Animal and Wildlife Trafficking and Smuggling

Animal and Wildlife Trafficking

Summary

The WWF (formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund) has estimated that animal and wildlife trafficking to be worth between $15 billion and $25 billion a year.

Black Market Value:
$20 Billion

Source: Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark, " Poaching for Bin Laden," Guardian, May 5, 2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/
0,,2073168,00.html (accessed: May 7, 2007).

Product	Price	Comments
Komodo Dragon	$30,000	Estimated 5,000 left in the wild.
Rhino Horn	$10,000 per kilo	$100 to $400 is paid to the hunter, and up to $38,000 is paid at the final destination point.
Bear Bile	$1,000 for 250cc	Used to reduce fever, protect liver, improve eyesight, and break gallstones.
Ivory (Asia)	$400 per kilo	Taken from Asian elephants and sold in China.
Ivory (Africa)	$750 per kilo	More than 23,000 elephants, or 5 percent, were killed by poachers in the year ending in August 2006. The elephants yielded an estimated 240 tons of ivory.
Tiger Bones	$400 per kilo.	200,000 bottles of tiger bone wine is reportedly sold a year for a price of $100 a bottle.
Tiger Pelts	$50,000	Tiger pelts have a selling price of $50,000 in China.
Sharks	$2 to $3 to fisherman	Sharks are then sold to dealers for $20 to $35.
Shark Fin	$290 per kilo	Shark fins are considered a delicacy in China, and served at weddings and business dinners.
Monkeys	$55 per animal	Price at which monkeys are sold to black market smugglers in Thailand.
Source: 1

See all Animal Trafficking Data at the Havocscope Data Center

Sources:

1. Except for the sources specifically mentioned below, prices and comments are from
Ben Davies, Black Market: Inside The Endangered Species Trade in Asia, (California: Earth Aware, 2005).

Rhino Horn Price: Gopal Sharma, " Nepal's rhinos threatened by resurgent poaching," Reuters, November 3, 2006, http://www.reuters.com

Bear Bile: " Four Arrested for Trafficking Bear Products," KCBS San Francisco California, October 11, 2006, http://kcbs.com/pages/103026.php?contentType=4& contentId=221696 (accessed: October 23, 2006).

Ivory (Africa): Robin Lloyd, " Scientists Scramble to Save Elephants as Black Market Ivory Trade Soars," LiveScience, February 26, 2007, http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070226_ivory_zambia.html (accessed: February 27, 2007).

Tiger bones sales: Ching-Ching Ni, " Crackdown is Urged on the Trading of Tiger Parts in China," Los Angeles Times, September 1, 2006.

Tiger pelts: "List: The World's Worst Poaching Markets," Foreign Policy, Web Exclusive, February 2008, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4211 (accessed: February 20, 2008).

Shark Sales: Graham Mole, " UK pastor behind worldwide shark smuggling racket," The Independent, December 3, 2006.

Shark Fins: Mark Henderson, "Taste for fins puts shark on danger list," Times(UK), February 18, 2008.

Monkeys: Associated Press, " Thai police arrest monkey smugglers after finding 36 dead macaques in a truck," International Herald Tribune, December 10, 2006, http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/10/asia/AS_GEN_Thailand_Smuggled_Monkeys.php (accessed: February 9, 2007).