The Great Cover-Up: Substitute Species in Illegal Wildlife Trade

in Wildlife Trade

With a yearly value estimated between $7 and $23 billion, the illegal wildlife trade is a lucrative business that can quickly decimate targeted wildlife species. When trade regulations are strengthened for a particular wildlife product while the demand for that product remains high, traffickers are never short on stratagems to defy authorities and circumvent laws to continue meeting demand and selling illegal wildlife parts and products. One of these tricks is to substitute one species for another, often without the buyer realizing that a new species has been introduced. In this article for One Green Planet, Born Free USA Africa Policy and Capacity Building Program Associate, Aurora Luongo, explores the great wildlife trafficking cover-up, some species that are impacted, and what we can do to end this trade.

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