The illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is organised crime on a global scale, devastating wildlife and pushing some of the world’s most iconic species like elephants and rhinos towards extinction.
T his criminal trade is estimated to be worth up to $20 billion annually as poachers and traffickers illegally trade wildlife and wildlife body parts, such as rhino horn, ivory, pangolin scales or tiger parts, among many others. This illegal trade is a major threat to global biodiversity and human health, and is linked to money laundering, corruption and extreme violence, as well as the trafficking of drugs and weapons. Founded by Prince William and The Royal Foundation in 2013, United for Wildlife is an unprecedented global alliance of private sector, law enforcement, governments and not-for-profit organisations, working together at pace to raise awareness, target, disrupt and prevent cases of illegal wildlife trade. United for Wildlife has convened private sector through two Taskforces: a Financial Taskforce and a Transport
Taskforce. These Taskforces bring together some of the world’s largest businesses in the transport and financial sectors to break the chains of the illegal wildlife trade. The Transport Taskforce works with businesses throughout the transport chain to improve processes, detect illegal wildlife and develop countermeasures within the transport supply chain. While the Transport Taskforce works to stop traffickers from using transport infrastructure, the detection of illegal wildlife is not considered a success but rather the beginning of a process to uncover global networks. The Financial Taskforce are experts at using information to uncover illegal flows of illicit profits made from exploiting wildlife and other crimes. When an illegal shipment is discovered in the transport
chain, the Financial Taskforce determines exactly where the money to pay for the crime came from, where it was going to, who was involved and what other crimes this may be linked to. Financial institutions have a critical role to play in society by reporting money laundering and casting light onto criminal transactions that try to hide money flows. By sharing knowledge and information across sectors and between countries, United for Wildlife is transforming illegal wildlife trade prevention and the prosecution of those who profit from these crimes. United for Wildlife is only possible thanks to the global partnerships it has set up. These represent large proportions of the shipping, airline, and financial industries as well as government agencies, the private sector, law enforcement,
conservation NGOs and foundations.
With special thanks to Deloitte, DP World, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and Qatar Airways. Wildlife crime poses an international threat to our nature, health and security. The members of United for Wildlife are offering a global solution to end this global problem.
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