Thousands of animals and plants are bought and sold each year globally as food, medicine, clothing and furniture – even in the form of musical instruments. Wildlife, it seems, is big business.
The illegal wildlife trade, which has an estimated value of at least US$7 billion (£5.9 billion) and potentially as much as US$23 billion, is driving some of the most well known species on Earth – especially rhinos, elephants, tigers, lions and, more recently, pangolins – towards extinction.
Since 2008, law enforcement has played a considerably bigger role in tackling the illegal wildlife trade, thanks to the support of governments, private donors, conservation charities and businesses. The result is that counter-insurgency techniques, such as developing informant networks and contracting private security firms to train rangers in anti-poaching operations with military-grade weapons, have proliferated.
