The Legal Trade In Wild Species: Deadly By Design

The contradictions in Colombia hosting the CDB COP16 are stark. This isn’t only about the thousands of army and police officers providing security for the event; with both groups having a history of suppressing environmental activists.

It is important to state that Colombia is the deadliest place when it comes to the murder of environmental activists. Global Witness has been compiling and reporting the deadly statistics on the murders of environmental activists since 2012. These murder rates are likely higher, as they are under reported because of the fear of retaliation.

So, it is understandable that Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s environment minister, has said Cop16 is also an opportunity to draw a line under the violent conflict and was part of the motivation for the summit theme of “Peace with Nature”. If the CBD CoP16 could be a catalyst for a lasting peace with the country’s rebel groups that would be a positive. But if flip-flopping by a single warlord can decide whether or not a whole region is subject to deforestation, this highlights the importance of genuinely effective global regulatory systems; the current ones have no control over what countries, businesses and even individuals are up to.

CoP16, like all the previous meetings and conferences since the CBD entered into force in December 1993, has been about how to conserve nature, while sustainably using it and sharing the benefits of this use fairly.  The fact that there are environmental activists worldwide is a stark reminder that this hasn’t yet been achieved.

Nature has been and is being consumed at alarming rates, while making a small percentage of people richer and more powerful. This extraction has never been done in a sustainable way or a fair and equitable way. Governments worldwide long ago lost control of the trade system, when they started weakening and regulators. Why? Because they have allowed black box systems to expand when they should have been driving radical transparency.

While the trade system was never going to be perfectly sustainable or perfectly equitable, radical transparency could have kept things in check and made it easier to home in on to the root causes of discrepancies when they came to light. We have had the technology to implement this level of transparency for decades but there has been no commitment to ‘raising the floor’.  Problems grow when trade is done in the dark.

One of the biggest problems is organised crime. Colombia is second only to Myanmar on the Global Organised Crime Index. Three Latin American countries are in the top 5 of the index, which has undoubtedly contributed to the 95% decline of biodiversity since 1970 in Latin America and the Caribbean reported in WWF’ Living Planet Report.  

The Global Organised Crime Index summary states, Columbia “has some of the most sophisticated and prolific trafficking networks in the Americas”.  When it comes to environmental organised crime, the summary report says, “Colombia is plagued by wildlife trafficking. The black market for animals is thriving, with Europe being the primary destination. Birds are also heavily sought after as pets, especially on the Caribbean coast. The illegal trade is maintained by recruiting poor farmers to capture animals and resell them to organized-crime groups, which then take over the shipment and commercialization of the species.”

So undoubtedly, it has been brave move hosting CBD CoP16 in Columbia. Especially when the key customers of Columbia’s wildlife crime are also key enablers. Europe is singled out as a primary destination for Columbia’s thriving black market in wild animals, a region of the world that is home to 7 of the top 15 security jurisdictions. The Caribbean coast, also singled out a top consumer destination, has another 3 countries in the top 15.

Hosting the CBD CoP16 in Columbia is a critical reminder that organised crime goes hand-in-hand with financial secrecy jurisdictions, one can’t thrive without the other. For too long, governments have focused on organised crime, while allowing secrecy jurisdictions to thrive; this is nonsensical.  While there is no political will to close secrecy jurisdictions, there is no ability to deal with organised crime.  

In addition, for the wildlife trade, Europe is the biggest profiteer from this trade. A 2016 European Parliament Report states, “The wildlife trade is one of the most lucrative trades in the world. The LEGAL trade into the EU alone is worth EUR 100 billion annually”. Yet for all its hype of the Duty of Vigilance Laws and Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, Europe is a laggard, not a leader, when it comes to investing in the transparency needed to close the illegal trade in wild species. The legal and illegal trade in wild species are so intertwined they are functionally insuperable, yet in the recent EU document, Issues at stake at the COP16 to the Convention on Biological Diversity, wildlife trade regulation is documented as having been implemented in 1996. There is no indication that anything new is proposed or pending.

This level of wilful ignorance is indicative of the whole CBD process and equally applies to CITES. The existence of some regulations on paper is equated with having solved the problem, when all available data, including from inside the EU, show that this is not the case.

There is currently no desire to tackle organised crime, secrecy jurisdictions, the illegal wildlife trade or the unsustainability of the legal wildlife trade. Everything we see at global events such as CBD CoP16 is just window dressing, placating the NGOs and academics sounding the alarm bells of looming biodiversity collapse. Nobody in power has any desire to take on the vested interests of the rich and multinational corporations and public pressure on this issue is non-existent.

While this remains the case the legal trade in wild species will, in turn, remain deadly by design.