Among the 4000 animal and plant species that are affected by recent wildlife trafficking, there are different risks for overexploitation, ecosystem disruption, and potential impacts on climate stability, the report stressed bringing in the concerns on mass forest depletion, biodiversity loss and habitat destruction that amplify the larger discussion on the planet’s capacity to mitigate climate change impacts and the capability of humans in devising adaptation measures.
By Salam Rajesh
Trafficking in protected species of wildlife is diverse and often devastating in their impact and consequences, and they hamper conservation efforts, damage ecosystems, and contribute to undermining the planet’s capacity to mitigate climate change, says a recent report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
UNODC’s latest report ‘World Wildlife Crime Report 2024: Trafficking in Protected Species’ provides a bird’s eye scan of the various spectrum of illegal wildlife trade across the globe, and how it impacts biodiversity loss, economies, and the larger discussion on the depletion of old forest growths and critical wildlife habitats, with certain concerns on climate-related issues.
UNODC’s executive director Ghada Waly reflected that ‘the magnitude of this (wildlife) illegal trade remains immense, affecting thousands of species of animals and plants and spanning more than 160 countries and territories’.
A key message in the report stressed that wildlife crime is interconnected with the activities of large and powerful organized crime groups operating in some of the most fragile and diverse ecosystems from the Amazon to the Golden Triangle, and, therefore, addressing wildlife trafficking in these circumstances requires a broader strategy to address organized crime as a whole.
This interprets into the complex issue of where wildlife traffickers are ‘adaptable, adjusting their methods and routes in response to regulatory changes and to exploit differences between legal regimes, enforcement gaps, and new market trends’. This equally reflects upon the ‘adjusted methodology and routing’ connected with illegal drug trafficking in North East India with specific reference to the current turmoil in Myanmar and the internal tensions in Manipur.
Wildlife crime encompasses a multitude of different actors, species, commodities and driving factors and it has different impacts across environmental, social, economic development and governance aspects, the report stated.
Among the 4000 animal and plant species that are affected by recent wildlife trafficking, there are different risks for overexploitation, ecosystem disruption, and potential impacts on climate stability, the report stressed bringing in the concerns on mass forest depletion, biodiversity loss and habitat destruction that amplify the larger discussion on the planet’s capacity to mitigate climate change impacts and the capability of humans in devising adaptation measures.
It is generally understood that open forests, grasslands, savannahs, and tropical rainforests suffer extensively from humans’ incursion into nature reserves for different commercial activities including the extension of plantations, timber logging, mineral exploration and exploitation, urbanization, and other developmental activities. These largely impact negatively on forest covers leading to the concerns on greenhouse gas emissions and other factors responsible for global warming.
On the environmental harms beyond the immediate conservation threat to target species, the UNODC report stressed that population reductions caused by wildlife trafficking can play a major role in triggering ecosystem-level impacts by disturbing the interdependencies between different species and undermining their related functions and processes.
This again has considerable potential in undermining the role that natural ecosystems play in long-term climate stability and mitigation of climate change impacts, the report says. It is generally accepted that certain species of wildlife in their natural environment, such as the tiger for example, is critical in maintaining balance in the natural ecosystem and in keeping the food chain cycle intact in the natural system.
Specifying the significance of wildlife in climate discourses, the report opines that there is an emerging body of research on the potential climate impacts of population reductions of various species affected by wildlife crime. The decline in the population of pollinators and scavengers, for instance, can impact the natural cycle of ecosystems leading gradually to their degradation and thereunto biodiversity loss.
At the same time, the report re-emphasizes the thought process that ‘It is critical to keep in mind that this relationship works in both directions: climate change is likely to exacerbate natural resource conflicts and cause profound social changes that will likely lead to new motivations and opportunities for wildlife crime and new patterns of illegal wildlife trade’.
The discussion, therefore, becomes crucial as to how species decline and forest degradation will impact or contribute to climate change processes while on the other hand climate change impacts can have tremendous consequences in the survival of species and in the continuation of life itself. For instance, rising ocean temperatures, both below and above the surface, are being said to impact coral bleaching leading to extensive death of significant coral life.
In all of this discussion, species depletion and ecosystem disruption caused by wildlife crime can undermine the many socioeconomic benefits that people derive from nature, the report said. Species depletion can break the food chain cycle and this would negatively impact the ecosystems.
On Sunday (26 May) a news report in the Economic Times stated that the paramilitary Assam Rifles intercepted illegal wildlife smugglers at Champai in Mizoram State and recovered a surprising array of exotic species: Indonesian salmon-crested cockatoos, South American marmoset monkeys, Aldabra giant tortoise (native to Seychelles), lizards and snakes. These were possibly on their way to Kolkata in India from Tahan in Myanmar, the report said adding that the smuggled wildlife probably originated from Thailand.
Citing data from the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), the UNODC report stated that globally Bivalve mollusks accounted for the maximum of the illegal wildlife trade at 6%. Carnivores come next at 5%, followed by parrots and cockatoos at 4%, orchids 4%, turtles and tortoises 4%, snakes 4%, rosewoods 4%, ginsengs 3%, Costus roots 3%, Aloes and other liliales 3%, cacti 3%, even-toed ungulates 2%, Sturgeons and paddlefishes 2%, pangolins 2%, sea snails 2%, lizards 2%, and birds of prey 1%.
Manipur’s Moreh corridor, connecting South Asia’s trade route to the rest of the Southeast Asian countries, is fairly well known for the numerous cases of seizure of smuggled wildlife parts, of which pangolin scales, leopard and tiger skins, antlers, and bear bile are reported. Rhino horn, python head, Slow Loris paw, and bats meat are reported to be used locally for medicinal and magico-religious purposes.
The COVID-19 coronavirus scare during 2020 and 2021 did forewarn humans of the dire consequences of consuming wildlife meat and displacing the wildlife by destructing their habitats and scraping clear vital old-growth forest covers. The larger discussion would be on how forest and wildlife depletion leading to ecosystem degradation could enhance the threat perspective of climate change impacts.