For our planet’s diversity, illegal wildlife trade is a key threat.
Each day, 3-5 rhinos are brutally killed. Horns hacked off to fetch high prices (similar street value to heroine). An unfounded belief it will provide relief for headaches?
Every 2-3 hours, an elephant is mutilated for tusks. Shipped along smuggling routes to Asia. Sold as medicinal products, status symbols.
Every 5 minutes, a Pangolin is snatched from the wild. Scales are boiled, roasted to feed the traditional medicine market. An insatiable hunger for animal-based solutions for common cold, skin diseases, hair care, cure for cancer, an aphrodisiac.
Pangolin meat is a delicacy, world’s most trafficked animal.
Illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be worth £18-20 billion a year. Organised crime groups see wildlife as low risk, high-value commodity. Connected with serious crime networks like trade of arms & ammunitions.
We can play a part to stop the illegal, unsustainable, destructive wildlife trade.
