Transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) are using corruption as a technique to smuggle wildlife in the Amazon, putting environmental organizations and authorities in Latin America on high alert to strengthen measures aimed at combating these criminal practices, conservation news platform Mongabay reported in June.
“Wildlife trafficking ranks third in organized crime worldwide, behind only drugs and arms,” Argentine expert on international relations and security issues Luis Somoza told Diálogo on July 23.
According to Mongabay, smugglers alter a wide range of documentation, from export licenses to microchips, to give their operations a veil of legality.
There are multiple reports of bribes on transit routes originating in Brazil, including from public officials responsible for wildlife protection, the report adds.
“In recent years, criminal gangs have been operating to illegally trade wild animals from Latin America to the world,” said Somoza. “These types of operations are in many cases to Asian nations, especially China.”
In its May report The Laundering of Wildlife, Brazilian foundation Transparency International revealed that TCOs use elaborate smuggling techniques, including fraud and corruption of officials.
“It is shocking to see how these criminal organizations are structured,” Dário Cardoso, a wildlife trafficking analyst and co-author of the report published in Mongabay. “There are the typical suspects who collect, transport, and trade wildlife, but there are also individuals who specialize in forging and altering documents, which give the whole operation a veil of legality.”
According to a report by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), between 2010 and 2020, at least 65 species of wild animals were trafficked via air in Latin America, the Caribbean, and 53 other countries around the world. These species included birds, reptiles, marine species, and mammals, Colombian magazine Semana reported.
“Wildlife trafficking is a problem that we have faced in the region for centuries and the high biodiversity of our countries exposes us to this risk,” Yovana Murillo, manager of the wildlife trafficking program for the Andes, Amazon, and Orinoco regions of U.S.-based nongovernmental organization Wildlife Conservation Society, told Semana.
Trafficking organizations need a lot of cash for smuggling operations. “We have seen many cases in the Amazon where drug trafficking finances the illegal wildlife trade,” Melina Risso, research director of the Brazilian think tank Instituto Igarapé, dedicated to environmental conservation, told Mongabay.
Peru 21 news site reported that wildlife trafficking also affects the Peruvian Amazon. For example, the Belén market in Iquitos, which caters to a population of 400,000 people, is the largest and most important open market for the sale of wildlife in the Peruvian Amazon.
According to Peru 21, this market is the epicenter of the illegal wildlife trade in the Amazon region, where more than 200 species are trafficked, 9 percent of which are endangered and 35 percent of which have declining wild populations.
The clandestine wildlife trade leaves a devastating mark on Peru’s rich biological diversity. From jaguars to delicate orchids, no species is safe from the maelstrom of illegal trafficking, Peruvian news agency Andina reported.
Among the most frequent victims are the aquatic yellow-spotted river turtle, the yellow-footed tortoise, and the emblematic Lake Titicaca frog, all caught to satisfy the exotic pet market, Andina reported.
“It must be understood that Latin America and the Caribbean are two areas of biodiversity and these transnational criminal groups prey on natural resources,” Somoza said. “There are public reports about high Chinese demand driven by traditional medicine and unfounded beliefs, giving rise to an extensive network of illegal groups operating in the region, smuggling wildlife to China.”
From 2012 through early 2018, more than 800 jaguars were killed for their teeth, skins, and skulls, in Central and South America to be smuggled to China, National Geographic reported.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Global Wildlife Crime Report 2024, while there are positive signs that trafficking of some iconic species has declined due to the dismantling of large trafficking networks and the suppression of demand in key markets, the overall picture remains bleak for thousands of protected plants and animals.
“Wildlife crime causes untold damage to nature and also threatens livelihoods, public health, good governance, and our planet’s ability to fight climate change,” said Ghada Waly, UNODC executive director.
For Somoza, it is essential to develop transboundary and cooperative security strategies in the Amazon, as environmental crimes do not respect borders.
“We must increase police collaboration and intelligence exchange among the countries of the region, in order to combat this type of criminal action that harms wildlife and the people who inhabit the Amazon areas,” he concluded.
