Last week’s World Wildlife Day (3 March) dawned following the news of a worldwide effort to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade. With 43 countries participating, INTERPOL’s Operation Thunderbird was carried out over a three-week period (30 January—19 February) and resulted in 1,300 seizures of illegal flora, fauna and wildlife products by customs and enforcement officers.
The operation was remarkable as much for its geographic reach as for the number of resultant convictions. So far, the rap sheet lists 370 criminal investigations, 89 individuals jailed, nearly 900 suspects identified, and a wealth of gathered intelligence that will inform future enforcement efforts at local, national and international levels. Operation Thunderbird has been lauded—quite rightfully—as an example of the power of coordination.
However, this power must be qualified. Southeast Asia is both a source and a trade hub for illegally-traded wildlife. But in perusing the list of countries participating in Operation Thunderbird, I notice that several Southeast Asian nations are conspicuous by their absence: Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam are all missing. There was also no mention of China, one of the world’s biggest consumers of legal and illegal wildlife products.
In a way, the omission of these countries is not altogether surprising. At the northern border of Laos lies the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, a lawless area that has become a hot spot for wildlife crime. While the Laotian government turns a blind eye, upscale Chinese-owned casinos and resorts in the Golden Triangle openly serve up a staggering variety of illegal wildlife to cater to the appetites of Chinese tourists. Further south, uneven legislation in Malaysia provides cover for a flourishing illegal trade in sea turtle eggs, and Operation Thunderbird reported that 1.3 metric tons of red sandalwood was smuggled from Malaysia and discovered by authorities in Hong Kong. In the Philippines, illegal fishing in the South China Sea feeds the trade of live coral, ornamental fish and sea turtle eggs, while trafficked African ivory is avidly sought for devotional use. And acting as a prominent artery for all this swirling, illicit circulation, Vietnam has been identified as a trade hub for illegal wildlife products flowing between Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States.
Without these countries, the success achieved by Operation Thunderbird is proportionally diminished in scope as the worst-offending countries remain uninvolved. Compare this declawing of Operation Thunderbird to the Kyoto Protocol without ratification by the greenhouse gas-gluttonous United States, or China’s nearly 20-year silence on the ICCPR, a key human rights treaty.
The total value of the confiscations reported by Operation Thunderbird was placed at an estimated USD 5.1 million. If this figure doesn’t sound all that hefty for the spoils of a worldwide operation, that’s because it isn’t. In June 2016, a report by INTERPOL and the UN estimated the value of global environmental crime to be between USD 91-258 billion. That figure includes several types of criminal activity, from illegal logging and fishing to gold mining and trafficking of hazardous waste. Narrowing it down to illegally-trade flora and fauna, wildlife crime reporter Sharon Guynup places the value of the trade between USD 15-20 billion annually. Crunching the numbers, the collective value of all items seized by Operation Thunderbird amounts to a mere 0.026% of the upper estimate of the yearly wildlife trade.
Getting 43 countries to act coherently is a feat that is not to be understated. It is heartening to see governments working together to combat wildlife crime. A key next step is to make sure that the momentum of this collaboration continues, and that future operations place increasing pressure on Southeast Asia and other nations to participate. With dozens of species going extinct every day, wildlife crime is an issue that no government can afford to ignore.
Little Blue Dot Press 