Wildlife Crime: Story of an International Law Lacuna

Abstract

Wildlife crime and more precisely the illicit trade of wildlife products is one of the fastest growing international crimes in connection with narcotics trafficking, human trafficking and the small arms trade. Conducted mostly by transnational crime syndicates, wildlife crime is also a source of funding for terrorist groups and armed militias in conflict ridden states contributing to the erosion of the rule of law and environmental degradation which has been expressly acknowledged by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Yet, there is no dedicated international law instrument to tackle wildlife crime. Instead, the international community relies on international cooperation and a patchwork of international instruments none of which were originally designed to deal specifically with wildlife crime. Predictably, the current legal framework does not seem to contribute that much to the prevention and eradication of wildlife crime as wildlife populations worldwide keep plummeting. If at the legal level, the adoption of an international agreement to prevent, supress and punish wildlife crime could be a step in the right direction, maybe it is humanity’s relationship with nature which needs to be reassessed especially in the light of the probable zoonotic origin of COVID-19.