Illegal Wildlife Trade and Diseases Flashcards

Illegal Wildlife Trade and Diseases

Overview

• The presentation discusses the illegal wildlife trade (IWT), associated challenges, the role of genetics, biosecurity, and disease.

Learning Outcomes

• Explain the factors and impact of illegal wildlife trade on the conservation of flora, fauna, and the spread of diseases.
• Discuss the applications and limitations of some molecular methods to detect and monitor diseases as a result of illegal wildlife trade.

Crimes Against Wildlife

• Illegal taking/poaching.
• Illegal possessing.
• Illegal trading, shipping, or moving.
• Inflicting cruelty or persecution of wildlife in breach of these laws.
• Illegal activities can be hidden within legal activities (e.g., farming peccaries for skin trade or capybaras for meat consumption with permits, but animals are sourced from the wild).
• The trade in animals, plants, and their derivatives is a driver of the current sixth mass extinction event.

Poaching

• Illegal shooting/hunting, trapping, or capture of game or fish from areas, reserves, natural parks, or other places where these practices are not permitted (associated with land use rights).
• Illegal logging or harvesting of wild plant species from areas, reserves, natural parks, or places where these practices are not permitted.

The Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT)

• In 2016, the UN estimated the global illegal wildlife trade was worth US$7-23 billion.
• Difficult to produce an exact number due to its illicit nature and poor policing.
• Third only to drugs and human trafficking in activity levels.
• Main purposes for trafficking are for tourist souvenirs, traditional medicine, bushmeat, and live animals for pets.
• Main products range from food to ornaments to construction including elephant ivory, rhino horn, tiger skins and bone, bear bile, pangolin scales and many more.
• Various reasons for people getting involved in illegal wildlife trade (e.g., poverty, subsistence, limited socioeconomic alternatives, flexible or lack of implementation of protection laws, government corruption).

Key Actors Involved in the IWT Market Chain

• Consumers: Buy wildlife products.
• Vendors: Sell these products to consumers.
• Manufacturers: Receive and modify wildlife parts to create marketable products.
• Syndicates: Acquire bundles of wildlife products in destination countries and redistribute to manufacturers.
• Runners: Move wildlife products from origin to destination, often through transit countries.
• Poachers: Kill and remove wildlife from their habitats.

CITES

• Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of wild flora and fauna.
• Currently has 183 international members (countries and states).
• Ensures that international trade of species does not threaten their survival.
• All species are grouped according to the level of protection they need:
  • Appendix I – Species threatened with extinction. Trade is allowed only in exceptional circumstances.
  • Appendix II – Species are vulnerable, and trade must be controlled to ensure their survival.
  • Appendix III – Species are protected in at least one country, which has asked CITES for assistance in controlling trade.

CITES Wildlife TradeView

• Visualizing CITES trade data over time, by species or by country.
• CITES regulates legal trade.
• Examples of search by taxon: African elephant (Loxodonta Africana) since 2013, and search by country: Australia.
• Top Taxa (exports): Acropora, Crocodylus porosus.

Examples of Illegal Wildlife Trade

Pangolins

• 20 tonnes of pangolins and their parts are trafficked internationally each year.
• An estimated one million animals have been poached in the last decade.
• There are eight species of pangolin: four in Africa and four in Asia.
• The majority of pangolins consumed in Asia are poached in Africa.
• The most trafficked animal in the world.
• Main hotspots are in Vietnam, mainland China and Hong Kong.
• Thought to cure hangovers, treat liver conditions, and help mothers breastfeed.
• Pangolin meat is a delicacy eaten by the wealthy as a display of status.

African Rhinos

• White and black rhinos hunted for their horns.
• Used for beads, bracelets, bangles etc.
• Powdered and consumed as a cure for cancer.
• Vietnam and China are the primary consumer markets.
• 96% of black rhinos were poached between 1972 and 1996.
• There are four subspecies of black rhino, one of which is extinct.
• There are two subspecies of white rhino, one of which only has two females left.
• Three rhinos are poached every day in South Africa.

African Elephant

• 90% of African elephants have been killed in the last 100 years.
• 55 elephants are poached in Africa each day.
• Global market for elephant ivory.
• Some markets in Europe, North America and Asia have closed in the last 20 years, but many remain.
• At the start of 2018 China closed its legal ivory market in the hoped of curbing the illegal market.
• Last year Singapore agreed to do the same.

Legal Ivory

• International trade was banned in 1975 for Asian elephant ivory and 1989 for African ivory.
• CITES has approved two legal sales out of Africa since, to Japan in 1999 and China in 2008.
• Domestic markets are legal for ivory produced prior to the ban.
• Antiques or legal stockpiles are allowed to be sold in many countries.
• Some antiques can also be sold internationally with CITES permits.

Reflection points:

• Concerns that a halt to legal international trade has increased the prices of ivory and given more incentives to poachers.
• Could legal trade of ivory from naturally deceased elephants be a solution?
• Does legal domestic trade suggest to people that there is no real reason international trade should be banned and so they are more comfortable with buying black market ivory?
• Are poachers filtering illegal ivory into the legal markets?
• What do you think the major challenges in monitoring this would be?

Malayan Sun Bear

• Hunted for traditional medicines – bear bile.
• Sore throats, fever, sprains, epilepsy, inflammation, more.
• Some basis in science – synthetic bile does the same.
• Keystone species in their habitats on Sumatra, Borneo and mainland south-east Asia.
• Seed dispersal, pest control, nutrient cycling.
• Create tree cavities for other species with their claws.
• Sun bears are farmed to protect wild populations.
• Lack of regulation means some farms are restocked from wild populations and not captive bred ones.

Australian Illegal Wildlife

• Australia has many unique animals which makes them popular targets for illegal trade.
• 67 native Australian species are on the CITES Appendix I, and 958 are on Appendix II.
• Main export countries are the USA, Europe and Japan.
• Most illegal trade is in tourist souvenirs, bushmeat and traditional medicine, however live animals are the most lucrative.
• A black cockatoo could be worth $30k.
• A falcon could be worth up to $200k.
• Customs is the main defence against illegal wildlife trading.
• Bird and reptile eggs are the easiest to smuggle, hidden in specially made vests.
• Reptiles have been found stitched into the lining of clothes, spiders have been found in film canisters.
• Illegal trade also happens within the country.

Domestic Trade

• Permits needed to own and breed native Australian species.
• Detailed pedigrees need to be kept to prove the origin of every animal.
• People try to circumvent these by capturing wild animals and passing them off as captive bred.
• Tourists take souvenirs without realising they are dealing in illegal specimens.
• Locals collect animals as ‘pets’ without realising they need permits.

Re-trade, Euthanasia or Captivity

Reflection points:

• Do you put seized items (not live animals) back into legal trade routes to make money to fund reduction in illegal trafficking?
• Do you euthanise seized animals?
• In Australia many of our seized animals are euthanised as they pose a biosecurity risk, and we usually cannot identify place of origin.
• In other countries, euthanasia is not an acceptable option due to cultural/religious beliefs.
• Do you house animals long term?
• A lot of space, labour and money needed to do this.

Biosecurity (live animals)

• Every animal seized needs to be tested for potential diseases that may be present in its home population or that it picked up along the way before decisions about what to do with it can be made.
• Even if disease symptoms are present, pathogen may be unknown.
• Even native animals may not be reintroduced for fear of mixing the wrong genetics into isolated populations.
• Australia has some of the strictest biosecurity laws to protect its native flora and fauna.
• Our species are naïve to many global pathogens.

Disease and Illegal Trading

• Movement of pathogens.
• Bushmeat.
• Animals can live with pathogens without disease symptoms.
• These pathogens may cause disease in humans.
• Bird markets.
• Songbirds used for competition and display.
• Wildlife farms.
• Poor conditions, high density.
• Stressed, may not be getting correct nutrition.

Illegal Wildlife Trade and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases

• In addition to the impact of IWT on the welfare and existence of animals, IWT represents an avenue in the spread of zoonotic pathogens and diseases and the introduction of exotic animal species into new geographical areas, which can have serious negative impacts on the environment, agriculture and human health.

Animal–Human Interface in (re-) emerging diseases

• This is exacerbated when illegal wildlife trade plays a role in live animal markets, wildlife hunting and intensive wildlife farming.

Domestic-wild animal interface in (re-) emerging diseases

• Transmission can also occur between illegally traded animals/flora and the domestic animal industry and native fauna, for instance avian influenza or African swine fever viruses.
• Similarly, local/national agriculture and native flora can be impacted by imported diseases/parasites through IWT.

Causes of Disease

• Changes in natural landscapes/deforestation/ habitat loss as well as IWT can increase the chances of disease transmission.
• For example, bat reservoirs of some human and animal viruses such as Rabies, Nipah, Ebola, Coronavirus, amongst others.
• From an ecological point of view bats are very important for ecosystems as they play a critical role in a wide range of ecological events such as pollination, insect control, seed dispersion, redistribution, and transfer of essential nutrients.
• They are also considered to be an indicator of environmental health.

Genetics and Wildlife Disease

• We can use genetics to understand the ecology, emergence and pathogenesis of diseases.
• We can define the cause of new or existing diseases.
• We can screen animals for pathogens before translocation/reintroduction.
• We can use genetics to identify the genetic profiles and variants of pathogens including viruses and bacteria.

Factors affecting pathogen evolution:

• Host-pathogen relationship.
• Vector-pathogen relationship.
• Mutation and recombination.
• Migration.

Summary

• Various actors are behind IWT including harvesters, intermediaries, and consumers.
• The purpose of this illegal activity is to profit from trafficking tourist souvenirs, traditional medicine, bushmeat, and live animals for pets. Main products range from food to ornaments to construction including elephant ivory, rhino horn, tiger skins and bone, bear bile, pangolin scales and many more.
• Some of the reasons for people getting involved in IWT are poverty, subsistence, limited socioeconomic alternatives, flexible or lack of implementation of protection laws, organised criminal syndicates/networks and government corruption.
• Reasons for IWT don’t justify its devastating impact on the existence and health of wildlife species around the world.
• Conservationists, public, academia, government and non-government agencies are acting and developing interventions to monitor and control legal and illegal wildlife trade.
• IWT has been linked to the emergence and spread of new infectious diseases in humans, including emergent viruses.
• Genetics/genomics provides knowledge to understand the ecology, emergence and pathogenesis of diseases as a result of IWT and can inform their management.