innovative tools.

Why Does the U.S. Government Care about Wildlife Trafficking?

“Wildlife trafficking breeds corruption, empowers criminals, and generates tens of billions of dollars a year for transnational organized criminal networks,” said Dawson. “Wildlife trafficking can [also] be an indicator of weak state presence or governance,” that allows organized criminal networks and armed militia groups to undermine economic prosperity and “destroy the social fabric of communities, whose youth are conscripted as poachers and often paid in drugs,” she said.

The United States’ National Strategy for Combatting Wildlife Trafficking has three priorities: strengthening enforcement, reducing demand, and expanding international cooperation and commitment. In addition to the strategy, both the END Wildlife Trafficking Act—a bipartisan effort that Congress passed unanimously in 2016—and President Trump’s Executive Order on transnational crime recognize the ties between wildlife trafficking and organized criminal networks. Through these policies and in cooperation with regional wildlife enforcement networks, the U.S. government is committed to stopping the illegal trade both at home and abroad. “Governments can’t do it alone, [but] with all of our partners working together, we can stop it,” said Dawson.