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Global Scale

The chart below demonstrates the flow of the illicit wildlife trade between regions. As this chart indicates, the scope of wildlife trafficking is truly international. From origin points in countries that serve as sources of wildlife, through transit countries with infrastructure for the forward movement of wildlife shipments, to destination countries that function as end markets for wildlife specimens, a shipment of wildlife or wildlife product may traverse numerous jurisdictions during its journey.

There are undefined jurisdictions associated with globally-linked seizures. Out of these jurisdictions, undefined was associated with the highest number of wildlife product seizures between undefined and undefined.
Wildlife Trafficking Between Regions

Number of Seizures vs. Number of Country-Linked Seizures

A seizure count is the number of interdictions of wildlife or wildlife products in a given location, whereas a country-linked seizure count refers to the number of incidents of wildlife trafficking that originated, transited, or were destined for a specific country, regardless of whether or not the incident of wildlife trafficking was interdicted in that country. The county-linked seizure count of a country is therefore always equal to or greater than the seizure count of the same country.

For example, if a shipment of rhino horn originating in South Africa and destined for Vietnam is seized in transit at an airport in Turkey, Turkey would have a count of 1 for seizures and 1 for country-linked seizures; South Africa would have a count of 0 for seizures and 1 for country-linked seizures, and Vietnam would have a count of 0 for seizures and 1 for country-linked seizure.

Instances of a wildlife trafficking shipment passing through a country without being seized are considered “missed” seizure opportunities. Furthermore, in instances where a wildlife trafficking shipment is seized prior to reaching its intended destination, the destination country would be considered as having had “no opportunity” to seize the shipment. Therefore, in the prior example South Africa would be considered as having “missed” the seizure and Vietnam would be considered as having had “no opportunity” to interdict the shipment.

Country Role in Wildlife Trafficking Supply Chain
This graph shows where specific countries* are recorded to have fallen in the known trafficking route of seized wildlife shipments. This information can help stakeholders better understand the role of certain countries as sourcing, transit, and consumer locations, which in turn can help guide counter-wildlife trafficking efforts. The categorization of “origin,” “transit,” and “destination” are derived from how the trafficking routes are reported.
Since many seizures occur at transportation hubs, and the ultimate poaching location of the items is often not reported, the dataset represented in this graph tends to be biased towards classifying seizure locations, and thus countries, as “transit” locations even though it is possible that the shipment originated from within that same country as well.

*This graphic displays the 20 most frequently appearing countries in the supply chain.
Country Enforcement Success                              
This graph shows the relative success rate of specific countries in interdicting shipments of illicit wildlife that travel through their country. This information can be used to better understand how successful each country’s enforcement practices are in identifying and apprehending illicit wildlife product. Note that destination countries are more likely to have a higher proportion of seized shipments, since shipments that are not stopped at their destination cannot be seized at another airport along their route, and so will not be reported in the open source.